FOREWORD It is with considerable pleasure that I introduce this volume, Lynda Shaffer's second title in the Sources and Studies in World History series. Together with Native Americans Before 1492 (1992) and a forthcoming book on West Africa, Maritime Southeast Asia develops a miniseries of books by Professor Shaffer on important but often ne- glected regions in world history studies and courses. A projected com- panion volume will explore some of the structural similarities of these three regions. Like her earlier study of North America, this work on islands and islandlike communities of Southeast Asia, especially what is today Indonesia, not only shows world historians the importance of the re- gion, it also shows the specialist how an understanding of world his- tory can better define the ebb and flow of regional history. This work vastly improves our understanding of both Southeast Asian history and world history. Few authors have been able to combine extensive research on the region with global -ranging expertise to such effect. The result is a dazzling array of concise explanations and fascinating meditations on such topics as Malayo-Polynesian migrations, the relation between Central Asian climate and monsoons, land and maritime silk roads, plagues and commerce, Buddhism, "lndianization," and indigenous culture, Turko-Mongolian Islam, and Sufism. These topics, however, are not asides, but provide skeins which, gracefully woven into the tapestry, elucidate Southeast Asian history in ways that purely local knowledge cannot. In short, this is a history of maritime Southeast Asia for world xi