From the birth of Islam in the seventh century to the voyages of European exploration in the
fifteenth Africa was at the center of a vibrant exchange of goods and ideas. It was an African
golden age in which Ghâna Nubia and Zimbabwe became the crossroads of civilizations and
where African royals thinkers and artists played celebrated roles in an increasingly
globalized world. François-Xavier Fauvelle brings this thrilling era marvelously to life. A
book that finally recognizes Africa's important role in the Middle Ages The Golden Rhinoceros
carefully pieces together the written and archaeological evidence to tell an unforgettable
story that is at once sensitive to Africa's rich social diversity and alert to the trajectories
that connected Africa with the wider Muslim and Christian worlds.
