Black Africans’ Religious and Cultural Assimilation to, or Appropriation of, Catholicism in Italy, 1470-1520
Current scholarship emphasizes that the old model of conversion—of, say, Christianity being actively forced onto passive and subordinate peoples—is no longer satisfactory, and instead prefers to frame the issue around concepts of cultural interaction or cultural transmission, and selective appropriation of the host religion.
Beleaguered Muslim fortresses and Ethiopian imperial expansion from the 13th to the 16th century
This thesis challenges this common conception by demonstrating that throughout Ethiopia’s medieval period (1270-1555), the time of greatest conflict between the Ethiopian Empire and its Muslim neighbors, Muslim forces did not besiege the Ethiopian Empire.
Paradise in Africa: The History of a Geographical Myth from its Origins in Medieval Thought to its Gradual Demise in Early Modern Europe
Where was Paradise to be found? In this regard, a considerable number of different locations have been proposed.
Imagining the Metropolis on the Islamic Periphery: Commerce, Scholarship, and Architecture in 15th c. Bidar and Timbuktu
In this paper I wish to explore the similarities and differences that these two cities exhibit in terms of their evolution, their relationship to political power, and most importantly, the ways they imagined themselves in relation to metropolitan centers in the Islamic heartland.
Researchers explore lives of medieval Nubians from hundreds of skeletons
Research being carried out on the remains of hundreds of men, women and children from medieval Nubia has revealed they were plagued by meager diets, high infant mortality and diseases such as scurvy and tuberculosis.
The Andalusi origins of the Berbers
How could the Berbers originate in al-Andalus when everyone knows they are the original inhabitants of North Africa? One of the goals of this article is to show that asking the question in this way is part of the problem and that it stands in the way of securing the soundness of historical interpretations of the past.
Ancient Afro-Asia Links: New Evidence from a Maritime Perspective
Historical records have shown that the East African coast was connected to ancient global trade networks. These early overseas contacts are evidenced by references to trading voyages in the early 1st millennium AD and in the 11th to 14th century AD.
The Zagwe period re-interpreted: post-Aksumite Ethiopian urban culture
The history of Ethiopia from the decline of Aksum until the early sixteenth century is commonly divided into three periods.