Beyond Ibn Hawqal's Bahr al-Fārs: 10th–13th Centuries AD: Sindh and the Kīj-u-Makrān region, hinge of an international network of religious, political, institutional and economic affairs

The first section of the present volume is a report of the Italian involvement in Southern Makrān and Kharān, its aims and objects, modus operandi. It is essentially restricted to the Islamic era and represents a discourse preliminary to the second section. The methodological approach of combining historical sources (written and manuscript, Persian and Arabic) with archaeological evidence and geo-morphological study has allowed for a re-reading of the traditional literature and the role played by Makrān and, in particular, the Kīj-u-Makrān region during the 10th-13th Centuries AD. Many questions put by this mystifying region still stand only partly answered, if not completely un-answered. After three seasons of archaeological field-work and research – complemented with accurate geo-morphological surveys and studying – we are still confronted with an elusive region and some crucial queries. ‘Part Two’ of this study is the follow up of the archaeological and geo-morphological research-work: a historical study, which focuses on the 10th-13th Centuries AD.