Penang and Its Networks of Knowledge

Penang and Its Networks of Knowledge brings together the work of eleven distinguished scholars in efforts to recover and preserve cultural-historical knowledge embedded in the fabric of the city of George Town and articulate the significance and reach of the global connections created in Penang’s island capital. The essays contained within this volume explore a diverse range of cultural intersections of knowledge and ideas, from the broad geographical scope of Penang’s newspapers, to the dissemination of religious ideology, to the modern iterations of waqf. Eschewing a more traditional, nationally oriented framework of history, each tells the story of Penang through an outward-looking lens – an approach more suited to a cosmopolitan port city with far-reaching links to the world.Through this lens, Penang’s role as a nexus of both networks of knowledge and trading diasporas becomes abundantly clear. Penang and Its Networks of Knowledge paints a vibrant portrait of a city in constant flux, where linguistic, cultural, and perceptual worlds intersected at a dizzying pace, creating new and vibrant connections that continue to inform the island’s outlook into the contemporary era. As such, the collection is a valuable addition to the growing movement to document Penang’s history.