Medieval West Africa Views from Arab Scholars and Merchants

Summary: Kingdoms arose during the early centuries of the Common Era across a wide region of West Africa, south of the Sahara Desert and north of the forest belt that adjoined the Atlantic Ocean. Archaeology has begun to provide sound information about early chapters of this story, while oral traditions preserved among living West African communities have contributed their own vision of this remote past. Another rich source o...f information about this region is available in the Arabic writings of geographers and chroniclers from the Muslim world of the 9th through 15th centuries. [read more]