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AFRICAN HISTORY: C 1500 TO C 1900. This is the story of what happens when a liberal minded Prime Minister is caught between two sets of fundamentalists, one Islamic, the other Christian. It could be a tale of our time. But this is actually the story of Islam and the Empire on the Nile c. 1869. In the late 19th century, the river Nile became the setting for the first major encounter between the West and Islam in the modern era. In an extraordinary collision between Europeans, Arabs and Africans, three empires rose in the space of thirty years. In the climax of this drama, played out in a remote part of the Sudan, we see the rise of the British Empire to its most glorious heights, but also the seeds of its fall. This is a story also told through the eyes of the outsiders - a missionary, a slave trader, a palace clerk and an ordinary soldier.Using never before transcribed material from newly translated government papers in Cairo and Khartoum, Green will tell both sides of the story.

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