Workshop | England (venue TBC) | November 2025
Muzium Pahang : “Pahang and the Sea: Maritime networks and connections between Southeast Asia and Beyond”
Call for Papers, deadline – 23 April 2025
Muzium Pahang is the official state museum of Pahang, a state on the East Coast of the Malaysian peninsula.
Muzium Pahang is an up-and-coming museum and educational institution in Malaysia. In the last 5 years, it has expanded to include a new state history museum, a contemporary art museum and a heritage centre. As part of their latest expansion, they are building a maritime museum to showcase Pahang’s historical and contemporary maritime history.
Pahang has a rich story of exchange with the Malay Archipelago and the rest of the world. With a long coast facing the South China Sea, since antiquity, Pahang became part of a global sea network through the various sailors, navigators, and explorers that came through its waters. Pahang was and is rich with natural resources, such as gold, iron and tin, which attracted European attention, and the state came under British influence in the 19th century. Pahang held a unique political space within the British Empire. Its sultanate retained control over its territories and Pahang was able to keep its historical position of connecting the Malay World to East Asia, the Indian Ocean through the Persian Gulf and on to Europe.
The maritime museum will help rehabilitate Pahang’s rich maritime history and highlight how the Malay World was connected to the rest of the globe via the sea. The museum is due to be opened in September 2026.
As part of the opening of this museum, we are working towards the publication of a collection of essays that will highlight the global maritime history of Pahang and the Malay world. This book is meant for the general public and will also feature pictures, maps and pieces from the collection of the maritime museum.
We are looking for contributions for a workshop that will be held in England (Location TBC) in November 2025 that can highlight different aspects of the maritime history of Pahang and the Malay world. Travel within the UK and accommodation will be covered. Possible themes and topics include, but are not limited to:
- Sea routes and networks between Pahang, the Malay world and the South China Sea/Indian Ocean/Persian Gulf
- History of Pahang with a focus on its maritime history
- Colonial exchanges with European powers
- Economic and trading links
- Lives of sailors, seafarers and navigators
- Boat design
- Navigational practices
- Sea borders and frontiers
- Naval traditions
- Exchange of cultures over sea
Proceeds of the workshop will be turned into an essay/chapter in the book. The essay will be between 3,000 to 5,000 words.
To be considered for this workshop, please email rowena.razak@googlemail.com with a short bio and a 250-word abstract by Wednesday 23 April 2025.
About the editors and organisers
Dr Rowena Abdul Razak is a historian of Iran and the British empire in the Persian Gulf. She holds a DPhil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford. She has previously taught at the LSE and Queen Mary University of London. She is a researcher with Muzium Pahang and is working on links between Iran and Malaysia.
Nurul Hamizah Afandi is an archaeologist and a curator at Muzium Pahang. She holds a Master’s from University College London (UCL). She works in the field of bio-archaeology, forensic anthropology and museum studies.
Amru Sazali is a curator at Muzium Pahang. He holds an MPhil in Philosophy of Islamic Civilisation at RZS-CASIS, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). He has translated several books from Arabic in to Malay and has worked on Islamic economic thought.
Image: Wiki Commons – CC Attribution NonCommercial Generic 2.0