In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale

A fellah (fellaheen in the plural) is the Arabic word used to describe a farmer or agricultural laborer. In Egypt, it carries with it the connotation of being indigenous to ancient Egypt and therefore one of the “true” Egyptians. Traditionally, a fellah would wear the jallabeyya, a loose-fitting cotton robe. Throughout In an Antique Land, Ghosh speaks to many fellaheen and takes pains to show the lives of these, usually anonymous, “peasants.”

A Geniza (Genizah) is a special chamber of a Synagogue designed to hold important texts before they would be buried in a cemetery. This rite was to avoid accidentally destroying the name of God in a text. The contents of a Geniza would be periodically removed. However, in the 19th century the Cairo Ben Ezra synagogue was found to still contain some 300,000 fragmentary manuscripts, which revolutionized the study of medieval Jewish history. Ghosh uses this documentary trove from the Geniza to examine the lives of Ben Yiju and Bomma.

Historiography is the study of how history is written, including the methods used by historians to reconstruct the past. Ghosh’s work often grapples with questions of historiography by blending historical research with fiction, reflecting on the gaps and limitations of historical knowledge.

Postcolonialism (or post-colonial theory) is the academic study of the cultural, political, and economic impacts of colonialism and imperialism. The focus is often on the human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. The field began in the 1960s, when scholars from formerly colonized countries began publishing on the lingering effects of colonialism. Ghosh is known for his postcolonial writings. In an Antique Land has often been analyzed through the lens of postcolonialism, as Ghosh seeks to examine the impact of the colonial destruction of the Indian Ocean trade culture.