87 The AnnuAl Review of islAm in AfRicA • issue no. 17 • 2020 Afrika’nın Önder Sahsiyetleri (The Pioneers of Africa). Ahmet Kavas and Muhammed Tandoğan (Ed.). Istanbul: Alelmas, 2019, 467pp. Reviewed by Halim Gençoğlu University of Cape Town A new book in the feld of African Studies has been published recently in Turkey, titled Afrika’nın Önder Şahsiyetleri which in Turkish means “The Pioneers of Africa.” Indeed, several exemplary personalities of Africa contributed in remarkable ways to the shaping of African history and identities. 1 This book, edited by Prof. Ahmet Kavas and Dr. Muhammed Tandoğan, emphasizes the contribution of Muslim leaders on the continent with reference to their links with the Ottoman State. Some Turkish writers who are particularly well-known in African Studies in Turkey contributed chapters to this book. 2 They include: Osman Kağan Yücel, Abdullah Erdem Taş, İsa Gökgedik, Ahmet Kavas, Halim Gençoğlu, Muhammed Tandoğan, İlhan Zengin and Tuğrul Oğuzhan Yılmaz. The book is 467 pages long with an index andwas published as a paperback by Alelmas Publishers in Istanbul, who specialize in books in the feld of African Studies. Eight authors contributed to the book by providing chapters about prominent African leaders from all over the continent from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. However, some of these writers also mentioned some Ottoman Generals and their services to the Ottoman State pertaining particularly to African afairs. 3 The frst chapter in the book, Afrika’nın Önder Şahsiyetler is written by Osman Kağan Yücel and deals with a prominent Turkish military general in the sixteenth century, Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha, who served the Ottoman Empire in North Africa. 4 Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha was an Ottoman statesman and military commander who also held the ofce of Grand Vizier for one year. After the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, the former Mameluke elite accepted the Ottoman rule and became part of the Ottoman bureaucracy and military. Özdemir Pasha, Osman’s father, was one of them. After the Indian Ocean campaigns, he was appointed as the commander-in-chief (Beylerbey) of Habesh Eyalet 5 . The author of the frst chapter in the book, Osman Kagan Yucel, focuses particularly on his activities in Northern Africa. 6 Another contributor, Abdullah Erdem Taş writes one article about Ahmet Pasha of Karaman and also another one about Yusuf Pasha of Karaman who both served as a Commander in the Ottoman Army in Egypt: the frst one in the eighteenth century and the second one at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. Ahmed Pasha was of Turkish origin and a member of the Karamanids dynasty. He reigned as the frst