A groundbreaking history that puts early and medieval West Africa in a global context Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book, the first on this period of the region's history in a generation, tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, including Arabic manuscripts, oral histories, and recent archaeological findings, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of ...
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A groundbreaking history that puts early and medieval West Africa in a global context Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book, the first on this period of the region's history in a generation, tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, including Arabic manuscripts, oral histories, and recent archaeological findings, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history more generally. Scholars have long held that such distinctions arose during the colonial period, but Gomez shows they developed much earlier. Focusing on the Savannah and Sahel region, Gomez traces the exchange of ideas and influences with North Africa and the Central Islamic Lands by way of merchants, scholars, and pilgrims. Islam's growth in West Africa, in tandem with intensifying commerce that included slaves, resulted in a series of political experiments unique to the region, culminating in the rise of empire. A major preoccupation was the question of who could be legally enslaved, which together with other factors led to the construction of new ideas about ethnicity, race, gender, and caste--long before colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. Telling a radically new story about early Africa in global history, African Dominion is set to be the standard work on the subject for many years to come.
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Add this copy of African Dominion: a New History of Empire in Early and to cart. $31.95, good condition, Sold by Broad Street Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Branchville, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 2018 by Princeton University Press.
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Good. Size: 6x1x9; Hardcover with dust jacket. Book is in very nice overall condition, pages are tight. Some pages have underling or notes. Top edge of page block has some faint spots of from coffee splash.
Add this copy of African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and to cart. $62.63, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2018 by Princeton University Press.
Add this copy of African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and to cart. $69.63, new condition, Sold by GreatBookPrices rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Columbia, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2018 by Princeton University Press.
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New. Contains: Maps. 8 maps. Intended for college/higher education audience. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
Add this copy of African Dominion: a New History of Empire in Early and to cart. $69.64, new condition, Sold by BargainBookStores rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Grand Rapids, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2018 by Princeton University Press.
Add this copy of African Dominion: a New History of Empire in Early and to cart. $81.74, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2018 by Princeton University Press.
Add this copy of African Dominion: a New History of Empire in Early and to cart. $142.74, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2018 by Princeton University Press.
I really wanted to enjoy this book, in fact, I would almost say I really needed to, as there are so few contemporary resources on the subject of early West African history and I was greatly looking forward to gaining a better understanding of the region's history. Unfortunately, I made it only about 80 pages into Gomez's work, which turned out to be quite a grueling endeavor.
This book should really be characterized as "Historiography" not a History, as Gomez primary agenda is not educated the reader but furnishing critiques of some sort of previously-established record of the region that Gomez is setting out to correct. This makes the text all but impenetrable for the reader that does not possess any particular pre-conceived notions about ancient West Africa, and is relying on Gomez's volume to gain an original understanding.
In hand with this, and much more problematically, Gomez gives no context to many of the names, people, scholars and events that suddenly pop up as references. I presume many of these names are authors of medieval texts that Gomez has come across in his research at libraries and archives, but why he assumes he can just name drop ancient Islamic scholars out of nowhere and the reader will already be familiar is totally baffling. This is made more unnecessarily difficult in that Gomez and his editors insist on referencing Gregorian and Islamic calendar dates for each time referenced. So a paragraph will start "Al-Bakri (d. 487/1094) possibly refers..." and the reader is quite naturally like, "Sorry, who? who is Al-Bakri? Where did he come from?" and then his happens at least every few pages.
On the other hand, Gomez and his editors will over-supply unnecessary data such as writing "Egypt (Misr)" --so they decide to help the reader with the Arabic name for Egypt, which is not needed, but then assume we already know by heart every scholar of the archives of the Saharan libraries.
The exact moment when I lost the will to continue was only on page 65, at the sentence "Saman would initiate the tradition of reroofing the Kama-Bolon (Kamabolon, Amambolon) every seven years..." and Gomez never even says where or what exactly the Kama-Bolon is! Presumably an important building somewhere, but how about a description? I was so out of sorts and so frustrated that I just gave up, sadly.
Really a shame as this subject matter desperately needs wider awareness in the public.
