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Medieval Africa and Asia: A Reader Overview
A plain-language tour of the major African and Asian states that existed alongside medieval Europe, from Mali and Ethiopia to Song China, Japan and India.
The Wider Medieval World
Africa and Asia in the Middle Ages
Mali, Ethiopia, Song China, Japan and India during the European medieval centuries.
Ethiopia and the Aksumite Legacy
How the Christian kingdom of the Ethiopian highlands grew from ancient Aksum, kept its own church, and carved the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela.
Medieval India: The Delhi Sultanate and Chola South
An outline of the main powers of medieval India: the maritime Chola dynasty in the south, the Delhi Sultanate in the north, and their neighbors.
Samurai and Medieval Japan
How warrior government emerged in Japan between the 12th and 16th centuries, from the first shogun at Kamakura to the Ashikaga and an age of civil war.
Song Dynasty China: Inventions and Cities
A look at city life, printing, paper money and technology in Song China (960-1279), and why the period is often called a commercial revolution.
Swahili Coast Cities and Indian Ocean Trade
How the stone-built port towns of East Africa, such as Kilwa and Mombasa, used monsoon winds to trade gold, ivory and cloth across the Indian Ocean.
The Empire of Mali and Mansa Musa
How the Mali Empire rose in West Africa, how it profited from gold, and why Mansa Musa's 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca was remembered for centuries.
The Khmer Empire and Angkor
The Khmer Empire in Cambodia built Angkor Wat, the Bayon and an ingenious network of reservoirs and canals. Here is what we know and what remains debated.
Timbuktu and Saharan Trade
How camel caravans carried salt, gold and books across the Sahara, and how Timbuktu grew from a desert-edge market into a famous town of Islamic scholarship.
Related topics
More in the wider medieval world
The Islamic World and Caliphates How the Abbasid, Fatimid and Andalusian worlds worked and what they shared with Europe. Mongols and the Steppe Steppe peoples, Mongol conquests and the Eurasian links they created. Medieval Russia and Eastern Europe Rus, Poland, Hungary and Bohemia between the Latin and Orthodox worlds. Scandinavia and the North Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden after the Viking Age.