A Labyrinth of Kingdoms 10,000 Miles through Islamic Africa [Paperback]

An enjoyable account of Barths great journey packed with arresting details.An astute character study of a relentlessly curious scientific personality.If you have an ounce of historical exploratory curiosity in your veins, course through this forgotten tale.Heinrich Barth belongs in the ranks of the greatest explorers of Africa. But unlike most of the others, he was less interested in imperial conquest and self-promotion than in the cultures, the peoples, the languages, and the ancient manuscripts that he found there. Its a pleasure to see a lively, readable biography of him in English at last.Let us hope Steve Kempers fine study of an extraordinary personality gives Barth the wider, albeit posthumous, audience he so widely deserves.Kemper ably resurrects the unsung and unappreciated accomplishments of this intrepid explorer and clearly shows that his high level of scholarship and attention to detail are relevant and useful today.A nicely rounded literary study of an intrepid explorer undone by the cultural biases of the time.[Barths] story has been known primarily to scholars, so this is an important corrective. Kempers majestic account of Barths journey restores the reputation of an explorer who was as passionate about science as he was about rigorous travel. Its an enthralling adventure, captivatingly told. Ziauddin Sardar,