The African Context: Islam, Slavery, and Colonialism

Abstract

The history of Islam in the African continent falls into three geographical and historical zones. The Mediterranean littoral was conquered by Arab-Muslims and later by the Ottoman Empire and was a region of Arab-Islamic culture. West Africa, including the Sahara desert, and the savannah, forest, and coastal country south of the Sahara constituted a second region. Coastal East Africa and its hinterlands, including inland savannah country, was the third. The history of Islam in North Africa appears in conjunction with the history of the early Arab-Islamic conquests and the Ottoman Empire. However, the history of Islam in Africa cannot be separated from the interactions between Africa and the outside Muslim world, nor from its varied connections to Europe. Islam Three themes define pan-African history. The first is Islam. The Islamic period in Africa began in the seventh century with contacts among the newly founded Arab-Islamic empire and sub-Saharan and coastal East Africa. Whereas Islamic societies in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent were established by conquest and ordered by states, Islam in Africa, as in Indonesia, was diffused primarily by the migration of Muslim merchants, teachers, and settlers.