An excellent book that traces and identifies topics in African philosophical reflections to the middle ages as Africans encountered concepts brought to them via the incursions of Islam. Professor Diagne's book resuscitates and brings to our present-day awareness the otherwise neglected, not forgotten, importance of such centers of learning like Timbuktu and Djenne, both of which go back to the old empire of Mali. This book is imperative both for what it presents, and what it urges, which is taking seriously African Islamic thought that, as Professor Diagne shows, is one of the oldest traditions of literacy and written philosophical thought in the continent.
