Dr. J.J.L. (Jos) Gommans

Position:

Senior Lecturer

Expertise:

South Asian History
Colonial History
World History

Telephone number:	+31 (0)71 527 2167
E-Mail:	j.j.l.gommans@umail.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department:	Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for History, Algemene Geschiedenis
Office Address:	Johan Huizingagebouw Doelensteeg 16 2311 VL Leiden Room number 268B

Medieval and early-modern history of South and Southeast Asia, South Asian Islam, nomads, overseas expansion, history and sources of the VOC, geopolitics, military history, world history, globalization, early-modern empires and diasporas, Dutch orientalism and Enlightenment.

Curriculum Vitae

Jos Gommans (1963) studied history in Nijmegen and Leiden. His PhD-thesis focused on the eighteenth-century horse trade between Central Asia and India which created an extensive informal empire dominated by Durrani, Rohilla and Bangash Afghans (The Rise of the Indo-Afghan Empire, 1710-1780, Leiden: Brill 1995; republished in paperback at Delhi: Oxford University Press 1999). This study raised new questions about the ecological and geographical dynamic of the longer-term interaction between India and its surrounding regions, be it along the frontiers of the so-called Arid Zone of Central Eurasia, or along the sea-lanes of the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia.

Along these lines Gommans prefers to take a global perspective, for example, by comparing and connecting the various relations between nomads and the sedentary empires of India, China and the Middle East. Meanwhile, he continued his research on the military history of the Mughal Empire. Both these interests culminated in his recent geo-politically oriented monograph Mughal Warfare: Indian Frontiers and High Roads to Empire (London: Routledge 2002).

An important research topic remains Dutch cultural and social-economic interaction with South and Southeast Asia during the time of the Dutch East India Company (see e.g. the archival guide Dutch Sources of South Asia, Delhi: Manohar 2002). In this context, Gommans works on a new synthesis (in Dutch) on the Dutch overseas empire, called Imperium aan de rand van de wereld, to be published in 2010.

Since 2006 Gommans is editor of the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient and of the series Dutch Sources on South Asia. He has edited several books and written various articles on South Asian and World History, and is also a contributor to the Encyclopaedia of Islam. In the recent past he was a visiting professor at Sophia University in Tokyo (2007) and at the William and Mary College in Williamsburg (VA) (2008).

Jos Gommans currently teaches South Asian history and colonial history at Leiden University. Apart from his work as a historian of South Asia and European Expansion, Gommans publishes occasionally on the local heritage and history of his native region De Peel. He is married and has one son.

Major Publications

The Rise of the Indo-Afghan Empire (c.1710-1780) (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994) Reprint Pbk: (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999).

Edited with D.H.A. Kolff, Warfare and Weaponry in South Asia (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001); Reprint Pbk 2003

With L. Bes and G. Kruijtzer, Dutch Sources on South Asia c. 1600-1825. Vol. 1:Bibliography and Archival Guide to the National Archives at the Hague (TheNetherlands) (Delhi: Manohar Publishers. 2001).

Edited with J. Leider, The Maritime Frontier of Burma: Exploring Political, Cultural andCommercial Interaction in the Indian Ocean World, c. 1000-1800 (Amsterdam: KNAW and Leiden: KITLV, 2002).

Mughal Warfare: Indian Frontiers and Highroads to Empire 1500-1700 (London: Routledge, 2002). Hbk, Pbk, E-book

Edited with Om Prakash, Circumambulations in South Asian History: Essays in Honourof Dirk H.A. Kolff (Leiden: E.J. Brill Publishers, 2003).

Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient

Edited with Harriet Zurndorfer, Roots and Routes of Development in China and India: Highlights of Fifty Years of The Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (1957-2007) (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2008)

2010

Gommans, J.J.L. (Ed.) (2010)
Empires and Emporia: The Orient in World Historical Space and Time. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers.
(Book editorial)
Gommans, J.J.L. (2010)
Empires and Emporia: The Orient in World Historical Space and Time: Introduction. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 53 (1), pp. 3-19.
(Article)