In Rome I will research and write the first chapter of a new book about medieval African societies and their connections with the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean worlds. This study will construct a new social history of the medieval African peoples, polities, and travel routes for which a cache of understudied Jewish merchant letters and records provide rare, granular evidence. Chapter 1 is a history of the Eastern Desert and its peoples. The Eastern Desert is a region the size of Minnesota between the Nile River and Red Sea that was a vital artery for moving people, goods, and knowledge across the eastern hemisphere. Regional African kingdoms and polities participated in these connections on their own terms between roughly 1000 and 1250 CE. This research will make visible long overlooked African groups and demonstrate how their societies built political economies that both opposed and complemented the empires of the Islamic Middle East and beyond.

The photograph of Craig Perry was taken by Myron B. McGhee.