A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period

A new history of North Africa within the Islamic period from the Arab conquest to the present.

Jamil M. Abun-Nasr (Edited by)

9780521337670, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 20 August 1987

472 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.705 kg

"This book remains the best study of North Africa in that it remains the only major detailed work on the subject. Its value is immediate for both students of African History and Middle Eastern Studies." A.J. Abraham, Journal of Third World Studies

Building on the two previous editions of his History of the Maghrib, Professor Abun-Nasr has written a completely new history of North Africa within the Islamic period which begins with the Arab conquest and brings the story up to the present day. He emphasises the factors which led to the adoption of Islam by practically the entire population, the geographical position of the area, which made it the main trade link between the Mediterranean world and the Sudan and led to its involvement in the confrontation between the Christian and Islamic worlds. In Morocco, this confrontation led to the emergence of a distinct religio-political community ruled by sharifian dynasties and, in the rest of the Maghrib, to integration in the Ottoman empire. The political and economic developments of the 'piratical' regencies of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, the establishment of European colonial rule, the nationalist movements and Islamic religious reform are all treated in detail. The balance between factual account and interpretation makes the book especially useful to students of African and Islamic history.

1. Introduction
2. The call of the minaret in the 'West': the establishment of Islam in the Maghrib and Spain
3. The Maghrib under Berber dynasties
4. Ottoman rule in the Central and Eastern Maghrib
5. Morocco consolidates her national identity, 1510–1822
6. The age of aggressive European colonialism, 1830–1914
7. 1919 to independence
8. Epilogue: the Maghrib after independence
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]