From the birth of Islam in the seventh century to the voyages of European exploration in the fifteenth, Africa was at the center of a vibrant exchange of goods and ideas. It was an African golden age in which places like Ghana, Nubia, and Zimbabwe became the crossroads of civilizations, and where African royals, thinkers, and artists played celebrated roles in the globalized world of the Middle Ages. The Golden Rhinoceros brings this unsung era marvelously to life, taking readers from the Sahara and the Nile River Valley to the Ethiopian highlands and southern Africa.
Drawing on fragmented written sources as well as his many years of experience as an archaeologist, Fran莽ois-Xavier Fauvelle painstakingly reconstructs an African past that is too often denied its place in history鈥攂ut no longer. He looks at ruined cities found in the mangrove, exquisite pieces of art, rare artifacts like the golden rhinoceros of Mapungubwe, ancient maps, and accounts left by geographers and travelers鈥攔emarkable discoveries that shed critical light on political and architectural achievements, trade, religious beliefs, diplomatic episodes, and individual lives.
A book that finally recognizes Africa鈥檚 important role in the Middle Ages, The Golden Rhinoceros also provides a window into the historian鈥檚 craft. Fauvelle carefully pieces together the written and archaeological evidence to tell an unforgettable story that is at once sensitive to Africa鈥檚 rich social diversity and alert to the trajectories that connected Africa with the wider Muslim and Christian worlds.
Awards and Recognition
- The 2018 Medieval Book of the Year
"The Golden Rhinoceros brings the diplomacy of Africa鈥檚 鈥楳iddle Ages鈥� to life, while also illuminating such fields as commerce, warfare, faith and literary endeavour. . . . Fauvelle鈥檚 three dozen or so snapshots serve as a kind of historical pointillism, each tiny moment contributing to a panorama of an intricately connected Afro-Islamic world, spanning a period of some seven hundred years."鈥擝arnaby Crowcroft, Literary Review
"Fauvelle has assembled some powerful fragments of Africa鈥檚 history from the 8th to the 15th centuries."鈥�Times Higher Education
"Beautifully written, [The Golden Rhinoceros] offers an exciting set of insights into African societies, from the birth of Islam in the seventh century up to 15th century."鈥擧annah Skoda, BBC History Magazine
"Featuring stories from around the continent, this is a useful corrective to the outdated idea of a land 鈥榳ithout history鈥�."鈥�History Revealed Magazine
"This English edition of a 2013 French publication is very welcome, being an accessible and stimulating introduction to the richness of medieval Africa. . . If necessarily reliant on external accounts, the careful use of archaeology allows the African histories to remain centre stage."鈥擠avid Edwards, Medieval Archaeology
"Fauvelle鈥攁nd Tice鈥攈ave achieved a rare feat in The Golden Rhinoceros. They have produced a book that is deeply researched, and which will satisfy and invigorate even the specialist scholar. Yet it is beautifully written, and easily accessible to the non-expert or first-year undergraduate. This is a masterful synthesis of knowledge about Africa that deserves to be read widely."鈥擬yles Osborne, The Medieval Review
"A one-of-a-kind, eye-opening journey on which [Fauvelle] expertly reconstructs the understudied and, what鈥檚 worse, severely misrepresented, African Middle Ages. . . . Masterfully translated from its original 2013 publication in French, The Golden Rhinoceros ambitiously encompasses the entire African continent, beginning in the eighth century with early Muslim commercial and military activities, and ending in the fifteenth century at the dawn of European colonialism."鈥擡sra Ak谋n-K谋van莽, Speculum
"With its short but fascinating essays, beautiful illustrations and maps, it opens up a world of medieval culture that is often neglected in western Europe . . . . do read The Golden Rhinoceros: it will expand your historical horizons."鈥擡lizabeth Boyle, Irish Independent
鈥淔auvelle offers a brilliant riposte to how little we know about precolonial Africa: approach it from the perspective of global history. African history has never felt more alive. If I were a historian of Africa, this is the book that I would like to have written.鈥濃�擳imothy Brook, author of Vermeer鈥檚 Hat and Mr. Selden鈥檚 Map of China
鈥淔auvelle is a wonderful storyteller鈥攈is sophisticated narrative is intriguing, entertaining, and informative. No other book presents medieval Africa in this way.鈥濃�擥茅rard Chouin, College of William & Mary
鈥淔auvelle is one of France鈥檚 most interesting, influential, and intellectually vital historians of Africa. His elegantly written book is very learned, yet wears its learning lightly. The Golden Rhinoceros is a pleasure to read.鈥濃�擳oby Green, author of The Rise of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Western Africa, 1300鈥�1589
鈥淎 remarkable book.鈥濃�擯atrick Boucheron, Coll猫ge de France
鈥淚s Africa a continent without history? Fran莽ois-Xavier Fauvelle magnificently refutes this recurring suspicion.鈥濃�擩ulie Clarini, Le Monde
鈥淔ascinating, easy to read, told with verve.鈥濃�擨sabelle R眉f, Le Temps
鈥淭his book is an event.鈥濃�擟hristian Nadeau, Universit茅 de Montr茅al
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