Timothy Insoll. The archaeology of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa.

Timothy Insoll. The archaeology of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa. TIMOTHY INSOLL. The archaeology of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa.xv+470 pages, 125 figures. 2003. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). ;0-521-65171-9 hardback 70 [pounds sterling] & US$95, 0-521-65702-4paperback 25.95 [pounds sterling] & US$37. This is a book long overdue. Timothy Insoll has taken on theambitious task of including the entire sub-Saharan continent in a singlestudy of the archaeology of Islam. Not only is the geographical breadthdaunting, but so is the time frame. The book competently presents anarchaeological, architectural and historical survey covering a periodfrom the pre-Islamic Iron Age in black Africa to the sixteenth-centuryMoroccan incursions against the Songhai, the nineteenth-century Fulanijihads in Hausaland, and the last of the Omani Sultans in Zanzibar.Insoll's familiarity with the literature and his own extensivearchaeological fieldwork in Africa has enabled him to engage in acomparative study that recognises difference as well as similaritythrough time and space. Regional and site particularities arehighlighted throughout the work, and the grand narratives and singularmodels authored by earlier scholars are challenged. In brief; the bookcan be best summarised as an exploration of the complex and diversemanifestations of Islam in Africa Islam in Africa,the development of the Muslim religion on the African continent.During Muhammad's lifetime a group of Muslims escaped Meccan persecution (615) by fleeing to Ethiopia, where the Negus gave them protection. , and its major contribution is surelythe weave it produces between the social, cultural, religious,historical and archaeological dimensions of Islam. At the start, Insoll presents an overview of the impressive body ofinterdisciplinary material that he draws upon, and he discusses hisapproach and method. The Arabic tarikhs (histories) comprise theearliest historical texts in sub-Saharan Africa, and play an especiallyimportant role in re-constructing an Islamic history of the West African West AfricaA region of western Africa between the Sahara Desert and the Gulf of Guinea. It was largely controlled by colonial powers until the 20th century.West African adj. & n. Sahel. European traveller and missionary accounts, as well as oralhistories, provide additional data for conceptualising the chronologicalspread of Islam This article is about followers of the Islamic faith. For territories under Muslim rule, see Muslim conquests. The spread of Islam began shortly after Muhammad's death in 632. across the continent. Insoll maintains, however, that itis through the archaeological analysis of material culture, mosques,tombs, diet and trade goods that we can best 'reconstruct thediverse social, political and economic effects of conversion to Islam,and the direct and indirect impact of the religion upon thepeoples' (p. 3). Careful consideration of the social dynamics Social dynamics is the study of the ability of a society to react to inner and outer changes and deal with its regulation mechanisms. Social dynamics is a mathematically inspired approach to analyse societies, building upon systems theory and sociology. ofconversion throughout the book--including the roles of trade, Sufism,holy men, jihad, the magic of Arabic script, and the pursuit of powerand prestige--move us comfortably beyond the static three-stage modelsof Trimingham and Horton, and Fisher's two-tier structure. Insollmakes fitting use of anthropology and ethnography to better describe theremarkable variety of processes involved in local appropriations ofIslam as an African religion (as opposed to being strictly coerced fromthe outside), and to explore Islam's often syncretic syn��cre��tism?n.1. Reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief, as in philosophy or religion, especially when success is partial or the result is heterogeneous.2. relations withtraditional religions and magic. For narrative purposes, the sub-Saharan landmass land��mass?n.A large unbroken area of land.landmassNouna large continuous area of landlandmass? has been carvedinto seven regions, and the respective chapters demonstrate the temporaland geographical unfolding of Islam, from its early beginnings on theeast coast and in the western Sahel, and its later adoption in theinterior reaches of central and southern Africa. Insoll recognises theartifice of these boundaries, and endeavours to show the historicalinterconnections throughout the continent. The book begins with Ethiopiaand the Horn of Africa Horn of Africa,peninsula, NE Africa, opposite the S Arabia Peninsula. Also known as the Somali Peninsula, it encompasses Somalia and E Ethiopia and is the easternmost extension of the continent, separating the Gulf of Aden from the Indian Ocean. , and themes of early Christian foundations,trade, jihad, proselytising and pilgrimage extend into the subsequentexamination of Nilotic Sudan. A lucid (if brief) presentation of theemerging archaeological data describes the diversity, dynamism andAfrican origins of Islamic settlements on the East African Adj. 1. East African - of or relating to or located in East Africa coast. Insollis most eloquent in his chapter on the western Sahel that includes thesites he knows best--namely Gao and Timbuktu. The story moves to theCentral Sudan, and follows the nineteenth-century Fulani jihads fromHausaland into the West African Sudan and forest belt where Islam camecomparatively late. The final chapter covers the vast interiorstretching from the southern borders of Sudan to Cape Town. This is aterritory separated in time and space from the first Muslim contactsbetween the Horn of Africa and Arabia, and conversion has been limited,but Insoll demonstrates (using more history and anthropology thanarchaeology) that the nineteenth-century processes of conversion therewere strikingly similar to those of other regions over a millennium ago. Insoll keenly demonstrates from beginning to end that, while Islamhas had a major impact on sub-Saharan Africa, Africa, as an integralpart of the Muslim world, has likewise had a hand in shaping Islam.There is nothing remarkably new in this argument, certainly not from theview of anthropology or African studies, but the integration o farchaeology into studies of complexity and diversity is a welcomecontribution. Some of the regional and site-specific coverage lackssatisfying depth but this must be regarded as the payoff for attemptingto address so much material in the space of a single volume.Undoubtedly, the book will prove to be a valuable text for archaeologystudents and of definite appeal to those with an interest in Africa andIslam. TREVOR H.J. MARCHAND Dept. of Anthropology, School of Oriental& African Studies, London University, Thornhaugh St., London WC1England.