Africans and their descendants have long migrated across the Indian Ocean world as sailors, merchants, soldiers, scholars, musicians, and explorers. Some of these Africans and their descendants rose to great positions of power and received much acclaim, becoming rulers, generals, viziers and regent ministers, as well as artists, clerics, and even saints. The lives of figures such as Malik Ambar, Begum Hazrat Mahal, and General Hoshu Mohammad Sheedi are among the many who illuminate Afro-South Asia as an integral part of the global African diaspora.This is the first volume of Afro-South Asia in the Global African Diaspora, where nearly three dozen contributors, including historians, anthropologists, linguists, literary scholars, ethnomusicologists, documentary film-makers, and art historians, delve into the ways in which Africans and people of African descent have both shaped and been shaped by the histories, cultures, and societies of South Asia.This is the first volume of Afro-South Asia in the Global African Diaspora, where nearly three dozen contributors, including historians, anthropologists, linguists, literary scholars, ethnomusicologists, documentary film-makers, and art historians, delve into the ways in which Africans and people of African descent have both shaped and been shaped by the histories, cultures, and societies of South Asia.