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North Africa to 600 (African Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2. The history of North Africa in Antiquity is one of the most exciting, if still comparatively unexplored, fields of ancient history and archaeology. From the continuing, highly charged controversy over the origin of the Berbers, the original inhabitants of North Africa, to the prominence of Carthage—Rome’s one significant rival for the control of the ancient Mediterranean—to the astoundingly preserved and understudied ancient ruins that meet or surpass much of what can be seen on other Mediterranean shores, North Africa in Antiquity remains a subject of great importance to scholars of the ancient world. This bibliography will include sources up to the Arab conquests of the 7th century CE.
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  4. General Overviews
  5. A mere glance at the astonishing mosaics in the Bardo Museum in Tunis, an opportunity afforded to readers by Abed 2006, confirms the extent of the region’s rich legacy. Beyond its artistic heritage, North Africa in Antiquity is also of central importance to the formation of national identities in the Maghrib, as is examined in Hannoum 2008, a study of the historiography of ancient North Africa. Despite the controversy surrounding Stéphane Gsell’s work, primarily supported by the French colonial establishment, the most important single history of ancient North Africa remains Gsell 1913–1928, an eight-volume foundational text. His work includes an atlas of archaeology, as well as other important works such as Gsell 1911. Although many of his conclusions have been dismantled by careful specialist research, Gsell’s impact has been so overwhelming that few have attempted to provide an updated overview of pre-Islamic North Africa. Most surveys of the period in English exist as introductions to the general history of North Africa. Overviews that do exist focus on specific periods of North African Antiquity: the prehistoric, the Punic, the Roman, and late Antiquity. MacKendrick 1980 provides a good introduction to classical sites in North Africa. For an overview of the Jewish community of North Africa in Antiquity see Hirschberg 1974.
  6.  
  7. Abed, Ben Aicha. Tunisian Mosaics: Treasures from Roman Africa. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2006.
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  10.  
  11. The Bardo collection of mosaics is mind-boggling to witness in person. This book brings together images from the Bardo, as well as more recent excavations. There are frequent discoveries of ancient mosaics in the rich olive plantations of the Tunisian hinterland.
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  15.  
  16. Gsell, Stéphane. Atlas archéologique de l’Algérie, édition spéciale des cartes au 200.000° du Service géographique de l’Armée. Algiers, Algeria: A. Jourdan, 1911.
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  19.  
  20. In this rare atlas Gsell details the major classical and preclassical sites of Algeria.
  21.  
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  24.  
  25. Gsell, Stéphane. Histoire ancienne de l’Afrique du Nord. 8 vols. Paris: Hachette, 1913–1928.
  26.  
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  28.  
  29. Although sponsored by the French Army’s geographical services, Gsell’s monumental work remains an important reference for scholars of North African Antiquity.
  30.  
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  34. Hannoum, Abdelmajid. “The Historiographic State: How Algeria Once Became French.” History and Anthropology 19 (2008): 91–114.
  35.  
  36. DOI: 10.1080/02757200802320876Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  37.  
  38. Known for his decisive critiques of classic, colonial histories of ancient North Africa, Hannoum examines the problematic construction of a legendary Franco Roman/Berber past in North Africa. France, according to Hannoum, saw itself as the new Roman ally of the Berbers against Arabs.
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  40. Find this resource:
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  42.  
  43. Hirschberg, Haim. A History of the Jews in North Africa: From Antiquity to the Sixteenth Century. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1974.
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  46.  
  47. Hirschberg engages various theories and sources pointing to the existence of vibrant Berber Jewish communities as well as the fascinating history of Babylonian Diaspora Jews in North Africa.
  48.  
  49. Find this resource:
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  51.  
  52. MacKendrick, Paul. The North African Stones Speak. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980.
  53.  
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  55.  
  56. An overview of classical sites and archaeological remains in North Africa for the general reader. This book is an accessible introduction.
  57.  
  58. Find this resource:
  59.  
  60.  
