Available Formats
African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa
By (Author) Michael Gomez
Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press
4th November 2019
United States
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
Social and cultural history
Oral history
Social groups: religious groups and communities
966.02
Paperback
520
Width 156mm, Height 235mm
A groundbreaking book that puts early and medieval West Africa on the map of global history 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 tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history. Focusing on the Savannah and Sahel region, Gomez traces how Islam's growth in West Africa, along with intensifying commerce that included slaves, resulted in a series of political experiments unique to the region, culminating in the rise of empire. A radically new account of the importance of early Africa in global history, African Dominion will be the standard work on the subject for years to come.
"Winner of the ASA Book Prize (Herskovits), African Studies Association"
"Winner of the Martin A. Klein Prize, American Historical Association"
"One of Choice Reviews' Outstanding Academic Titles of 2018"
Michael A. Gomez is the Silver Professor of History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. His books include Black Crescent: African Muslims in the Americas, Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, and Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South.