NUBIA: the Rise and Fall of African Empires

NUBIA: the Rise and Fall of African Empires PDF Author: Andre Samuels
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781521119518
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Nubia: The Rise and Fall of African Empires introduces readers to the wealthy empires and powerful trading kingdoms that once dominated the African continent. As an international nexus for trade, Africa once attracted merchants and explorers from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The personal journals and publications of these intrepid adventurers captured their first hand impressions of Africa's Emperors, Queens and wealthy trading elite. Modern discoveries allow us to combine their perspectives with the written histories of Africa's literate kingdoms to develop an accurate picture of the role that African Empires played in world history. Prior to the slave trade, Africa was filled with the sumptuous cities of empires that were intimately engaged with world affairs. They clashed with familiar legends in the ancient world like Rome and Persia and proved themselves to be formidable against the world's most powerful armies. In Nubia, we trace the rise and fall of grand African Kingdoms to explain the condition of Africa in the modern world. The narratives collected in Nubia: The Rise and Fall of African Empires will bring African history to life, by shining a light on the epic battles and enigmatic personalities that shaped the history of a land erroneously dubbed "The Dark Continent".

NUBIA: the Rise and Fall of African Empires

NUBIA: the Rise and Fall of African Empires PDF Author: Andre Samuels
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781521119518
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Nubia: The Rise and Fall of African Empires introduces readers to the wealthy empires and powerful trading kingdoms that once dominated the African continent. As an international nexus for trade, Africa once attracted merchants and explorers from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The personal journals and publications of these intrepid adventurers captured their first hand impressions of Africa's Emperors, Queens and wealthy trading elite. Modern discoveries allow us to combine their perspectives with the written histories of Africa's literate kingdoms to develop an accurate picture of the role that African Empires played in world history. Prior to the slave trade, Africa was filled with the sumptuous cities of empires that were intimately engaged with world affairs. They clashed with familiar legends in the ancient world like Rome and Persia and proved themselves to be formidable against the world's most powerful armies. In Nubia, we trace the rise and fall of grand African Kingdoms to explain the condition of Africa in the modern world. The narratives collected in Nubia: The Rise and Fall of African Empires will bring African history to life, by shining a light on the epic battles and enigmatic personalities that shaped the history of a land erroneously dubbed "The Dark Continent".

History Of African Empires

History Of African Empires PDF Author: Nicky Huys
Publisher: Nicky Huys Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 109

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Book Description
"History of African Empires" offers a comprehensive exploration of the rich and diverse tapestry of African empires, spanning from the ancient civilizations to the colonial era. This book delves into the rise and fall of powerful empires such as Ghana, Mali, Songhai, and others, shedding light on their political, social, and cultural achievements. Through engaging narratives and meticulous research, readers will discover the remarkable legacies of African rulers, the flourishing trade routes, and the enduring impact of these empires on the continent and the world. Delving into lesser-known empires and celebrating the well-known ones, this book is an essential read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Africa's historical grandeur.

African Empires: Volume 1

African Empires: Volume 1 PDF Author: J.P. Martin
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1490777997
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
African Empires presents a comprehensive and in depth analysis of the major empires of the African continent over thousands of years. This book penetrates into the various kingdoms and and rich cultures of Africa including East Africa, West Africa, North Africa, South Africa and Central Africa. African Empires brings to life a colorful cast of historical characters including African kings, queens, scholars, religious leaders, artists, warriors and merchants which helped to shape the direction of these great African civilizations. The epic landmark events of Africa are captured and explained in detail to provide a full understanding of this dynamic continent and it's contribution to world history.

Nubia

Nubia PDF Author: Geoff Emberling
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780615481029
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms of Africa is the accompanying catalogue for an exhibition at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World that explores the rich cultures of ancient Nubia in present-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan. The exhibition traces the rise, fall, and re-emergence of Nubian power over the course of some 2,500 years, from the earliest Nubian kingdoms of about 3000 BC through the conquest of Egypt beginning in about 750 BC. Beautifully illustrated, the catalogue includes a historical overview of Nubia and its excavations by Guest Curator Geoff Emberling; a series of archival excavation photos from one of Nubia's most prodigious excavators, George A. Reisner; a checklist of objects from the exhibition; and a selected bibliography for further study of these rich but little understood African kingdoms.

