Humphrey J Fisher
Biographic Data
| ID | 75126 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Humphrey J Fisher |
| GIVEN NAMES | Humphrey J |
| FAMILY NAME | Fisher |
| SIGNATURE | FISHER H J |
| AFFILIATIONS | SOAS University of London |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 58 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 318 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 57 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1959 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
‘He Swalloweth the Ground with Fierceness and Rage’: The Horse in the Central Sudan II. Its Use
This chapter suggests that horses first entered the Sudan very early, before the camel came to dominate the Sahara. These early immigrants may have been the same horses as appear in Saharan rock art; their descendants may perhaps be the small local breeds today scattered across the Sudan almost from the Atlantic to the Nile. The most obvious contribution of the horse was military. To go into battle with one horse only, or even on foot, was an ind…
Booty Taken in Holy War: A Cross-Cultural Perspective The Bible and the History of Muslim Black Africa
Slavery in the History of Muslim Black Africa
In African Muslim societies domestic slavery was a deeply entrenched institution, accepted as a matter of course by African believers and Muslim lawyers. This study, first published by Hurst in 1970, has been extensively revised, with a new introduction and an extra chapter on slavery taken from the work, Sahara and Sudan. It discusses domestic slavery in the context of the religious, social and economic conditions of Islamic societies, the statu…
The politics of cultural performance
Not Quite Venus from the Waves: The Almoravid Conquest of Ghana in the Modern Historiography of Western Africa
The Almoravid conquest of ancient Ghana in 1076 AD is certainly among the most dramatic and controversial single events in the historiography of West Africa. It has been regarded as a crucial turning point, as the battle of Hastings was for England, not only for the existence of Ghana, but also for the destiny of the entire area, opening the gates to a triumphant Islam in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet the conquest and destruction of Ghana by Almoravid …
Many deep baptisms: Reflections on religious, chiefly Muslim, conversion in Black Africa
The primary purpose of this paper-apart from a personal concern to offer a token of affection and respect to a friend and colleague of many years' standing-is to consider two analytical models (one drawn from early Christian history, the other from the history of science), and to suggest ways in which these may help us to interpret the data of religious, and in particular Muslim, change in sub-Saharan Africa
Sudanic Sources - Sudanic Africa: A Journal of Historical Sources. Published by the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of Bergen, Norway, vol. i, 1990. Price per volume: $10 (£6…
Sudanic Sources - Sudanic Africa: A Journal of Historical Sources. Published by the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of Bergen, Norway, vol. i, 1990. Price per volume: 15 (£9) for institutions. - Volume 34 Issue 3
Love for Three Oranges, or, The Askiya's Dilemma: The Askiya , al-Maghīlī and Timbuktu, c . 1500 a.d
The authors argue that, during the crucial decade of Songhay history which followed the death of Sunni Ali, Askiya Muḥammad pursued, sometimes quickly and sometimes hesitantly, three distinct ‘Islamic’ options, in contrast to the ‘received tradition’ which sharply differentiates between the reign of the last sunni 's and the first of the askiyas . Askiya Muḥammad began his reign in alliance with the court clerics of the imperial capital in Gao, w…
Charisma and Brotherhood in African Islam
Journal Article Charisma and Brotherhood in African Islam Get access Charisma and Brotherhood in African Islam, edited by Donal B. Cruise O'Brien and Christian Coulan. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1988. viii + 223 pp. £30 hardback. ISBN 0 19 822723 X HUMPHREY J. FISHER HUMPHREY J. FISHER SOAS Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 91, Issue 364, July 1992, Pages 495–496, https://doi.org/10.109…
What's in a Name? The Almoravids of the Eleventh Century in the Western Sahara
Slavery and Seclusion in Northern Nigeria: A Further Note
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Wars Without End: The political economy of a precolonial African state
Journal Article Wars Without End: The political economy of a precolonial African state Get access Wars Without End: The political economy of a precolonial African state, by Stephen P. Reyna. University Press of New England, Hanover, 1990. ix+210 pp. £21.20 hardback. ISBN 0 87451 505 X. HUMPHREY J. FISHER HUMPHREY J. FISHER School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google…
