Pragmatism in the Age of Jihad

"Gomez has used a wide variety of documentary and oral sources. He is a careful scholar who treats his oral sources with a healthy skepticism, analyzing each in terms of its ideological function. ... This book is competent... It will remain for many years the basic source for Bundu." Journal of Interdisciplinary History "...Gomez's accomplishment is impressive. He has written the first modern political history of Bundu and has revised our understanding of the origins and religio-political character of the Bundunke state. His book provides specialists with a valuable chronology of events from the foundation of the state until is dissolution in 1905. He thereby makes an important contribution both to the history of precolonial Senegambia and to the study of Islam in West Africa." American Historical Review "The author has made extensive use of oral sources and written works in Arabic, local West African languages, French, and English. The text is readable, the scholarship sound, the index useful, the bibliography extensive, the maps adequate, and the 11 appendixes informative. Gomez's book will long remain the indispensable work on this subject." Choice "Michael Gomez has written what will probably be the reference history of Bundu for years to come...It is an important work for any scholar of Islamic West Africa and can be recommended as a supplementary case study text for advanced level courses on Islam in Africa." John Edward Philips, African Studies Review