Nubian Pharaohs and Meroitic Kings

Nubian Pharaohs and Meroitic Kings PDF Author: NECIA DESIREE HARKLESS
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1452030634
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
NUBIAN PHARAOHS AND MEROITIC KINGS: THE KINGDOM OF KUSH Necia Desiree Harkless has completed her odyssey of 24 years initiated by a poem that emerged in the odd moments of early morning and her studies as a Donovan Scholar at the University of Kentucky with Dr. William Y. Adams, the leading Nubiologist of the world. The awesome result is her attempt to map the cultural, social, political history of Nubia as a single people as actors on the world stage as they act out their destinies in the cradle of civilization. The underlying purpose of her book is to reconstruct the collective efforts of the past and present Nubian campaigns and their collaborative scholarship so that the African American as well as all Americans can begin to understand the contributions of the civilization of Africa and Asia as a continuous historical entity. The history of the Kingdom of Kush begins with its earliest kingdom of Kerma in 2500 BC. It continues with the conquest of Egypt by the Nubian Pharaohs in 750 BC, reluctantly recognized as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egyptian Pharaohs. They ruled as black pharaohs from their Kingdom at Napatan until they were forced one hundred years later to retreat to Napata by the Assyrians who assumed control of the Egyptians. It was at Meroe, the last empire of the Kush, that forty generations of Meroitic kings and queens continued the Kingdom of Kush reaching monumental and dynastic heights. Their symbiotic relationship with Egypt was over, allowing them to develop their own indigenous culture with a language and script of their own. Their architecture, arts , politics , material and spiritual culture in the minds of many scholars surpassed that of Egypt. Over two hundred pyramids have been investigated. It is an epic that will be long remembered. The dawn of Christianity in the Kingdom of Kush has been found in the treasure cove of the Frescoes of Faras.

Kush, the Jewel of Nubia

Kush, the Jewel of Nubia PDF Author: Miriam Ma'at-Ka-Re Monges
Publisher: Africa Research and Publications
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
The great Chiekh Anta Diop gave African culture roots from which one can trace the branches. No African researcher since, however, has provided a comprehensive analysis connecting the ancient Nile Valley civilzation with the African cultural universe. From the pyramids of Egypt to the great walls of Zimbabwe, Western scholars have attributed the achievements of these prodigious indigenous African civilizations to people culturally and geographically alien to Africa. In the case of the ancient Nubian empire of Kush, however, which occupied the southern part of Kemet (ancient Egypt) and all of present-day Sudan, one expects reasonable scholars to attribute this African culture to an African people. Sadly, however, the dogmatic, eurocentric Hegelian analysis of Africa is still alive and well in even the most current research on Nubia and Kush. It is up to African scholars to reconstruct Kushite history using an Afrocentric approach in order to shed light on this vital part of our African heritage. The present much-needed work traces Diop's great "African cultural commonalities" of matriarchy, totemism, divine kingship, and cosmogony to the very core of Kushite culture. This work represents the cutting edge of a new generation of Afrocentric. scholarship whose mandate it is to provide a clearer picture of Africa's true nature and of its genuine contribution to World Civilization.

Kingdom of Kush: The Civilization of Ancient Nubia

Kingdom of Kush: The Civilization of Ancient Nubia PDF Author: History Titans
Publisher: Creek Ridge Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
The Kingdom of Kush and the ancient Nubian civilization, in general, are important not only for their achievements but also for what these achievements represent in the abstract. The existence of such civilizations challenges many traditional, Eurocentric views of the world and its history. Of course, ancient Egypt is impressive enough on its own, but Nubia is even further south and further away from European influence and, in that sense, more African. Neighboring Ethiopia and numerous other locales in Africa were home to other civilizations that have seen their share of success too, so Nubia and its Kingdom of Kush are not alone in that sense. Overall, Africa is a fascinating place to study from the standpoint of scholars from all sorts of backgrounds and sciences. After all, Africa is where mankind originates, so its heritage is something that’s important for all of humanity to study.

Ancient Nubia

Ancient Nubia PDF Author: Marjorie M. Fisher
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
ISBN: 1649033974
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
A lushly illustrated gazetteer of the archaeological sites of southern Egypt and northern Sudan and named a 2012 American Publishers (PROSE) Awards winner for Best Archaeology & Anthropology Book For most of the modern world, ancient Nubia seems an unknown and enigmatic land. Only a handful of archaeologists have studied its history or unearthed the Nubian cities, temples, and cemeteries that once dotted the landscape of southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Nubia’s remote setting in the midst of an inhospitable desert, with access by river blocked by impassable rapids, has lent it not only an air of mystery, but also isolated it from exploration. Over the past century, particularly during this last generation, scholars have begun to focus more attention on the fascinating cultures of ancient Nubia, ironically prompted by the construction of large dams that have flooded vast tracts of the ancient land. This book attempts to document some of what has recently been discovered about ancient Nubia, with its remarkable history, architecture, and culture, and thereby to give us a picture of this rich, but unfamiliar, African legacy.