Rural and Urban Islam in West Africa
The Quest for Purity: Dynamics of Puritan Movements
Religion, Development and African Identity
Journal Article Religion, Development and African Identity Get access Kirsten Holst Petersen (ed.), Religion, Development and African Identity. Seminar Proceedings no. 17, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, 1987. 163 pp. No price given. ISBN 91 7106 263 7. Cyril C. Okorocha, The Meaning of Religious Coversion in Africa: the case of the Igbo Nigeria. Avebury, Aldershot, 1987. xv+352 pp. £47.50 hardback. ISBN 0 566 05030 7. HUMPHRE…
Sahara and Sudan: Vol. II Kawar, Kanem, Bornu, Borku, Ennedi
African Religion Meets Islam: Religious Change in Northern Nigeria
Rural and Urban Islam in West Africa
Sudanese and Saharan Studies
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Of Slaves, and Souls of Men
These two volumes are the long-awaited results of a conference on ‘Islamic Africa: slavery and related institutions’, held at Princeton in 1977. Of the ten papers in the first volume, four are geographically located in Africa, while the others relate to Africa and Africans in various ways: in the second volume, all nine papers are specifically about Africa. Rather than listing the papers here, I shall try to say something about each in the follow…
The Islamic Regime of Fuuta Tooro: An anthology of oral tradition transcribed in Pulaar and translated into English
Journal Article The Islamic Regime of Fuuta Tooro: an anthology of oral tradition transcribed in Pulaar and translated into English Get access The Islamic Regime of Fuuta Tooro: an anthology of oral tradition transcribed in Pulaar and translated into English, by Moustapha Kane and David Robinson. African Studies Center, Michigan State University, 1984. Maps, x+177 pp. £16.95, paperback. HUMPHREY J. FISHER HUMPHREY J. FISHER Magdalen CollegeOxford…
Dr. Gustav Nachtigal in Modern Chad
Gustav Nachtigal is assuredly the most neglected, and the most unjustly so, of the major European travellers in Africa. On February 18, 1869, he set out from Tripoli, travelling southwards towards Bornu, just west of Lake Chad; he re-emerged from the African interior almost exactly five and a half years later, on August 10, 1874, at El-Obeid in what is today the Republic of Sudan. Of this marathon journey, Nachtigal left an account of correspondi…
The Juggernaut's apologia: Conversion to Islam in black Africa
Opening ParagraphThis story begins with Robin Horton's thoughtful and stimulating article 'African conversion', published inAfricain 1971. My own 'Conversion reconsidered' followed in 1973. This was in part a response to Horton, though concentrating upon Islamic conversion, which had been only a supporting feature in Horton's chiefly Christianity-based argument. I also explored a little the possibilities for Muslim/Christian comparison in black A…
The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The Local Oral Sources
“The land took the name of the wells, the wells that had no bottom.” In Part I of this paper we examined the external written sources and found no unambiguous evidence that an Almoravid conquest of ancient Ghana ever occurred. The local oral evidence reviewed in this part of our study supports our earlier hypothesis, in that we find nothing in the traditions to indicate any conquest of the eleventh-century sahelian state known to Arab geographers…
Sahara and Sudan. Volume II: Kawar, Bornu, Kanem, Borku, Ennedi
Conversion Reconsidered: Some Historical Aspects of Religious Conversion in Black Africa
Opening ParagraphThis paper had its genesis in the recent thoughtful and stimulating article by Robin Horton, on African conversion; the core of his argument is summarized below. Horton's evidence is chiefly drawn from Christian African experience, though he seeks to generalize from it for both Islam and Christianity. My specific purpose here is to look more closely at the phenomenon of Muslim conversion, and to see what light this may throw on H…
Slavery and Muslim Society in Africa
Slavery in the History of Muslim Black Africa
In African Muslim societies domestic slavery was a deeply entrenched institution, accepted as a matter of course by African believers and Muslim lawyers. This study, first published by Hurst in 1970, has been extensively revised, with a new introduction and an extra chapter on slavery taken from the work, Sahara and Sudan. It discusses domestic slavery in the context of the religious, social and economic conditions of Islamic societies, the statu…
The politics of cultural performance
The Juggernaut's apologia: Conversion to Islam in black Africa
