Medieval West Africa - Views from Arab Scholars and Merchants

This book tells the story of West Africa south of the Sahara from the ninth to the fourteenth century from the viewpoint of Arab geographers, historians, and travelers. The first reports in written Arabic sources deal with urban west African centers from the seventh century. The growth of the trans-Saharan trade and the process of Islamization enriched outsiders¿ knowledge about ¿the lands of the blacks.¿ Geographers such as al-Bakri and al-Idrisi provided the most accurate descriptions, including maps of the region. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Ghana converted to Islam and encyclopedists compiled substantial material on the region. The best-known Arab traveler, Ibn Battuta, and the eminent historian Ibn Khaldun provided the most detailed and comprehensive first-hand information about West Africa in the fourteenth century.

Riassunto

From the 9th to the 15th century Arab travellers and observers produced a rich literature in West Africa. An annotated translation of this body of work is found in "Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History". This title is a simplified form of this corpus for students.

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Nehemia (EDT)/ Spaulding Levtzion
• Con la collaborazione di: Nehemia Levtzion (Editore), Jay Spalding (Editore)
• Editore: Wiener, markus, publishing
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 01.11.2002
• EAN: 9781558763050
• ISBN: 978-1-55876-305-0
• Pagine: 125
• Dimensioni: 146 mm x 222 mm x 13 mm
• Categorie: Narrativa > Antologie miste; Saggistica > Storia > Altro; Scienze umane, arte, musica > Storia > Storia dei paesi e delle regioni