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Ghana Empire

The Ghana Empire (Arabic: غانا), also known as simply Ghana,[1] Ghanata, or Wagadou, was a West African classical to post-classical era western-Sahelian empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali. With the collapse of the Dhar Tichitt culture circa 400 B.C.E, The Ghana Empire's latency phase is hypothesized to have spanned from the 4th century B.C.E to approximately the 1st century C.E. with the eventual imperial state materializing between the 1st and 3rd centuries C.E. ultimately dissolving in the 1300s.

Ghana Empire
غانا
Wagadou
واغادو
c. 100–300–c. mid-1200s
The Ghana Empire at its greatest extent
CapitalKoumbi Saleh
Common languagesSoninke, Malinke, Mande
Religion
African traditional religion
Later Islam
GovernmentMonarchy
Ghana 
• 700
Kaya Magan Cissé
• 790s
Dyabe Cisse
• 1040–1062
Ghana Bassi
• 1203–1235
Soumaba Cisse
Historical era1st–3rd century–13th century
• Established
c. 100–300
• Conversion to Islam
1050
• Conquered by Sosso/Submitted to the Mali Empire
c. mid-1200s
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Today part of

It is uncertain when Ghana's ruling dynasty began among historians. The first identifiable mention of the imperial dynasty in written records was made by Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī in 830.[2] Further information about the empire was provided by the accounts of Cordoban scholar al-Bakri when he wrote about the region in the 11th century.

After centuries of prosperity, the empire began its decline in the second millennium, and would finally become a vassal state of the rising Mali Empire at some point in the 13th century. Despite its collapse, the empire's influence can be felt in the establishment of numerous urban centers throughout its former territory. In 1957, the British colony of the Gold Coast, under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah named itself Ghana upon independence in honor and remembrance of the historic empire, although their geographic boundaries never overlapped.

Etymology edit

The word ghana means warrior or war chief and was the title given to the rulers of the original kingdom whose Soninke name was Ouagadou. Kaya Maghan (king of gold) was another title for these kings.[3]

Sources and theories of origin edit

Founders' ethnicity edit

Theorizing concerning the origins of Ghana has been dominated by disputes between ethnohistoric accounts and archaeological interpretations. The earliest discussions of its origins are found in the Sudanese chronicles of Mahmud Kati (the Tarikh al-Fattash) and Abd al-Rahman as-Sadi (the Tarikh al-Sudan).[4] In addressing the rulers' origin, the Tarikh al-Fattash provides three different opinions: that they were Soninke, or Wangara (a Soninke/Mande group), which the author considered improbable, or that they were Sanhaja Berbers, which the author considered most likely. The author concludes that "the nearest to the truth is that they were not black."[5][6] The Tarikh al-Sudan further states that "In origin they were white, though we do not know to whom they trace their origin. Their subjects, however, were Wa'kore [Soninke]."[7] According to Levtzion (1973), "Historical traditions recorded since the turn of the century among the Soninke repeat the claim that their ancestor was a white man, who had come from the east."[8]

Mahmud Kati favored his interpretation in view of his opinion that the rulers' genealogies linked them to the Berbers.[9] While the 16th-century versions of genealogies might have linked Ghana to the Sanhaja, earlier versions, for example as reported by the 11th-century writer al-Idrisi and the 13th-century writer Ibn Said, noted that rulers of Ghana in those days traced their descent from the clan of the Prophet Muhammad either through his protector Abi Talib, or through his son-in-law Ali.[10] He purports that approximately 18 through 34 ancient Kaya (kings) ruled before the Hijra and 24 more kaya (kings) ruled afterward.[11]

While these early views lead to many exotic interpretations of a foreign origin of Wagadu, these views are generally disregarded by modern scholars. Levtzion and Spaulding, for example, argue that al-Idrisi's testimony should be looked at very critically due to demonstrably gross miscalculations in geography and historical chronology, while they themselves associate Ghana with the local Soninke/Mande.[12] In addition, the archaeologist and historian Raymond Mauny argues that al-Kati's and al-Saadi's view of a foreign origin cannot be regarded as reliable. He argues that the interpretations were based on the later presence (after Ghana's demise) of nomadic Berber interlopers from Libya, on the assumption that they were the ruling caste, and that the writers did not adequately consider contemporary accounts such as those of Ya'qubi (872 CE), al-Masudi (c. 944 CE), Ibn Hawqal (977 CE), and al-Biruni (c. 1036 CE), as well as al-Bakri, all of whom describe the population and rulers of Ghana as "negroes".[13]

 
Trade routes of the Western Sahara c. 1000–1500. Goldfields are indicated by light brown shading: Bambuk, Bure, Lobi, and Akan.

