16 Africa
EGYPTand Sudan, participated in the classical world as
highly developed Roman provinces. From the seventh
century on, it was an important region of the Islamic
world, with major centers in EGYPT, AL-QAYRAWAN,
IFRIQIYA, and MOROCCO. Ancient marginal groups sur-
vived in the region, such as the COPTSin Egypt. The sec-
ond prominent region was eastern Africa, with the
independent Christian empire of ABYSSINIAand certain
Arab and black settlements, such as the Somalis and
Swahili-speaking populations near Zanzibar and the
coastal part of present-day Tanzania. The third part, the
tropical region of the Sahara and western Sudan, was
known only vaguely by Europeans and Muslims until the
14th century. There, under the influence of African ele-
ments and Islam states such as the empires of GHANAand
MALIemerged and developed their own civilizations. The
last part, the central and southern areas of the continent,
most of Africa, was in the Middle Ages at a disparate
stage of development. Entirely unknown to Muslims and
Europeans, these tribal civilizations were penetrated in
modern times, primarily as sources of slaves.
TOWARD MUSLIM PENETRATIONIn the late antique world, Christianity was well
entrenched in the northern African provinces of the
Roman Empire and in Egypt and well represented in
Christian Latin literature by AUGUSTINE of Hippo. By
429, the VANDALSestablished their kingdom in North
Africa. The Byzantines under JUSTINIAN destroyed the
Vandal kingdom in 534 and reestablished their rule in
North Africa. The conversion to Islam after 640 was
rapid, and under the rule of the UMAYYAD caliphs
(660–750) the African provinces were prosperous. The
local BERBERSconverted to Islam, as did the people of
NUBIAin the eastern Sudan.
Slaves and gold always drew the interest of the
Islamic caliphates. After the ABBASIDrevolution of 750,
the political and economic orientation of the Baghdad
caliphate turned to IRAQand IRAN. Local emirs or gover-
nors grew more autonomous, yet formally recognized
their dependence on the caliph. In the ninth century a
Shiite dynasty, the FATIMIDS, revolted against the
Abbasids and established an independent caliphate in al-
Qayrawan. They eventually conquered Egypt, founded
their own caliphate, built a new capital at Cairo, and
established the famous school of the Al-Azhar mosque.
Arab merchants and missionaries spread Islam through
the Sahara, Sudan, and eastern Africa; only ABYSSINIAsur-
vived as a Christian state. By the 11th century most of
Africa was Islamic. The western lands of northern Africa
were divided among different local warring dynasties, the
most powerful of which was that of the ALMORAVIDS. The
Arab element in them was challenged by the Berbers,
who were often more militant and fanatic in their faith.
The slave trade gave Muslims contact and conflict
with the Tuareg states of the Sahara. An empire of
GHANA, which had lasted from the fourth to the 11th
centuries, was destroyed by Islamic penetration and
attacks. In Egypt the Fatimids were replaced by the AYYU-
BIDS(1171–1250) under SALADIN. The rise of the Almo-
hads (1147–1269) in Morocco opened an era of
expansion, violence, and oppression. The crusaders and
the Italian cities failed to establish bases in Egypt and
even to conquer it in 1217 and 1247–48 and again at
TUNISin 1270.FURTHER CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Further political and social change was chiefly a result of
local wars and of the rise of Berber elements in AL-
MAGHRIB.MAMLUKrule in Egypt did not continue the
policy of expansion followed by earlier dynasties. In the
14th and 15th centuries, a series of PLAGUES, such as the
Black Death of 1348, and FAMINE ravaged northern
Africa, particularly Egypt. The opening of the MONGOL
trade route to China caused an economic depression in
the continent.
In the Middle Ages central Africa developed sepa-
rately. Christian Abyssinia preserved its independence
from Islam at the price of isolation and loss of the coastal
provinces of Eritrea and Somalia. Trade routes developed
across the Sahara and the Sudan, facilitating exchange
between Muslim northern Africa and polytheistic sub-
Saharan tribes. The Muslim empire of Mali became in
the 13th and 14th centuries the most powerful of the
black states. Its capital, TIMBUKTU, as described by IBN
BATTUTA, was a major market, especially for salt, slaves,
and gold. By the 15th century, Italian merchants arrived.
The rise of the Kingdom of Gao and SONGHAIin the 15th
century opened more contact between the Mediterranean
and Nigerian tribes. In the later part of the 15th century,
the Portuguese arrived and set up regular trading posts
and fortresses to obtain slaves and protect their routes to
the east.
Further reading: J. F. P. Hopkins, trans., and N.
Levtzion and J. F. Hopkins, eds., Corpus of Early Arabic
Sources for West African History(Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1981); Grabois, MC,22–23; George E.
Brooks, Landlords and Strangers: Ecology, Society, and
Trade in Western Africa, 1000–1630(Boulder, Colo.: West-
view Press, 1993); Basil Davidson, A History of West
Africa 1000–1800(London: Longmans, 1967); Muham-
mad El Fasi, ed., General History of Africa,III, Africa from
the Seventh to the Eleventh Century(Berkeley: University
of California Press for UNESCO, 1988) [abridged edition,
ed. Ivan Hrbek (Berkeley: James Currey, 1992)]; J. D.
Fage, ed., The Cambridge History of Africa,Vol. 2, From c.
500 B.C. to A.D. 1050(Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1978); Djibril Tamsir Niane, ed., General History of
Africa,Vol. 4, Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Cen-
tury (Berkeley: University of California Press for
UNESCO, 1984) [abridged edition, ed. Joseph Ki-Zerbo
and Djibril Tamsir Niane (Berkeley: James Currey,