  61. Prehistoric North Africa
  62. The origin of the Berbers remains a highly controversial subject. The reason for this controversy is not simply the nature of the evidence. For much of the French colonial period the prehistory of the Berbers was located in Europe, and the Berbers were presumed to be European due to the lighter skin color of many Berber tribes. Even before the French Arab historians speculated about Arab origins of the Berbers in Yemen, these legends were often constructed as a way of solidifying alliances with Berber tribes. Shatzmiller 1983 describes the debate over origins in the Arabic sources. Scientific archaeology has dismissed several of these legendary theories of Berber origin, including Roubet 1979 and Camps 1980, which describe the so-called Capsian culture, named after a prehistoric site discovered as Gafsa in Tunisia. Lubell 2005 provides an overview of the Caspian people in his study of the Paleolithic in North Africa. The prehistory of North Africa is marked by the famous “wet period” in the Sahara starting around 7000 BC, which made much of the Sahara inhabitable. In archaeological reports and articles, Barbara Barich describes the impact of this climatic shift (Barich 1998). As made famous by the movie blockbuster The English Patient (1996), these inhabitants of the Sahara made stunning rock art—and the study of this rock art is surveyed in Holl 2004. Using Saharan rock art as a reference, scholars have debated the development of domestication in the region, suggesting that it happened without influence from the Near East (Banks 1993). In later, dryer periods, nomadic peoples came to dominate. Studies of tombs and archaeological evidence from the Sahara show the role of matriarchy in the Sahara, especially the famous tomb of the chieftess or queen Tin Hinan (Allard-Huard and Huard 1986). The scientific, linguistic study of Berber language origins has received comparatively little attention. Berber languages are similar to one another, and there appears to be a break between them and ancient Coptic (Egyptian language), suggesting that Berber culture and language was separated from the Nile Valley before the beginning of the dry period in 2500 BC. Despite the fact that it has been conclusively proven that Berbers were not exclusively from Europe, this does not mean there could not have been contact or influence from across the straits of Gibraltar. In fact, in the High Atlas in Morocco there are engravings of Iberian daggers. In Tunisia and Algeria there are Dolmens that resemble ancient Maltese and Sicilian structures from the Bronze Age, suggesting interaction and diffusion between these islands and North Africa (Camps 1982). Instead of being exclusively “European” or “African” or “Middle Eastern,” by the end of the second millennium Berbers seemed to be from highly heterogeneous backgrounds.
  63.  
  64. Allard-Huard, L., and P. Huard. “La femme au Sahara avant le désert.” Etudes scientifiques (September 1986): 1–36.
  65.  
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  67.  
  68. Uses material evidence to speculate about the role of women in prehistoric northern Africa before the climate shift that created the Saharan desert.
  69.  
  70. Find this resource:
  71.  
  72.  
  73. Banks, K. “The Appearance and Spread of Cattle-Keeping in the Saharan North Africa.” Paper presented at an international symposium held at Dymaczewo, Poland, 5–10 September 1988. In Environmental Change and Human Culture in the Nile Basin and Northeast Africa. Edited by Lech Krzyzaniak. Poznan, Poland: Poznan Archeological Museum, 1993.
  74.  
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  76.  
  77. Banks argues for the existence of domesticated cattle in the Sahara as early as 7500 BC. There is the suggestion that peoples of North Africa and the Sahara may have domesticated animals much earlier than expected and without influence from the Middle East.
  78.  
  79. Find this resource:
  80.  
  81.  
  82. Barich, Barbara. People, Water and Grain: The Beginnings of Domestication in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Rome: L’Erma, 1998.
  83.  
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  85.  
  86. This text provides evidence of a thriving prehistoric community in Libya.
  87.  
  88. Find this resource:
  89.  
  90.  
  91. Camps, Gabriel. Berbères, Aux Marges de l’histoire. Paris: Éditions des Hespérides, 1980.
  92.  
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  94.  
  95. Traces and challenges the marginalized history of the Berbers. Text claims the existence of settled communities in the Maghreb before the rise of Phoenician influence.
  96.  
  97. Find this resource:
  98.  
  99.  
  100. Camps, Gabriel. “Beginnings of Pastoralism and Cultivation in North-west Africa and the Sahara: Origins of the Berbers.” In Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 1, From the Earliest Times to c. 500 B.C. Edited by J. Desmond Clark, 548–612. Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press, 1982.
  101.  
  102. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521222150Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  103.  
  104. Champs traces the evidence for early pastoralism and proposes theories for the origin of the Berbers.
  105.  
  106. Find this resource:
  107.  
  108.  
  109. Holl, Augustin. Saharan Rock Art. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2004.
  110.  
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  112.  
  113. Provides a fairly comprehensive survey of theories and approaches to Saharan rock art from the prehistoric period.
  114.  
  115. Find this resource:
  116.  
  117.  
