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erraticeldandil's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.75
On the whole and what kept me reading was that this a book about a period of history that is rarely explored, partially because - as the author mentioned - the is a lack of more traditional historical sources like writings about the era. The book at least seemed well researched and provided very clear source lists with "annotations".
I did have a couple of qualms with some of things about the book in general though.
First, because of the limited "concrete" (from a Western sense) historical information available, at times the author finds it narratively neccesary to imagine the past. At some of these times author examines his biases and makes them clear. At others, he doesn't and it is hard to distinguish what is reasonable historical conjecture and what is speculation filtered through a euro/white/male centric point of view.
Next, the author often uses the terms "Black" and "White". However, at no point in the book does he define what these terms meant and implied within the time period discussed. The modern usage and meaning of these words is socially and historically constructed and I think that not examining the potential meanings of these words over time or the tacit assumption that these words had the same meaning as they do now in the time period discussed is limiting.
Finally, and this I cannot point to in any passage but was something I just got the sense of, at many points it felt like the author was more interested in the archeology of the objects he studied for the sake of the archeology and not because he wanted to truly understand or appreciate the people or the cultures they came from. Of course this is not a prerequisite to a history book at all, but I found something was lost in this very objective and detached point of view.
I did have a couple of qualms with some of things about the book in general though.
First, because of the limited "concrete" (from a Western sense) historical information available, at times the author finds it narratively neccesary to imagine the past. At some of these times author examines his biases and makes them clear. At others, he doesn't and it is hard to distinguish what is reasonable historical conjecture and what is speculation filtered through a euro/white/male centric point of view.
Next, the author often uses the terms "Black" and "White". However, at no point in the book does he define what these terms meant and implied within the time period discussed. The modern usage and meaning of these words is socially and historically constructed and I think that not examining the potential meanings of these words over time or the tacit assumption that these words had the same meaning as they do now in the time period discussed is limiting.
Finally, and this I cannot point to in any passage but was something I just got the sense of, at many points it felt like the author was more interested in the archeology of the objects he studied for the sake of the archeology and not because he wanted to truly understand or appreciate the people or the cultures they came from. Of course this is not a prerequisite to a history book at all, but I found something was lost in this very objective and detached point of view.
mattrohn's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.0
I sometimes get frustrated about the scarcity of sources in my research (turn of the century US) and this book was an interesting look at how historians use very narrow fragments of evidence in fields where there really is an extreme lack of written sources
hermance's review against another edition
4.0
Une introduction à l'Histoire médiévale de l'Afrique extrêmement intéressante qui pousse à vouloir en découvrir davantage.
aegagrus's review against another edition
3.0
François-Xavier Fauvelle's tone is expansive and grand, but in truth his project is a modest one. To his credit, he is deeply conscious of the limitations of his source material, and does not present extrapolations as fact. Fauvelle is able to draw out a few important observations, principally about the complexities of commercial relationships between the medieval Arabian and African worlds: the diversity of religious factions involved (heterodox Muslims such as Ibadis, Jews, and local Christian polities), the importance of certain trade goods (salt, cowries), and the degree to which many of these exchanges linked populations with minimal to no knowledge of one another through sophisticated legal arrangements with intermediaries.
However, almost inherently The Golden Rhinoceros fails to live up to its promise as a work of narrative history, both dealing with a fairly narrow set of sources and venturing fairly limited arguments about those sources. Interestingly enough, the vignettes in archaeological (and paleographical) methodology surrounding the sources were more effective. I came away with a better appreciation for the strange dynamics of archaeology in the colonial world, and some of the physical and cultural barriers to effective excavations (for instance in the section on Ethiopian monoliths and monasteries). Though in some ways peripheral to the book Fauvelle is trying to write, these discussions found the book at its most compelling. If Fauvelle had embraced his opportunity to make interventions here, and made these sections and themes his central focus, I think his book would have come out as a more essential contribution.
However, almost inherently The Golden Rhinoceros fails to live up to its promise as a work of narrative history, both dealing with a fairly narrow set of sources and venturing fairly limited arguments about those sources. Interestingly enough, the vignettes in archaeological (and paleographical) methodology surrounding the sources were more effective. I came away with a better appreciation for the strange dynamics of archaeology in the colonial world, and some of the physical and cultural barriers to effective excavations (for instance in the section on Ethiopian monoliths and monasteries). Though in some ways peripheral to the book Fauvelle is trying to write, these discussions found the book at its most compelling. If Fauvelle had embraced his opportunity to make interventions here, and made these sections and themes his central focus, I think his book would have come out as a more essential contribution.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Colonisation, and War
lucyb's review against another edition
5.0
Fauvelle's book is gorgeously written, as well as being lucid and engaging. Of the most famous of the rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia, for instance, he says: "It displays no more joints than the tunic of Christ does seams." Credit goes to Tony Tice, as well, for translating Fauvelle's elegant and incisive portraits of medieval Africa. It's a composite rather than a linear narrative, following map-makers and archaeologists, traders and scholars, as they traverse the diverse landscapes of the continent. Fauvelle does a remarkable job of illuminating both the rich histories of medieval Africa, and the challenges facing scholars and students of those remarkable histories.