Opening ParagraphThis story begins with Robin Horton's thoughtful and stimulating article 'African conversion', published inAfricain 1971. My own 'Conversion reconsidered' followed in 1973. This was in part a response to Horton, though concentrating upon Islamic conversion, which had been only a supporting feature in Horton's chiefly Christianity-based argument. I also explored a little the possibilities for Muslim/Christian comparison in black A…
Elections and Coups in Sierra Leone, 1967
On St Patrick's Day 1967 Sierra Leone went to the polls to elect a new parliament. Four days later, on 21 March, Brigadier David Lansana, head of the Sierra Leone army, seized power. After two more days, on 23 March, Lansana was repudiated by a group of senior army officers; this second coup was followed by the creation of a National Reformation Council, including five army officers and two senior police officials, which was to take control of th…
He Swalloweth the Ground with Fiercenes and Rage’ The Horse in the Central Sudan: I. Its Introduction
This study of horses, mainly in the central Sudan, presents impressions rather than a complete survey of the evidence. At the time when written records for the Sudan region begin, c . A.D. 1000, horses were evidently well established there. Their coming preceded the arrival of Islam. The first introduction of horses is sometimes attributed to nomads, such as the Zaghawa round Lake Chad, who, so the argument runs, used them to found larger and mor…
The Early Life and Pilgrimage of Al-Ḥājj Muḥammad Al-Amīn the Soninke (d. 1887)
Al-Ḥājj Muḥammad al-Amīn, often known as Momodu Lamine, was a Soninke leader, engaged in political and military activity on the upper Senegal and Gambia rivers in 1885–1887. This activity, culminating in clashes with the French, has sometimes encouraged an interpretation of his career in anti-European-colonialist terms. In fact, religion and local African politics may have been more important. This study examines his life before 1885, particularl…
The Conquest that Never was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. I. The External Arabic Sources
We first conceived of this study several years ago, when our respective lines of research seemed to some extent to converge on the period of the decline of ancient Ghana. It has proved a more complex matter than we imagined, or than the deceptively simple title above might suggest--partly because it is often more difficult to prove that something did not happen than that it did. We have had to divide our analysis into two parts. First we examine …
The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The Local Oral Sources
“The land took the name of the wells, the wells that had no bottom.” In Part I of this paper we examined the external written sources and found no unambiguous evidence that an Almoravid conquest of ancient Ghana ever occurred. The local oral evidence reviewed in this part of our study supports our earlier hypothesis, in that we find nothing in the traditions to indicate any conquest of the eleventh-century sahelian state known to Arab geographers…
Firearms in the Central Sudan
The earliest mention of firearms in the central Sudan appears to be from the time of Idris Alooma, ruler of Bornu in the latter part of the sixteenth century. Ibn Fartuwa says of Alooma: Among the benefits which God (Most High) of His bounty, beneficence, generosity, and constancy conferred upon the Sultan was the acquisition of Turkish musketeers and numerous household slaves who became skilled in firing muskets
Early Arabic Sources and the Almoravid Conquest of Ghana
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Early Muslim‐western Educatlon in West Africa
Independency and Islam: The Nigerian Aladuras and some Muslim Comparisons
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage’ the horse in the Central Sudan II. Its use
Horses in themselves have little or no necessary military significance: in Part I of this article we saw how various quite unwarlike peoples possessed them. of fundamental significance, in transforming horses into war-horses, was good harness and equipment, and to carry this larger animals were preferable. Even against well-equipped cavalry, mainly infantry forces might prevail, if they were, like the Almoravids and the adherents of Usuman dan Fo…
Love for Three Oranges, or, The Askiya's Dilemma: The Askiya , al-Maghīlī and Timbuktu, c . 1500 a.d
The authors argue that, during the crucial decade of Songhay history which followed the death of Sunni Ali, Askiya Muḥammad pursued, sometimes quickly and sometimes hesitantly, three distinct ‘Islamic’ options, in contrast to the ‘received tradition’ which sharply differentiates between the reign of the last sunni 's and the first of the askiyas . Askiya Muḥammad began his reign in alliance with the court clerics of the imperial capital in Gao, w…
