Ricci is studying two Muslim communities that were in touch for many centuries across the Indian Ocean, one in India on the Coromandel coast of Tamil Nadu and the other in Java. Her inquiry focuses on the Tamil and Javanese versions of a well-known text, "The Book of One Thousand Questions," which tells of a meeting between a Jewish leader in Arabia with the Prophet Muhammad, the many questions he asked the prophet and his subsequent conversion to Islam. Through a comparison and analysis of the story's Tamil and Javanese versions, Ricci raises questions about the role literature plays in religious conversion and the power of shared ideas to transcend geographical and cultural boundaries.

rricci@umich.edu

0590A Rackham/1070

(734) 763 4466