  118. Lubell, D. “Continuité et changement dans l’Epipaléolithique du Maghreb.” In Le Paléolithique en Afrique: L’histoire la plus longue. Edited by M. Sahnouni, 205–226. Paris: Guides de la Préhistoire Mondiale, 2005.
  119.  
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  121.  
  122. A survey done on the Capsian peoples of North Africa who flourished in the region from 10,000 to 6,000 BC. The environment divided the Capsian culture into the forested uplands and the savannah of a previously wet Sahara.
  123.  
  124. Find this resource:
  125.  
  126.  
  127. Roubet, C. Economie pastorale préagricole en Algérie orientale. Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1979.
  128.  
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  130.  
  131. Roubet counters the idea that the Neolithic culture in North Africa developed from Europe, or outside the Capsian tradition native to the region.
  132.  
  133. Find this resource:
  134.  
  135.  
  136. Shatzmiller, Maya. “La myth d’origine berère: Aspects historiographiques et sociaux.” Revue de l’Occident musulman et de la Méditerranée 35 (1983): 145–156.
  137.  
  138. DOI: 10.3406/remmm.1983.1986Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  139.  
  140. Shatzmiller reviews the historical and national myths of ancient Berber origins and the relationship between these myths and French colonialism.
  141.  
  142. Find this resource:
  143.  
  144.  
  145. The Phoenicians
  146. The first protohistoric peoples of North Africa were the Garamantes of the Fezzan Oasis in modern Libya. There are extensive and largely unexplored remains in the oasis. Recent excavations have uncovered more than 50,000 tombs, and ancient historians speak of tens of thousands of inhabitants (Daniels 1970). Although the Garamantes were influenced by Egypt, settlements on the Mediterranean were mainly the result of Phoenician colonization. The Phoenicians thrived in North Africa from the foundation of Carthage in the 9th century BC to their defeat by Rome in the Third Punic War when the Romans allegedly sowed the ground with salt. This famous legend, however, has been refuted (Ridley 1986). A general history of Carthage from its foundation is provided in Lancel 1997. As the legend of Dido and Aeneas made famous, and as modern archaeology has confirmed, the Phoenicians were limited by the Libyans (non-Punic Africans) from settling beyond a thin strip of land along the shores of the Mediterranean. Although they made far-flung settlements on the Atlantic shore with expeditions such as Hanno’s famous voyage (Hanno 1912), it still took centuries of gradual expansion for the Carthaginians to expand into Tunisia and to settlements on Cap Bon, such as the well-preserved Punic site of Kerkouane that was occupied in the 5th century (Fantar 1986).
  147.  
  148. Daniels, C. M. The Garamantes of Southern Libya. Stoughton, WI: Oleander, 1970.
  149.  
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  151.  
  152. Daniels examines the archaeological remains of the Garamantes civilization of the Fezzan (Libya).
  153.  
  154. Find this resource:
  155.  
  156.  
  157. Fantar, M. Kerkouane: Cité punique du Cap Bon. Tunis, Tunisia: Institut national d’archéologie et d’art, 1986.
  158.  
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  160.  
  161. The fantastically preserved city of Kerkouane is one of the few unaltered or Romanized Punic cities that have been preserved. This book is a good introduction to the site.
  162.  
  163. Find this resource:
  164.  
  165.  
  166. Hanno. The Periplus of Hanno. Translated by William Schoff. Philadelphia: Commercial Museum, 1912.
  167.  
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  169.  
  170. This famous account of the voyages of the Ancient Phoenician admiral beyond the Pillars of Hercules remains an important, if disputed text. It demonstrates the extraordinary extent of Phoenician seafaring and discovery and provides accounts of the foundation of several cities and colonies on the African Atlantic coast.
  171.  
  172. Find this resource:
  173.  
  174.  
  175. Lancel, Serge. Carthage, A History. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997.
  176.  
  177. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  178.  
  179. This single-volume scholarly text traces the history of Carthage and provides an extensive and authoritative introduction to the ancient city.
  180.  
  181. Find this resource:
  182.  
  183.  
  184. Ridley, R. T. “To Be Taken with a Pinch of Salt: The Destruction of Carthage.” Classical Philology 81.2 (1986): 140–146.
  185.  
  186. DOI: 10.1086/366973Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  187.  
  188. Ridley suggests that the salting of the ground after the siege of Carthage was improbable and largely a 19th-century invention. North Africa quickly became a major source of grain for Rome.
  189.  
  190. Find this resource:
  191.  
