This talk presents some of the preliminary ideas and findings of Dr. Ha Guangtian’s ongoing project which examines the role of multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-lingual sailors and slaves in facilitating Muslim trans-regional trade in medieval maritime Asia. He asks what is entailed if we are to shift our attention away from trade and diplomacy; and how we are to reconstruct an alternative subaltern trans-regionalism where race, religion, and class intersect — in ways that may compel us to reconsider current paradigms centred on the trans-Atlantic world.