On Trans-Saharan Trails

'Lydon's lengthy book provides a wealth of information about trans-Saharan trade on the eve of colonial conquest and will serve as a benchmark. ... Lydon's arguments are provocative contributions to evolving debates on Islamic economies and economic anthropology.' The Journal of Comparative Studies in Society and History

'Lydon successfully reconciles the rich variety in written and oral sources on the trans-Saharan trade ... The book is refreshing for its exploration of lightly trodden trans-Saharan tracks.' The Journal of African History

'In this massive study [Lydon] tries, with considerable success, to do it all: Saharan trade is integrated into the story of global/cross-cultural exchange; the traditional divisions of 'North' and 'West' African history are repositioned by a focus on the Saharan commerce that unites them; and a remarkably lucid tale is told of Wad Nun (southern Moroccan) economic (and social, and legal) links in the nineteenth century, south through Tawdenni and Arawan to Timbuktu, then back north through Walata, Tishit, Shinqit (with a brief excursion to the coast at Arguin), Wadan, and Ijil. ... We are indebted to Ghislaine Lydon for bringing all this and much, much more together, effectively opening research arenas that formerly were foggily defined, at best, and spelling out methodologies frequently ignored by Africanist blinders. But most of all, she has reaffirmed the importance of our attention to the tens of thousands of manuscripts, now increasingly accessible and known, across the Sahara and West Africa.' Charles C. Stewart, Islamic Africa

'In this pioneering work, Lydon has given historians and legal scholars a window into the commercial complexities of trans-Saharan trade that reached across vast distances and multiple currency zones ... On Trans-Saharan Trails makes an important contribution to African history and by extension to world history.' Law and History Review

Dr Ghislaine Lydon is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. The author of several articles on West Africa, she has done extensive fieldwork in both West and North Africa and archival work in France.

1. Making history across the African divide; 2. Trans-Saharan trade in the longue dure; 3. Markets and the movement of caravans: nineteenth-century developments; 4. Guelmm and the Wd Nn traders; 5. The organization of caravan trade; 6. Business practice and legal culture in a paper economy of faith; 7. Trade networks and the limits of cooperative behavior; 8. On trans-Saharan trails.