  192.  
  193. The Carthaginian Wars
  194. By the first Punic War and the invasion of Agathocles in 310 BC, the Carthaginians controlled large landed estates and firmly established their position beyond trading and seafaring on the shore. John Humphrey’s excavations at Carthage reveal Punic foundations and the transformation of the city in the Roman period (Humphrey 1977). Written by an ancient Roman writer, the fall of Carthage is depicted in Livy 1972, which is an essential, if biased, source. Several studies examine the history of Punic civilization and its transformation by Rome, including Nicolet 1977–1978. Outside the territory controlled by Carthage were the Numidians. They were divided into three groups: the Mauri of Morocco, the Masaeyli of Algeria, and the Massyli in southern Tunisia. One of these Numidians, Masinissa, learned military technique from Rome and integrated Numidian and Roman culture (Horn and Rüger 1979). Other client kings included Juba, Jugurtha, and Juba II. Juba married Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Anthony and Cleopatra, and ruled over Mauretania, which is roughly modern Morocco. In an ambitious work, the Roman writer Pliny the Elder provides several descriptions of the Numidian tribes and of the Punic Wars, the Mauri and Phoenecia in general (Pliny the Elder 2004). Not all Berber peoples gave in to Roman demands, however, as Benabou 1976 claims. It was during the period of relative Punic and Numidian autonomy that a Berber script was developed and used on funerary and official inscriptions, as Galand 1979 examines. This script has been adopted recently by Moroccan Berbers in a modernized form and is called tifinagh.
  195.  
  196. Benabou, Marcel. La Résistance africaine a la Romanisation. Paris: Maspero, 1976.
  197.  
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  199.  
  200. In a work that runs counter to most colonial narratives of North African history, Benabou details how North Africans developed ways of reacting to Roman imperial controls.
  201.  
  202. Find this resource:
  203.  
  204.  
  205. Galand, Lionel. Langue et Littérature Berbère. Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1979.
  206.  
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  208.  
  209. This study is the result of twenty-five years of studying Latin/Libyan inscriptions throughout North Africa.
  210.  
  211. Find this resource:
  212.  
  213.  
  214. Horn, Heinz, and C. Rüger. Die Numider: Reiter und Könige nördlich der Sahara. Cologne: Rheinland-Verlag, 1979.
  215.  
  216. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  217.  
  218. A scientific study of the Numidians and their tombs, primarily from present-day Algeria, this text examines the integration of Numidian and Roman cultures. There is also an examination of the famous tower tomb of Sabratha in Tunisia.
  219.  
  220. Find this resource:
  221.  
  222.  
  223. Humphrey, John. Excavations at Carthage. Vol. 5. Tunis, Tunisia: Cérès, 1980.
  224.  
  225. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  226.  
  227. This collection of edited archaeological field notes provides insights into the city of Carthage and its history.
  228.  
  229. Find this resource:
  230.  
  231.  
  232. Livy. The War with Hannibal: Books 21–30 of the History of Rome from Its Foundation. Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1972.
  233.  
  234. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  235.  
  236. Looks at the Punic Wars from a Roman point of view, Livy still provides sympathetic portrayals, as was the custom in many premodern histories of warfare.
  237.  
  238. Find this resource:
  239.  
  240.  
  241. Nicolet, Claude, ed. Rome et la conquête du monde méditerranéen: 264–27 avant J.-C. 2 vols. Paris: Presses Université de France, 1977–1978.
  242.  
  243. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  244.  
  245. A general introduction to the conquest of Carthage and its Punic culture, this work provides some important insights into Punic civilization.
  246.  
  247. Find this resource:
  248.  
  249.  
  250. Pedley, John G. New Light on Ancient Carthage. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1980.
  251.  
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  253.  
  254. An accessible account of the history of the city of Carthage and excavations conducted there.
  255.  
  256. Find this resource:
  257.  
  258.  
  259. Pliny the Elder. Natural History. London: Penguin, 2004.
  260.  
  261. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  262.  
  263. This ambitious and encyclopedic work remains a primary reference for archaeologists and historians of ancient North Africa.
  264.  
  265. Find this resource:
  266.  
  267.  
