A Short History of Islamic West Africa - Issa Meyer - Zaman Books

From the first medieval conversions to the twilight of the colonial era, this book unfolds over a thousand years of one of the most captivating sagas in African history. It traces the great milestones in the spread of Islam between the Sahara, the Atlantic Ocean, and Lake Chad — across that vast region once known as the Sudan, a land whose Islamic tradition is as rich, dynamic, and distinctive as it is ancient.

Through its pages emerge the remarkable figures and empires that shaped West Africa’s Islamic civilization: the opulent Mali of Mansa Mūsā, the formidable Songhai, and the revolutionary Sokoto Sultanate of ‘Uthmān dan Fodio — alongside the bold conquerors, scholars, and reformers who, in the nineteenth century, transformed the spiritual and political landscape of the region forever.

A Short History of the Islamic Maghreb - Issa Meyer - Zaman Books

From the Muslim conquest to imperial glory, through the shadows of colonial rule and into the age of modern independence — from the 7th to the 20th century — this book traces the sweeping saga of Islamic North Africa.

Through the exploits of fiery Umayyad generals, the rise of the Almoravids and Almohads, and the legacies of countless dynasties, sultans, tribal leaders, scholars, resistance fighters, and spiritual guides, it recounts the dazzling epic of this “West” of the Islamic civilization — a region as fiercely devoted to its faith as to its ancestral freedom.

At this crossroads of peoples and cultures were written, with courage and brilliance, some of the most glorious chapters in the history of the Muslim world

The Story of the Andalusis - Issa Meyer - Zaman Books

From Târiq ibn Ziyâd’s first steps on the soil of the Old Continent, in 92AH/711AD, to the last expulsions of the Moriscos, in 1023AH/1614AD, “The Story of the Andalusis” unfolds a fantastic epic of 900 years of Muslim presence in Europe through historical upheavals and reversals of fortune, conquests and exiles, triumphs and disasters. A tale of wars, clashing wills and ambitions, but also of exchanges, encounters, waves of ideas, goods and peoples, at the crossroads of civilisations, identities and continents – all this making al-Andalus an exciting human fresco, filled with great and not so great men of power, religion, pen or sword.

From its birth to its extinction, here is the story of the life and adventures of a nation that was born almost by an accident of history on the outer reaches of the West, that shaped itself not without clashes before reaching its peak under the Umayyads of Qurtubah, that came close to annihilation several times, that experienced the highs and lows of the great Berber dynasties, and then, against all odds, granted itself another quarter of a millennium of existence under the Nasrids of Granada. A nation whose cultural golden age enlightened the world with its pioneering spirit and its society of excellence – the home of urban refinement and agricultural prosperity, of knowledge bubbling and burgeoning arts and letters. And a nation, finally, that Catholic Spain tried to eradicate methodically and ruthlessly – to the point of trying to make the world forget it ever existed… Without success – for the nostalgia of al-Andalus has brilliantly survived on both sides of the Mediterranean.

The first opus in our series on the Muslims of Europe, this great historical saga also attempts to dispel the many myths that obscure the understanding of this complex era. But first and foremost, “The Story of the Andalusis” is an ode to a vanished nation – a nation of freedom-loving warriors and poets, fiercely attached to their faith and bound by a common destiny strewn with hardship.

A Short History of Islamic Syria - Issa Meyer - Zaman Books

Civil war, refugee crisis, terrorism — over the past decade, Syria, crushed beneath an absurd and ruthless tyranny, has too often made headlines for reasons unworthy of its millennia-old legacy of grandeur, refinement, and learning.

Yet this blessed land — cradle of an exquisite civilization, seat of the mightiest of the caliphates, and stage of the triumphs of more than one illustrious dynasty — holds a truly unique place in the annals of the Muslim world, and indeed, of humanity itself.

This book retraces the astonishingly rich and eventful history of Bilād al-Shām, from the Muslim conquest of the seventh century to the fall of the Assad regime — a tribute to a people of extraordinary resilience who, through the most harrowing trials, have always found the strength to rise again.