210 JAN KIENIEWICZ, MARCIN KULA
piński concerned himself with the Hausa States,13 and Bronisław Nowak with local merchant groups.14 Barbara Stępniewska stud-ied the problem of Islamie penetration.15 The purpose of these studies was to elucidate the causes and naturę of the slow de-velopment of West African territories and sources of their sub-seąuent regression.
Conforming with the generał trend in world science, a group of Warsaw scholars concentrated on research of economic founda-tions of the phenomena studied. A series of interesting details were established in this respect.1® They studied various forms of trade and the social reasons of economic stabilization in Su-danese countries.17 It would seem however, that reflections on
XXIX, 1974, pp. 51-79, and above all: Le developpement et la regression chez les peuples de la boncie du Niger a Vepoque precoloniale, Warszawa 1974.
13 Karpiński also undertook verification of Małowisfs hypotheses in: Organizacja służebna a problem kast w Zachodnim Sudanie [Ancillary System and the Problem of Castes in the Western Sudan], „Przegląd Historyczny”, vol. LVII, 1966, No. 2, pp. 235-250, and subseąuently dealt with the problem of reasons for the lack of state organization in the Hausa region: Państwo-miasto Kano do dżihadu Fulanich. Struktury polityczno-gospodarczo-społeczne [The City-State of Kano up to the Fulani Jihad. Political, Economic and Social Structures], in typescript, Warszawa 1973.
14 Making use of ethnographic studies and the retrogression as a method, B. Nowak concerned himself primarily with the role of groups which might have brought new elements to the Sudan, and shifted the centre of interest to a later period, between the 17th and 19th centuries: Czarni kupcy Mandingo w Afryce Zachodniej w okresie przedkolonialnym [Negro Mandingo Merchants in West Africa in the Pre-Cólonial Era], Warszawa 1974.
16 Portee Sociale de l9islam en Soudan Occidental au XIVe-XV* siecles [Social Influence of Islam in the Western Sudan Between the 14th and 16th Centuries], “Africana Bulletin”, vol. XIV, 1971, pp. 35-58, and in particular: Rozpowszechnienie się Islamu w Sudanie Zachodnim [Spread of Islam in the Western Sudan], Wrocław 1973.
16 Particularly M. Tymowski: Le Niger, voie de communiction des grands etats du Soudan Occidental jusqufa la fin du XVI siecle, “Africana Bulletin”, vol. VI, 1967, pp. 73-95; Les domains des princes du Songhay (Soudan Occidental). Comparaison avec la grand proprietd fonciere en Europę au debut de Vepoque fdodale, “Annales ESC”, 1970, No. 6, pp. 1637-1658; La peche a l*6poque du Moyen Age dans la boucle du Niger, “Africana Bulletin”, vol. XIX, 1970, pp. 7-26.
17 M. Mało wist, Le commerce dfor et d’esclaves au Soudan Occidental, “Africana Bulletin”, vol. III, 1966, pp. 49-72, and: Quelques obser-vations sur le commerce de Uor dans le Soudan Occidental au Moyen Age, “Annales ESC’, vol. V, 1970, pp. 1630-1636. R. Karpiński, Considera-tions sur les echanges de caractere local et exterieur de la Senegambie dans la deuocieme moitie du XVe et au debut du XVIe siecles, “Africana Bulletin”, vol. VIII, 1968, pp. 65-83, in which he concerned himself with less known territories on the Atlantic littoral.