The first volume attempts to provide a bio-bibliographical overview of the current “state of the art” in regard to our knowledge of the Arabic writings of eastern Sudanic and Saharan Africa. In every respect, it is an incomplete and unsatisfactory work. Incomplete, because it builds upon so little basic research; unsatisfactory, because it promises more than it can deliver.

It is important to lay out the limitations, and hopefully the utility, of the present work, both to facilitate its use and to highlight what needs to be done in the future to improve upon it.

The chapters and the topic…