Historical Dictionary of Ancient Nubia

Historical Dictionary of Ancient Nubia PDF Author: Richard A. Lobban Jr.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538133393
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 539

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Book Description
This new book descends from a former combined reference book on Ancient and Medieval Nubia but now expands and focuses primarily on Prehistoric and Ancient times. It contextualizes the foundational roots of human evolution in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic stone ages and on to the Neolithic revolution built on farming and livestock. Meanwhile, Kerma was the most ancient African states and their relationship with dynastic Egypt. Precisely, ancient Kerma a was a serious political, economic and military rival to Old and Middle Kingdoms of Egypt. But in the New Kingdom the balance of regional forces was dramatically changed with Egyptians defeating Kerma and occupying and colonizing Kush/Nubia for 500 years. In the 11th century BCE the political unity of Egypt withered away and after recovering from foreign exploitation, Nubians began to reconstitute a small state at Kurru with renewed pyramid building and then finding no Egyptian resistance, these Nubians kings advanced on Egyptian Nubia and then on to Upper Egypt. Finally, Nubians were able to take over all of Egypt as the pharaohs of century-long Dynasty XXV. This so-called ‘Ethiopian” dynasty had the famed pharaohs of Piankhy, Shabaka, Shabataka, Taharka and Tanutamun ruling for various terms, three of who are mentioned in the Biblical Old Testament. Even when Nubians were expelled from Egypt by foreign Assyrian invaders, they retreated to Napata to carry on their ancient state for three more independent centuries as Egyptian remained conquered by various foreigners for 2,500 years. Most notable of these foreign conquers of Egypt were the Greeks (Ptolemies) and the Roman (who arrived and polytheists and left as Christians. During this Greco-Roman period in Egypt, Nubians strategically withdrew still further south to the Kingdom of Meroë (from the 4th century BCEE to the 4th century CE. Meroe is also covered in great detail as it was famed for many regnant queens, a unique and undeciphered writing system, iron-production and important monumental works including more pyramids than found in Egypt, Yes, smaller and later but many more pyramids that are still standing in several World Heritage sites in Nubia. After Meroë began a long decline it was finally vulnerable to attack from Christian Axum on the 4th century CE. Two murky centuries of regional rule, known as the X-Group were to follow, but by the 6th century Nubians recreated three Christian states that are covered in detail in the following Historical Dictionary of Medieval Christian Nubia and the Historical Dictionary of Sudan for Islamic and modern times.

The Ancient Kingdoms of Africa

The Ancient Kingdoms of Africa PDF Author: Charles River Charles River Editors
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781986939317
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes ancient accounts *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading Africa may have given rise to the first human beings, and Egypt probably gave rise to the first great civilizations, which continue to fascinate modern societies across the globe nearly 5,000 years later. From the Library and Lighthouse of Alexandria to the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Ancient Egyptians produced several wonders of the world, revolutionized architecture and construction, created some of the world's first systems of mathematics and medicine, and established language and art that spread across the known world. With world-famous leaders like King Tut and Cleopatra, it's no wonder that today's world has so many Egyptologists. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of ancient Egyptian civilization was its inception from the ground up, as the ancient Egyptians had no prior civilization which they could use as a template. In fact, ancient Egypt itself became a template for the civilizations that followed. The Greeks and the Romans were so impressed with Egyptian culture that they often attributed many attributes of their own culture - usually erroneously - to the Egyptians. With that said, some minor elements of ancient Egyptian culture were, indeed, passed on to later civilizations. Egyptian statuary appears to have had an initial influence on the Greek version, and the ancient Egyptian language continued long after the pharaonic period in the form of the Coptic language. By the 4th century BCE, it appeared as though ancient Egypt was in its final death throes. It had long ceased to be an influential kingdom in the Near East and Mediterranean regions, and it had been ruled over by a succession of foreign peoples including Libyans, Nubians, Assyrians, and Persians. But just when Egypt seemed was doomed to pass forever into obscurity, it was reinvigorated by outsiders, most notably Alexander the Great. While in the process of campaigning to destroy the Achaemenid Persian Empire and conquer the world in 331 BCE, he made a pit stop in Egypt that forever changed the course of Egyptian history. Although his understanding of ancient Egyptian chronology and religion was minimal, Alexander was intrigued by ancient pharaonic culture, knowing, as the 5th century BCE Greek historian Herodotus once wrote, "Egypt is the gift of the Nile." As a result, Alexander endeavored to incorporate the land of the pharaohs into Hellenic Civilization. The three primary enemies of the Egyptians were the Libyans who occupied the Western Desert and its oases, the so-called Asiatics who lived in the Levant, and finally the Nubians to Egypt's south. Among the three peoples, the Nubians were the most "Egyptianized" and at times were integral to the development of Egyptian history. Truly, the Nubians were the greatest of all sub-Saharan peoples in pre-modern times and deserve to be studied in their own right, apart from ancient Egyptian history. In 1515, a Portuguese missionary explorer by the name of Father Francisco Álvares entered Ethiopia and took note in the interior of the remnants of a civilization of obviously Christian origin, with living adherents conforming to a branch of the faith clearly founded in antiquity. Could this be the Kingdom of Prester John? Father Álvares was intrigued, but he was wary of too fanciful a construction, and he speculated more practically on the legend of King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, and other such muses. As for the city at the center of the civilization, he called it Aquasumo. Thus, the existence of the Kingdom of Aksum came to the notice of Christian Europe after almost 1,000 years of isolation. The Ancient Kingdoms of Africa: The History and Legacy of the African Continent's Most Prominent Kingdoms in Antiquity chronicles the tumultuous rise and fall of kingdoms like Egypt, Nubia, Aksum, and more.