282 book reviews Asian Review of World Histories Published with license by Koninklijke Brill NV | doi:10.1163/22879811-12340131 © Alisher Khaliyarov, 2023 | ISSN: 2287-965X (print) 2287-9811 (online) Jagjeet Lally, India and the Silk Roads: The History of a Trading World. Noida, India: HarperCollins, 2021. xv+415 pages. ISBN: 9789354227240 (HB ). The Silk Road’s many leagues of extent and many centuries of existence have made it one of the most studied topics in Eurasian history. In recent years, scholars have written and published many revisionist studies dedicated to the decline of the Silk Road trade after the Age of Explorations; in comparison, the study of trade between Central and South Asia during more recent centuries still suffers from lack of research. Professor Lally’s book on India and the Silk Roads is a great contribution toward understanding this neglected period of history in Eurasia. Built on the pioneering studies of Stephan Dale and Scott Levi, Lally expands our knowledge by exploring the increasing complexity and sophistication of caravan trade between Central and South Asia during the era of “imperial transition.” The author places the caravan trade at the center of the story, but expands the story’s scale by looking at bazaars and caravanserais, as well as the stories of peasants and middlemen, goods of exchange, and the people in power of the trade. The book explains the importance of the caravan trade and its world of exchanges by connecting different types of mobilities during the transition period, while also demonstrating the resilience of the network in the face of attempted imperial dominance. The author argues that the Durrani Afghan empire emerged as a new center of power and exchange with growing surplus of trade and patronage networks that connected mer- cenaries, merchants, and bankers in post-Mughal South Asia. The Durrani Empire not only preserved the network of caravan exchanges between Central and South Asia, but also benefited from its expansion and the arrival of indigo, silk, and manufactured cotton cloths. Lally’s conclusion challenges the dom- inant notion that reduces Central Asia to merely an intermediate space for east-west trade, and its connections with South Asia to merchant communities and religious networks. Readers who are aware of the recent enrichment of the field with James Pickett’s Polymaths of Islam and Walid Ziad’s Hidden Caliphate will find this book equally satisfying in its contribution to the scholarship of early modern Eurasia. The Eurasian overland caravan trade was the backbone of communications, exchanges and, imperial conquests throughout many centuries. However, according to the traditional narrative, the emergence of ocean trade connect- ing the rims of the Asian coastal trade centers interrupted the status quo of the caravan trade. Building on trends in recent scholarship and presenting work based on rich archival research, Lally challenges this notion by demonstrating Downloaded from Brill.com09/03/2023 11:45:01AM via communal account