Eventually to be completed in six volumes, Arabic Literature of
Africa will provide a survey of Muslim authors writing in Arabic in
Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa and a bibliography of their works. Falling
within the tradition of the great works of Brockelmann and Sezgin, it will
form a basic reference tool for the study of Arabic writing in areas of the
African Islamic world that fall outside the parameters of these works.
While primarily a work of reference, it will also attempt to provide an
outline of the intellectual history of Muslim societies in the areas it
covers: the Nile valley, East Africa and the Horn of Africa, West Africa
and the western Sahara, from earliest times to the present. The first
volume covers Eastern Sudanic Africa (mainly the modern Sudan) until
approximately 1900. It comprises twelve chapters organised by theme or
period and aims to present as complete a coverage as the present state of
our knowledge will allow.