The Cambridge History of Africa. Volume 2: From c. 500 BC to AD 1050

Edited by J. D. Fage.

Volume II of The Cambridge History of Africa deals with the beginnings of history. It is about 500 BC that historical sources begin to embrace all Africa north of the Sahara and, by the end of the period, documentation is also beginning to appear for parts of sub-Saharan Africa. North of the Sahara, this situation arises since Africans were sharing in the major civilizations of the Mediterranean world. It is shown that these northern Africans were not simply passive recipients of Phoenician, Greek, Roman and Arab influences, or of the great religions and cultures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam coming from the Semitic world. They adapted these things to their own particular needs and purposes, and sometimes too contributed to their general development. But the North African civilization failed to make headway south of the Sahara. Contents: J. D. Face: Introduction. - 1. J. Desmond Clark: The legacy of prehistory. - 2. R. C. C. Law: North Africa in the period of Phoenician and greek colonization. - 3. R. C. C. Law: North Africa in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. - 4. P. L. Shinnie: The Nilotic Sudan and Ethiopia. - 5. Raymond Mauny: Trans-Saharan contacts and the Iron Age in West Africa. - 6. Roland Oliver and Brian M. Fagan: The emergence of Bantu Africa. - 7. W. H. C. Frend: The Christian period in Mediterranean Africa. - 8. Michael Brett: The Arab conquest and the rise of Islam to North Africa. - 9. P. L. Shinnie: Christian Nubia. - 10. Michael Brett: The Fatimid revolution and its aftermath in North Africa. - 11. Nehemia Levtzion: The Sahara and the Sudan from the Arab conquest of the Maghrib to the rise of the Almoravids. - Bibliographical essays. - Bibliography. - Index. 8. Auflage. XVII,840 Seiten mit 74 Abb. und 29 Karten, gebunden (The Cambridge History of Africa; Vol. 2/Cambridge University Press 2008) textsauber, leichte Gebrauchsspuren/clean text pages, minor traces of use