  268. Roman North Africa
  269. Roman North Africa was an urban culture with cities built to support the wealth of major landholders. As a major breadbasket for Rome and other cities, North Africa grew wealthy and prosperous with the fortunes of the empire. The relationship between town and country and empire in Roman Africa has been studied extensively: see Buck 1984 for a brief study of the evolution of ancient state economy under Berber and Roman rule. As one of Rome’s early conquests, the region around Carthage, called “Ifriqiyya” in Latin, became a prized province with some of the greatest cities, aqueducts, and even colosseums as evidenced by the impressive ruins of the Colloseum at El-Jem, Tunisia. General overviews of Roman North Africa include Susan Raven’s accessible Rome in Africa (Raven 1993), Picard 1990, and Romanelli 1959. Many Mauri and Numidian Berbers entered into the Roman aristocracy and became high-ranking municipal officials and governors. As the Roman Empire matured, some families even produced emperors, the most famous example being the Septimii family of Leptis Magna in Libya, which produced Septimius Severus. The career of this African emperor is described in Birley 1971. Although the Roman frontiers in North Africa saw skirmishes with the desert tribes, and some of the best-preserved Roman military architecture exists in North Africa, many tribes were co-opted, with chiefs chosen as prefects of the Roman Empire (see Lepelly 1974). On the independent Berber kings of Volubilis in Morocco, see Akerraz 1998.
  270.  
  271. Akerraz, Aomar. “Volubilis et les royaumes berbères indépendants.” Bulletin d‘Archéologie Marocaine 18 (1998): 329–331.
  272.  
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  274.  
  275. The prolific archaeologist Akerraz discusses the role of Volubilis and the Berber kings.
  276.  
  277. Find this resource:
  278.  
  279.  
  280. Birley, A. R. Septimius Severus the African Emperor. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1971.
  281.  
  282. DOI: 10.4324/9780203171455Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  283.  
  284. Emperor Septimius Severus left some of the most striking and important monuments in his homeland of Tripolitania (Libya), including the famed and well-preserved ruins of Lepcis Magna. Birley provides a detailed overview of his influence in North Africa.
  285.  
  286. Find this resource:
  287.  
  288.  
  289. Buck, D. J. “The Role of States in the Eastern Maghreb, 500 BC to AD 500.” Maghreb Review 9.1–2 (1984): 1–11.
  290.  
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  292.  
  293. Buck provides a brief introduction to the theory of states and state formation in the eastern Maghreb region of ancient Tunisia and Libya.
  294.  
  295. Find this resource:
  296.  
  297.  
  298. Lepelley, C. “Le préfecture de tribu dans l’Afrique du Bas-Empire.” In Mélanges d’histoire ancienne offerts à William Seston. By William Seston, 175–186. Paris: De Boccard, 1974.
  299.  
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  301.  
  302. Lepelley discusses the use of prefectures of the Roman empires, who were allies of the emperor beyond the limes, Latin for the frontiers of Rome.
  303.  
  304. Find this resource:
  305.  
  306.  
  307. Picard, Gilbert-Charles. La Civilisation de l’Afrique romaine. 2d ed. Paris: Etudes augustiniennes, 1990.
  308.  
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  310.  
  311. Picard’s work is a summary of decades of studies conducted under French colonial administration.
  312.  
  313. Find this resource:
  314.  
  315.  
  316. Raven, Susan. Rome in Africa. 3d ed. New York: Routledge, 1993.
  317.  
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319.  
  320. Perhaps the best scholarly survey in English, Raven’s book provides a chronological overview and touches on important theoretical and social topics as well.
  321.  
  322. Find this resource:
  323.  
  324.  
  325. Romanelli, Pietro. Storia delle province romane dell’Africa. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 1959.
  326.  
  327. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  328.  
  329. The standard work on Roman North Africa, Romanelli’s research still informs archaeologists interested in this period.
  330.  
  331. Find this resource:
  332.  
  333.  
