International records / OpenAlex research

Contributions from African Sources to the History of European Competition in the Upper Valley of the Nile

Of the African states with which European Powers were in contact during the period of active competition on the Upper Nile, two in particular, the Empire of Ethiopia and the Mahdist State, were sufficiently sophisticated to transact their political and administrative business in writing and to maintain more or less systematic records. Thanks to the work of P. M. Holt, the nature and scope of the Mahdist archives are now well known, and it is evident that they can be expected to furnish a very detailed picture of the fiscal and military organization of the Mahdist State. The documentation of ex…