Africa’s Transitions to the Middle Ages

In history writing, we need to have words, whether technical or not, to denote economic tendencies, changes in institutions, exchanged objects, or social practices. These words may remain the same, but behind their stability, they designate specific historical configurations. In this concluding note, I reflect on the possible meaning of the words we currently use to describe the social and economic histories of Africa in the long era stretching from 300 to 900 CE (or even 1000, as the title of this collection argues). I draw particular attention to the word â transitionâ which in the contemporary literature has become an umbrella term to describe any kind of transformation occurring across time. The result of this intellectual operation is that any implication about historical periodization and â structural changesâ has vanished from the research agenda. In outlining the contents of this collection, my crucial task here is to restore the potent analytical meaning that a word such as transition implies and to reject the tendency to transform the descriptive into the explanatory

Economics · Epistemology · Linguistics · Periodization · Social science · Social studies · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · African history and culture studies · African Studies and Geopolitics · History · Philosophy

• Staying Roman

  Open Access•Jonathan P Conant, Jonathan Conant•Staying Roman•2012

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• The Making of Orthodox Byzantium, 600–1025

  Open Access•Mark Whittow•The Making of Orthodox Byzantium,…•1996

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• Islamizing Berber Lifestyles

  Open Access•Elizabeth Fentre, Elizabeth Fentress•Medieval Worlds•2022

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• A Subaltern’s View of Early Byzantine Africa

  Open Access•Andy Merrills•Medieval Worlds•2022

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• The Umayyad Dynasty and the Western Maghreb. A Transregional Perspective

  Open Access•Isabel Toral‐Niehoff•Medieval Worlds•2022

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• Integration and Disintegration in the Late Roman Economy

  Peter Sarris•Local Economies?•2015

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• The Empire That Would Not Die

  J Haldon•Empire That Would Not Die•2016

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• Early Islamic North Africa

  Corisande Fenwick, C G Fenwick et al.•Early Islamic North Africa•2020

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• Europe and the People without History

  Peter Gran, Eric R Wolf•The History Teacher•1984

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• The sociologist and the historian

  Angela Loxham•Rethinking History•2015

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• A Peculiar Island

  D Shaw Brent•Mediterranean Historical Review•2003

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• Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World

  Lansine Kaba, Andrew M Watson et al.•African Economic History•1984

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• Plants and Progress

  Michelle Decker, Michael Decker•Journal of world history•2009

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• Islam, archaeology and slavery in Africa

  Jane Alexander•World Archaeology•2001

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• Capitalism and Modernity

  Open Access•Yvan Breton, Yvan D Breton•American Anthropologist•2005

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