Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century

UNESCO General History of Africa #3

by M. El Fasi (Editor), M. Elfasi

Volume III of this acclaimed series is now available in an abridged paperback edition. The result of years of work by scholars from all over the world, The UNESCO General History of Africa reflects how the different peoples of Africa view their civilizations and shows the historical relationships between the various parts of the continent. Historical connections with other continents demonstrate Africa's contribution to the development of human civilization. Each volume is lavishly illustrated and contains a comprehensive bibliography.

Volume III documents the increasing influence of Islam and its dissemination and interaction with traditional African culture in northern and western regions. The essays place Africa in the context of world history at the opening of the seventh century and examine the impact of Islamic penetration, expansion of the Bantu-speaking peoples, and the growth of civilizations in West Africa.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction

869 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Mohamed El Fasi.

Reviews

[Samuele Martinelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the last two volumes, it clearly needs a new edition. In multiple instances it is underlined the lack of research in some areas for this period, or the ongoing research in some other. The question of course is if research has been done where it is needed. But in any case I feel like the ~40 years that have passed should have new material and new views on the topics treated here.
Moreover, compared to the past two volumes I found it strongly repetitive. The same concepts have been repeated multiple times. It just felt dragged at a certain point.
Compared to volume II, more time is spent to the rest of the continent. Half the book was north Africa due to more material available for this area, in volume II, about 2/3 were related to North Africa alone. This was clearly an improvement. These are clearly a bit of a"dark ages" in terms of material for some places in Africa. I hope the next volume will be better and will give equal space to the whole continent.

It also had some chapters that felt directed to an academic historical background committee and others that were written for the general public. And I feel like the latter is what this series is supposed to be, and least by going from the premise extended in Volume I.
Don't get me wrong, the content was very interesting, but due to the way some chapters were written, they might feel a bit boring or hard to read for some people. Which added to the repetition I mentioned above feels like this book could've had a better shape.

[Olanrewaju Olamide · Rating 3 out of 5]

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