Cultural Dynamics 24(2-3) 175–187 © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0921374013487269 cdy.sagepub.com Creole Hadramis in the Malay world in the 1800s: Fragments of biographies and connected histories Sumit K Mandal Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia Abstract This article explores cultural geographies at the conjunction of transregional and local histories by examining creole Hadrami biographies in the Malay world. It focuses on Abdullah al-Misri and Abdullah Munsyi and a few biographical fragments from their writings. Efforts to create national canons have led to the anachronistic application of national and ethnic categories to these nineteenth-century writers. Through biographical fragments, this article demonstrates the connected histories of creole Hadramis in the Malay world, and presents cultural geographies that bring to the fore the multi-scalar and shared histories of the citizens of contemporary nation- states. It makes a historically grounded argument for a cosmopolitan Malay world. Keywords Connected histories, cultural geographies, Hadramis, Malay world Introduction Creole Hadramis lie at the conjunction of transregional and local histories, but the com- plexities of their location have been largely obscured if not suppressed by the normative notions of citizenship and belonging that have come about with the rise of nation-states. This article turns to creole Hadramis at a time when the colonial precursors of contem- porary states were still in their early years and the bureaucratic categorisation of the population into ‘indigene’ and ‘foreigner’ had not advanced greatly. The article explores ‘lived cosmopolitanisms’, the theme of this special issue, by examining biographical trajectories. What we know of the creoles in question is fragmentary and almost exclu- sively related to elites, namely, traders, diplomats and the writers who recorded episodes in the lives of the former. The biographical fragments that emerge, however, offer insights Corresponding author: Sumit K Mandal, Institute of Malaysian & International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. Email: mandal.mail@gmail.com 487269CDY 24 2-3 10.1177/0921374013487269Cultural DynamicsMandal 2012 Article