Muslim traders, Songhay warriors and the Arma

Muslim traders, Songhay warriors and the Arma
Author: Holst, Christian
Publisher: kassel university press GmbH
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2016
Genre: Inland Niger Delta Region (Mali)
ISBN: 3737602123

This book looks into the interplay between different social groups that existed on the Middle Niger Bend between 1549 to 1660. The groups mainly under scrutiny are Muslim traders and scholars – the “Ulema” and the worldly lords that ran the polities that had laid claim to the region of the Middle Niger Bend; first the Askyas, then the Arma. The changing relationships between these different groups and of individuals within them are analysed within the wider historical background of the rise and fall of the Songhay Empire and the subsequent takeover of the region by the Moroccan Arma that had conquered the heart of the Middle Niger Bend in 1591. This work explores the interaction between the groups through the framework of honour, religion and ancestry and traces the initially successful cooperation between rulers, traders and scholars to its breakdown and the final social disintegration of the Middle Niger Bend.

Modern Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies

Modern Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies
Author: Kaushik Roy
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2022-08-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000628752

This book provides a historical study of the theory and praxis of modern insurgencies and counterinsurgencies (COIN). Modern Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies: A Global History shows that the insurgents can wage a variety of conflicts: at times conventional war which lies at the high end of their spectrum, and terrorism which is located at the lowest end of their scale. When insurgencies reach a certain critical threshold, the insurgents shift their strategy from guerrilla (irregular) war to conventional (regular) war, and at that point the level of conflict escalates to the level of civil war. When the insurgents face intense state repression, they revert to terrorist activities. When the insurgents wage guerrilla war, they can be called guerrillas. The variety of wars conducted by the insurgents is termed as unconventional war. This volume demonstrates that the insurgents in the modern world had been motivated by a trinity: greed, grievances and ideology. Kaushik Roy traces the origin of modern insurgencies and COIN from the sixteenth century by focusing on regions outside Western Eurasia. He also touches on the twin interrelated phenomena of modern insurgencies and COIN metastasising into something new at the beginning of the Information Revolution at the end of the twentieth century. This volume will be of interest to researchers and research students of history, British Empire, imperial studies, Asian studies, security studies, strategic studies, and war and conflict studies.

A Global History of Pre-Modern Warfare

A Global History of Pre-Modern Warfare
Author: Kaushik Roy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2021-09-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000432122

This book examines the military histories of the regions beyond Western Europe in the pre-modern era. Existing works on global military history mainly focus on the western part of Eurasia after 1500 CE. As regards the ancient period, such works concentrate exclusively on Greece and Rome. So, ‘global’ military history is actually the triumphal story of the West from Classical Greece onwards. This volume focuses not only on the eastern part of Eurasia but also on South America, Africa and Australasia and seeks to explain the history and varied trajectories of warfare in non-Western regions in the pre-modern era. Further, it evaluates whether warfare in non-Western regions should be considered primitive or inferior when compared with Western warfare. The book notes that Western Europe became militarily significant only in the early modern era and argues that the military divergence that occurred during the early modern era is not unique – it had also occurred in the Bronze Age, the Classical era and in the medieval period. This was due to the dynamism and innovativeness of non-Western militaries and the interconnectedness that existed in parts of the Eurasian landmass. Further, those polities which were able to construct a balanced military force by synthesising diverse elements were not only able to survive but also became capable of projecting power across continents. This book will be of much interest to students of military history, strategic studies and world history.

Empires of Medieval West Africa

Empires of Medieval West Africa
Author: David C. Conrad
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2010
Genre: Africa
ISBN: 1604131640

Explores empires of medieval west Africa.

A History of Islamic Societies

A History of Islamic Societies
Author: Ira M. Lapidus
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1004
Release: 2002-08-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521779333

Ira Lapidus' classic history of the origins and evolution of Muslim societies, revised and updated for this second edition, first published in 2002.

Warfare in African History

Warfare in African History
Author: Richard J. Reid
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2012-04-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107375789

This book examines the role of war in shaping the African state, society, and economy. Richard J. Reid helps students understand different patterns of military organization through Africa's history; the evolution of weaponry, tactics, and strategy; and the increasing prevalence of warfare and militarism in African political and economic systems. He traces shifts in the culture and practice of war from the first millennium into the era of the external slave trades, and then into the nineteenth century, when a military revolution unfolded across much of Africa. The repercussions of that revolution, as well as the impact of colonial rule, continue to this day. The frequency of coups d'états and civil war in Africa's recent past is interpreted in terms of the continent's deeper past.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam

The Encyclopaedia of Islam
Author: Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1094
Release: 1991
Genre: Islam
ISBN:

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (Second Edition) sets out the present state of our knowledge of the Islamic World. It is a unique and invaluable reference tool, an essential key to understanding the world of Islam, and the authoritative source not only for the religion, but also for the believers and the countries in which they live.

Islam and the Prayer Economy

Islam and the Prayer Economy
Author: Soares Benjamin Soares
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2020-01-21
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 1474472753

At a time when so-called fundamentalism has become the privileged analytical frame for understanding Muslim societies past and present, this study offers an alternative perspective on Islam. In an innovative combination of anthropology, history, and social theory, Benjamin Soares explores Islam and Muslim practice in an important Islamic religious centre in West Africa from the late nineteenth century to the present. Drawing on ethnography, archival research, and written sources, Soares provides a richly detailed discussion of Sufism, Islamic reform, and other contemporary ways of being Muslim in Mali and offers an original analytical perspective for understanding changes in the practice of Islam more generally.