Not Quite Venus from the Waves: The Almoravid Conquest of Ghana in the Modern Historiography of Western Africa
The Almoravid conquest of ancient Ghana in 1076 AD is certainly among the most dramatic and controversial single events in the historiography of West Africa. It has been regarded as a crucial turning point, as the battle of Hastings was for England, not only for the existence of Ghana, but also for the destiny of the entire area, opening the gates to a triumphant Islam in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet the conquest and destruction of Ghana by Almoravid …
Slavery and Seclusion in Northern Nigeria: A Further Note
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Prayer and Military Activity in the History of Muslim Africa South of the Sahara
In the Islamic history of tropical Africa, prayer has often played an important, sometimes even a decisive, part. The functions of prayer may be ceremonial, instrumental (directed to the achievement of specific objectives), and disciplinary. In the military context the two latter are particularly significant. The discipline of Muslim prayer is strict, and has sometimes underpinned military discipline
Many deep baptisms: Reflections on religious, chiefly Muslim, conversion in Black Africa
The primary purpose of this paper-apart from a personal concern to offer a token of affection and respect to a friend and colleague of many years' standing-is to consider two analytical models (one drawn from early Christian history, the other from the history of science), and to suggest ways in which these may help us to interpret the data of religious, and in particular Muslim, change in sub-Saharan Africa
What's in a Name? The Almoravids of the Eleventh Century in the Western Sahara
Leo Africanus and the Songhay Conquest of Hausaland
Wars Without End: The political economy of a precolonial African state
Journal Article Wars Without End: The political economy of a precolonial African state Get access Wars Without End: The political economy of a precolonial African state, by Stephen P. Reyna. University Press of New England, Hanover, 1990. ix+210 pp. £21.20 hardback. ISBN 0 87451 505 X. HUMPHREY J. FISHER HUMPHREY J. FISHER School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google…
The Quest for Purity: Dynamics of Puritan Movements
Sudanese and Saharan Studies
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Concept of Evolution in Ahmadiyyah Thought
Early Muslim‐western Educatlon in West Africa
Short Notices
Journal Article Short Notices Get access HUMPHREY J. FISHER HUMPHREY J. FISHER School of Oriental and African StudiesLondon Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume LXXXII, Issue CCCXXII, January 1967, Pages 193–194, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/LXXXII.CCCXXII.193 Published: 01 January 1967
Elections and Coups in Sierra Leone, 1967
On St Patrick's Day 1967 Sierra Leone went to the polls to elect a new parliament. Four days later, on 21 March, Brigadier David Lansana, head of the Sierra Leone army, seized power. After two more days, on 23 March, Lansana was repudiated by a group of senior army officers; this second coup was followed by the creation of a National Reformation Council, including five army officers and two senior police officials, which was to take control of th…
Independency and Islam: The Nigerian Aladuras and some Muslim Comparisons
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Early Life and Pilgrimage of Al-Ḥājj Muḥammad Al-Amīn the Soninke (d. 1887)
Al-Ḥājj Muḥammad al-Amīn, often known as Momodu Lamine, was a Soninke leader, engaged in political and military activity on the upper Senegal and Gambia rivers in 1885–1887. This activity, culminating in clashes with the French, has sometimes encouraged an interpretation of his career in anti-European-colonialist terms. In fact, religion and local African politics may have been more important. This study examines his life before 1885, particularl…
Prayer and Military Activity in the History of Muslim Africa South of the Sahara
In the Islamic history of tropical Africa, prayer has often played an important, sometimes even a decisive, part. The functions of prayer may be ceremonial, instrumental (directed to the achievement of specific objectives), and disciplinary. In the military context the two latter are particularly significant. The discipline of Muslim prayer is strict, and has sometimes underpinned military discipline
Firearms in the Central Sudan
The earliest mention of firearms in the central Sudan appears to be from the time of Idris Alooma, ruler of Bornu in the latter part of the sixteenth century. Ibn Fartuwa says of Alooma: Among the benefits which God (Most High) of His bounty, beneficence, generosity, and constancy conferred upon the Sultan was the acquisition of Turkish musketeers and numerous household slaves who became skilled in firing muskets
