Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: the medieval scene
- 2 Egypt: al-Misr
- 3 Ifriqiya and the Regencies
- 4 The Islamic Far West: Morocco
- 5 The western Sudan and upper Guinea
- 6 The central Sudan and lower Guinea
- 7 Nubia, Darfur and Wadai
- 8 The north-eastern triangle
- 9 The upper Nile basin and the East African plateau
- 10 The heart of Africa
- 11 The land of the blacksmith kings
- 12 From the Lualaba to the Zambezi
- 13 The approaches to Zimbabwe
- 14 The peoples of the South
- Epilogue
- Further reading
- Index
1 - Introduction: the medieval scene
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: the medieval scene
- 2 Egypt: al-Misr
- 3 Ifriqiya and the Regencies
- 4 The Islamic Far West: Morocco
- 5 The western Sudan and upper Guinea
- 6 The central Sudan and lower Guinea
- 7 Nubia, Darfur and Wadai
- 8 The north-eastern triangle
- 9 The upper Nile basin and the East African plateau
- 10 The heart of Africa
- 11 The land of the blacksmith kings
- 12 From the Lualaba to the Zambezi
- 13 The approaches to Zimbabwe
- 14 The peoples of the South
- Epilogue
- Further reading
- Index
Summary
If it is universally acknowledged that geography and climate shape and mould the course of history, it is a truism peculiarly self-evident in Africa, where humankind has had to contend with environmental conditions often harsh and always challenging. The continent's broad vegetation zones are best portrayed on a map, which will show at a glance the contrast between the areas lying roughly to the north and south of the equator. In the northern sector, the lines demarcating these zones march horizontally across the continent with almost the precision of the lines of latitude, and the determining factor is that of rainfall. The Mediterranean zone, with its coastal plains watered by regular winter rains, and at its western end the high pastures of the Atlas ranges, is bordered by the arid and stony Sahara, measuring more than 1700 miles from north to south, and stretching for more than 4000 miles from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea. On its southern ‘shore’ (in Arabic, sahel) the desert merges into the open savanna of the Sahel, free from the tsetse-fly and offering pasture for most domestic animals, notably, cattle, sheep and goats, donkeys and the small horses native to the region. Southwards, the Sahel merges into the bush and light woodland of the Sudanic belt, offering rainfall enough for cereal agriculture, but where infestation by tsetse-fly poses a mortal danger to the larger domestic animals, especially to cattle and all the regular beasts of burden and traction.
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- Medieval Africa, 1250–1800 , pp. 1 - 13Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001