Sulayman Nyang - The History of Islam in Africa

About this lecture

In this wide-ranging lecture, Professor Sulayman Nyang traces the history of Islam in Africa from the earliest Muslim migration to Abyssinia through the Arab conquest of Egypt, the Islamization of North Africa, and the gradual spread of Islam into sub-Saharan Africa via trans-Saharan trade routes. He identifies the key agents of Islamization — Arab merchants, reformist movements like the Almoravids and Almohads, and Sufi brotherhoods such as the Qadiriyya and Tijaniyya — while also examining how the Portuguese voyages of exploration ultimately broke the Muslim monopoly on global trade and reshaped world history.