  334. Late Antiquity
  335. The slow decline of the Roman Empire from the 4th century until the coming of Islam saw the reemergence of independent Berber kingdoms, the introduction of Christianity, and the eventual invasion of so-called barbarians, the Vandals. Although viewed as a period of decline, North African classical culture remained vibrant, with some of the most important writers, especially the famed St. Augustine, emerging from the region (Augustine 2002). The emergence of more fully independent Berber kingdoms did not mean the end of Roman classical culture but its continuation in somewhat modified forms. Authored by a Roman chronicler, Ammianus Marcellinus 1986 discusses the political history of these kings and their relationship with the newly Christianized emperors. Many Christians in North Africa developed their own sect, Donatism, as discussed in Merrills 2004a. The 4th century saw the building of huge estates by increasingly powerful landholders, who held most of the wealth (see Lepelley 1979). As Ammianus remarked, many of these estates were built like cities. The Vandal conquest did not make much of a difference in North African society, except in the change of patrons. Even so, almost all formal control outside of the coast disappeared as the Vandal rulers divided up estates and provinces. Yet the Vandal invasion was not completely destructive, as some authors have argued for a growth in certain forms of trade. On the Vandals, see Merrills 2004b. The Byzantine conquest in 530 AD restored some semblance of control from a centralized empire. There is little evidence, however, of extensive building or other changes that facilitated urbanization. By the 7th century the Byzantine Empire retained little central control over North Africa. Count Gregory declared himself semi-independent. Gregory was defeated by Abdallah ibn al Sa‘ad at Suftela in what is now modern Tunisia. On the Byzantine period in North Africa, see Belkhodja 1970. For discussion of the Arab conquest, see Ibn Khaldun 1959. Several scholars (e.g., Thébert and Biget 1990) have argued that the Arab and Islamic invasions did not seriously disrupt many features of classical society and culture.
  336.  
  337. Ammianus Marcellinus. The Later Roman Empire. Translated by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill. Penguin: London, 1986.
  338.  
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  340.  
  341. This self-proclaimed successor to the great historian Tacitus provides one of the important sources for the political history of late Antique North Africa.
  342.  
  343. Find this resource:
  344.  
  345.  
  346. Augustine. The Confessions of St. Augustine. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2002.
  347.  
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  349.  
  350. Written as part autobiography and part theological reflection, St. Augustine’s Confessions and his other works are crucial primary sources for Roman Christian North Africa.
  351.  
  352. Find this resource:
  353.  
  354.  
  355. Belkhodja, Khaled. “L’Afrique byzantine à la fin du VIe et au début du VIIe siècle.” Revue de l‘Occident musulman et de la Méditerranée 15 (1970): 55–67.
  356.  
  357. DOI: 10.3406/remmm.1970.1031Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  358.  
  359. Belkhodja provides a good overview of the Byzantine interlude between the fall of Rome and the coming of the Arab conquests.
  360.  
  361. Find this resource:
  362.  
  363.  
  364. Ibn Khaldun. Kitab al ‘Ibar wa diwan al mubtada wa al khabar fi ayyami al ‘arab wa al barbar. 7 vols. Beirut, Lebanon: Dār al-Kitāb al-Lubnānī, 1959.
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  366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367.  
  368. Often referred to as the fundamental source for the history of North Africa from ancient times to the 14th century, portions of Ibn Khaldun’s Kitab al ‘Ibar have been translated by French colonial scholars, including William de Slane’s L’histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l’Afrique septentrionale (Algiers, 1852–1856). Much of the monumental text, however, remains best approached in its original Arabic.
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  373. Lepelley, Claude. Les Cités de l’Afrique romaine au Bas-Empire. Paris: Études augustiniennes, 1979.
  374.  
  375. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  376.  
  377. Examines the late Roman city and the development of large landed estates that acted almost as cities.
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  382. Merrills, A. H., ed. Vandals, Romans and Berbers. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004a.
  383.  
  384. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  385.  
  386. Merrills and the contributors to this volume provide studies of the much-neglected period of Vandal invasions into North Africa, including the suggestion of a “Vandal Renaissance.”
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  390.  
  391. Merrills, A. H. “Vandals, Romans and Berbers, Understanding Late Roman Africa.” In Vandals, Romans and Berbers. Edited by A. H. Merrills, 3–28. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004b.
  392.  
  393. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  394.  
  395. Merrills and the articles in this volume discuss Vandal North Africa and the interaction between the Donatists and the centralizing Christianity of Rome.
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  397. Find this resource:
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  399.  
  400. Thébert, Y., and J. L. Biget. “L’Afrique aprés la disparition de la cité classique: Cohérence et ruptures dans l’histoire maghrébine.” In L’Afrique dans l’Occident romain: (1er siècle av. J.-C.–IVe siècle ap. J.-C.): Actes du colloque organisé par l’École française de Rome sous le patronage de l’Institut national d’archéologie et d’art de Tunis (Rome, 3–5 décembre 1987). Edited by École française de Rome, 575–602. Rome: École française de Rome, 1990.
  401.  
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403.  
  404. Provides a study of the continuities between classical and Islamic North Africa.
  405.  
  406. Find this resource:
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