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

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. 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. V. 1. From The Earliest Times To C. 500 B.c. / Edited By J. Desmond Clark. 1982 -- V. 2. From C. 500 B.c. To A.d. 1050 / Edited By J.d. Fage. 1978 -- V. 3. From C. 1050 To C. 1600 / Edited By Roland Oliver. 1977 -- V. 4. From C. 1600 To C. 1790 / Edited By Richard Gray. 1975 -- V. 5. From C. 1790 To C. 1870 / Edited By John E. Flint. 1976 -- V. 6. From 1870 To 1905 / Edited By Roland Oliver And G.n. Sanderson. 1985 -- V. 7. From 1905 To 1940 / Edited By A.d. Roberts. 1986 -- V. 8. From C. 1940 To C. 1975 / Edited By Michael Crowder. 1984. [general Editors, J.d. Fage And Roland Oliver]. Includes Bibliographies And Indexes. The five and a half centuries described in this volume during the period from c.1050 to c.1600, 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. 1......Page 1 2......Page 15 3......Page 24 4......Page 112 5......Page 197 6......Page 246 7......Page 345 8......Page 477 9......Page 532 10......Page 580 11......Page 634 12......Page 683 13......Page 715 Specialists in various aspects of African history and civilization contribute to an integrated portrait of internal and foreign influences on the course of Africa's development