The Arab Conquest of the Western Sahara: Studies of the Historical Events, Religious Beliefs and Social Customs Which Made the Remotest Sahara a Part of the Arab World – H. T. Norris

The Arab Conquest of the Western Sahara: Studies of the Historical Events, Religious Beliefs and Social Customs Which Made the Remotest Sahara a Part of the Arab World

H. T. Norris (Author)

Professor Norris draws on numerous sources, from such Arab and European travellers and historians as Ibn Battutah and Leo Africanus to local historians steeped in traditions of oral history. He examines how certain tribes and regions of the Western Sahara responded to the arrival of the Arabs, with particular reference to the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries when Arab power was consolidated. He shows how this position was not always archieved by military means.

this book makes a scholarly contribution to an understanding  of how the national boundaries bequeathed by the European powers divided the vernacular groups and of how one of the least populated areas of the world has come to be scene of the contemporary conflict between the territorial claims of Morocco and those of the Western Saharans for their own independance. 

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For centuries after the first Arabs passed through North Africa, the presence of Arabic culture in the western Sahara was limited to scholars and mystics. Those few who spoke Arabic and practised Islam left the traditional society largely undisturbed. Then in the Middle Ages came a small band of southern Yemeni tribesmen, who came to dominate the desert trade routes linking Africa with the Mediterranean. Their descendents, the Awlad Hassan, imposed themselves on the native Berbers and introduced a new society, religion and language. Drawing on numerous sources including travellers and historians such as Ibn Battutah and Leo Africanus, plus local historians steeped in the traditions of oral history, the author examines how the tribes of the western Sahara responded to the arrival of the Arabs, particularly during the 13th and 17th centuries. Written by renowned experts, the five books that comprise “The series of Arabic Islamic studies” feature topics on Arabic and Islamic studies. From a description of the Arabian incese trade, to a sociological study of Islam and its beliefs, this series aims to offer authoratative insights into the history, and contemporary situation, of Arabia.

Language: English
ISBN: 9789953101927
1986, Hardcover, 309 pages, 22.5 x 14 cm, maps, b/w photographs, 10 Plates

Keyword: SAHARA, NORTH AFRICA, ARAB CONQUEST, HISTORY, TRIBES

Book Condition: New
Publisher: Librairie du Liban