Part I Islamization: patterns of Islamization in West Africa; slavery and Islamization in Africa - a comparative study. Part II Islam in politics - the role of the "ulama": Islam in West African politics - accommodation and tension between the "ulama" and the political authorities; sociopolitical roles of Muslim clerics and scholars in West Africa; merchants versus scholars and clerics - differential and complementary roles. Part III Background to the Islamic revolutions: rural and urban Islam in West Africa - an introductory essay; the 18th century - background to the Islamic revolutions in West Africa; notes on the origins of Islamic militancy in the Futa Jallon. Part IV Historical studies: Berber nomads and Sudanese states - the historiography of the desert-Sahel interface; the Jews of Sijilmasa and the Saharan trade; 'Abd Allah b Yasin and the Almoravids; Mamluk Egypt and Takrur (West Africa). Part V Textual studies: Ibn Hawqal, the checque and Awdaghost; ancient Ghana - a reassessment of some Arabic sources; the 12-century anonymous Kitab al-Istibsar - a history of a text; the 13th- and 14th-century kings of Mali; a 17th-century chronicle by Ibn al-Mukhtar - a criticals tudy of Ta'rikh al Fattash; early 19th-century manuscripts from Kumasi.
