This analytical edition makes available a unique corpus of primary-source material and demonstrates its wide implications for African and Arabic studies. Through Arabic transciptions, English translations, line-drawing reconstructions, and plate illustrations, the volume catalogues the large number of eleventh-fifteenth century Arabic-Islamic inscriptions from the Republic of Mali - including the earliest datable writing from West Africa.Dr Moraes Farias uses this rich resource to reinterpret West African chronicles (including the Timbuktu Chronicle) and Tuareg and Songhay oral traditions. Challenging chauvinistic portrayals of the past, he demonstrates that the Tuareg and Songhay, peoples divided by civil war in the 1990s, in fact share a composite history.Crucial for our understanding of West African history, this volume also discusses a wide range of linguistic and literary issues, and contributes to current debates about the nature of epigraphic evidence.