Slavery and Muslim Society in Africa
He Swalloweth the Ground with Fiercenes and Rage’ The Horse in the Central Sudan: I. Its Introduction
This study of horses, mainly in the central Sudan, presents impressions rather than a complete survey of the evidence. At the time when written records for the Sudan region begin, c . A.D. 1000, horses were evidently well established there. Their coming preceded the arrival of Islam. The first introduction of horses is sometimes attributed to nomads, such as the Zaghawa round Lake Chad, who, so the argument runs, used them to found larger and mor…
Windows on Africa: A Symposium
Journal Article Windows on Africa: a symposium Get access Windows on Africa: a symposium, edited by Robert T. Parsons. E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1971, x+202pp.+index. Cloth 38 guilders. HUMPHREY J. FISHER HUMPHREY J. FISHER School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 71, Issue 284, July 1972, Pages 338–339, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjo…
Sahara and Sudan. IV. Wadai and Darfur
Sahara and the Sudan. Volume IV: Wadai and Dafur
He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage’ the horse in the Central Sudan II. Its use
Horses in themselves have little or no necessary military significance: in Part I of this article we saw how various quite unwarlike peoples possessed them. of fundamental significance, in transforming horses into war-horses, was good harness and equipment, and to carry this larger animals were preferable. Even against well-equipped cavalry, mainly infantry forces might prevail, if they were, like the Almoravids and the adherents of Usuman dan Fo…
African Slave Trade
Conversion Reconsidered: Some Historical Aspects of Religious Conversion in Black Africa
Opening ParagraphThis paper had its genesis in the recent thoughtful and stimulating article by Robin Horton, on African conversion; the core of his argument is summarized below. Horton's evidence is chiefly drawn from Christian African experience, though he seeks to generalize from it for both Islam and Christianity. My specific purpose here is to look more closely at the phenomenon of Muslim conversion, and to see what light this may throw on H…
Short Notices
Short Notices Get access HUMPHREY J. FISHER HUMPHREY J. FISHER School of Oriental and African StudiesLondon Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume LXXXIX, Issue CCCL, January 1974, Pages 203-b–204, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/LXXXIX.CCCL.203-b Published: 01 January 1974
Religious toleration in black Africa
The central Sahara and Sudan
THE PROCESS OF CONSOLIDATION The primary problem of the central Sudan during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was that of consolidation, of state and of society. The main stages of penetration and expansion occurred in earlier centuries: the arrival of outstanding individuals or groups; the more general encroachment of nomads upon settled realms; the transmission of Islam across the Sahara and its planting in the Sudan; the extension of a…
Sahara and Sudan. Volume I: Tripoli and Fezzan; Tibesti or Tu
West African Food in the Middle Ages according to Arabic Sources
Journal Article West African Food in the Middle Ages according to Arabic Sources Get access West African Food in the Middle Ages according to Arabic Sources, by T. Lewicki, with the assistance of Marion Johnson. CUP, 1974. 262pp. 1 map, bibliography, index. £8.00. HUMPHREY J. FISHER HUMPHREY J. FISHER School of Oriental and African StudiesLondon Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 74, I…
Sahara and Sudan. Volume I: Tripoli and Fezzan, Tibesti or Tu
The Venture of Islam. Volumes I, II, and III
The eastern Maghrib and the central Sudan
A principal underlying theme for the central Sahara and Sudan in this chapter, in the period roughly from AD 1050 to 1600, is supplied by the basic pattern of penetration. New people, new ideas, new goods were crossing, or sometimes emerging from, the Sahara, and becoming established in the Sudan. There was considerable mobility, too, within the central Sudan itself, most dramatically illustrated by the exodus of the court of Kanem into Bornu abo…
Short Notices
Short Notices Get access HUMPHREY J. FISHER HUMPHREY J. FISHER School of Oriental and African StudiesLondon Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume XCII, Issue CCCLXIII, April 1977, Pages 408–409, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/XCII.CCCLXIII.408 Published: 01 April 1977
History (44 works) · History (35 works) · African history and culture analysis (33 works) · Ancient history (28 works) · Political science (24 works) · Geography (20 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Islam (17 works) · Archaeology (16 works)