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The Cambridge History of Africa Vol. 3: From c. 1050 to c. 1600

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From c. 1050 to c. 1600

Series The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 3

Edited by Roland Oliver

Publication Date 1977

Hardback ISBN-13
9780521209816

Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.1017/CHOL9780521209816

Overview

The five and a half centuries described in this volume were those in which Iron Age cultures passed from their early and experimental phases into stages of maturity characterized by long-distance trade and complex, many-tiered political systems. In Egypt and North Africa it was a period of religious and cultural consolidation when the Arabic language and the faith of Islam were adopted by the majority of the indigenous Copts and Berbers. In the sub-Saharan Savanna it was a period rather of penetration when Muslim merchants and clerics built up small but significant minorities of Negro African converts. Muslim migrants conquered the Nilotic Sudan, encircled Christian Ethiopia and settled the coastline of eastern Africa. Intercontinental trade developed across the whole width of the Sahara and also toward the Indian Ocean ports. During the last century and a half of the period the Portuguese opened the Atlantic coasts and competed with the Muslim traders of the Indian Ocean. But throughout the period African states, large and small, were strong enough, relatively, to control their visitors from the outside world. The main significance of the outsiders, whether Muslim or Christian, was as literate observers of the African scene.

For more details of the
print book, and how to buy it online, please see
From c. 1050 to c. 1600 in the Cambridge University Press online
catalogue.

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Complete Cambridge Histories Online

Regional History

The Cambridge History of Africa

Table of Contents

Frontmatter

Introduction: some interregional themes
by
Roland Oliver

Egypt, Nubia and the Eastern Deserts
by
Ivan Hrbek

Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn
by
Taddesse Tamrat

The East Coast, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean
by
H. Neville Chittick

The eastern Maghrib and the central Sudan
by
H. J. Fisher

The western Maghrib and Sudan
by
Nehemia Levtzion

Upper and Lower Guinea
by
J. D. Fage

Central Africa from Cameroun to the Zambezi
by
David Birmingham

Southern Africa
by
David Birmingham and Shula Marks

The East African interior
by
Roland Oliver

Bibliographical Essays

Bibliography

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