Oral traditions edit

In the late 19th century, as French forces occupied the region in which ancient Ghana lay, colonial officials began collecting traditional accounts, including some manuscripts written in Arabic somewhat earlier in the century. Several such traditions were recorded and published. While there are variants, these traditions called the most ancient polity they knew of Wagadu, or the "place of the Wague" the term current in the 19th century for the local nobility. The traditions described the kingdom as having been founded by a man named Dinga, who came "from the east" (possibly Aswan, Egypt[14]), after which he migrated to a variety of locations in western Sudan, in each place leaving children by different wives. In order to achieve power in his final location he had to kill a goblin, and then marry his daughters, who became the ancestors of the clans that were dominant in the region at the time of the recording of the religion. Upon Dinga's death, his two sons Khine and Dyabe contested the kingship, and Dyabe was victorious, founding the kingdom.[15]

French colonial officials, notably Maurice Delafosse, whose works on West African history has been criticised by scholars such Charles Monteil, Robert Cornevin and others for being "unacceptable" and "too creative to be useful to historians" in relation to his interpretation of West African genealogies,[16][17][18][19] concluded that Ghana had been founded by the Berbers, a nomadic group originating from the Benue River and linked them to North African and Middle Eastern origins. While Delafosse produced a convoluted theory of an invasion by "Judeo-Syrians", which he linked to the Fulbe (who actually co-founded the Takrur civilization), other scholars took the accounts at face value and simply accepted that foreigners had ruled first.[20] Raymond Mauny, synthesizing early archaeology, various traditions, and the Arabic materials in 1961 concluded that foreign trade was vital to the empire's foundation.[21]

More recent work, for example by Nehemiah Levtzion, in his classic work published in 1973, sought to harmonize archaeology, descriptive geographical sources written between 830 and 1400 AD, the older traditions of the Tarikhs from the 16th and 17th centuries, and at last the traditions collected by French administrators. Levtzion concluded that local developments, stimulated by trade from North Africa, were crucial in the development of the state, and he tended to favor the more recently collected traditions over the other traditions in compiling his work.[22] While there has not been much further study of either traditions or documents, archaeologists have added considerable nuance. Christopher Ehret observes that the proposed founding date of c. 100 300 CE fits very well within what is known about the Wagadu state's control of the trans-saharan gold trade and its scale of time.[23]

Contribution of archaeological research edit

Archaeological research was slow to enter the picture. While French archaeologists believed they had located the capital, Koumbi Saleh, in the 1920s when they located extensive stone ruins in the general area given in most sources for the capital, others argued that elaborate burials in the Niger Bend area may have been linked to the empire. It was not until 1969, when Patrick Munson excavated at Dhar Tichitt (the site of a culture associated with the ancient ancestors of the Soninke people) in modern-day Mauritania that the probability of an entirely local origin was raised.[24] The Dhar Tichitt site clearly reflected a complex culture present by 1600 BC and had architectural and material culture elements that seemed to match the site at Koumbi Saleh. In more recent work in Dhar Tichitt, and then in Dhar Nema and Dhar Walata, it has become more and more clear that as the desert advanced, the Dhar Tichitt culture (which had abandoned its earliest site around 300 BC, possibly because of pressure from desert nomads, but also because of increasing aridity) moved southward into the still well-watered areas of northern Mali.[25] This now seems the likely history of the complex society that can be documented at Koumbi-Saleh.

History edit

Early centuries edit

No native written records have been unearthed despite decades of archaeological study, although a plethora of native (local-Malian/adjacent West-African) and non-native (medieval Arabic) accounts have substantiated and reinforced the empire's ancient existence. It likely began as a much earlier proto-polity from a large collection of ancient proto-Mande agro-pastoralist chiefdoms. At that point in time, Proto-Mande chiefdoms were already in the western-most portion of the Niger River basin for over a millennium roughly spanning 1300 BCE 300 BCE.[26][27][28][29]

Formation of the Empire edit

The state and then empire started coalescing in the c. 1st century AD 3rd century AD. The main ethnic group known was the Soninke. The capital was in the city of Koumbi Saleh. The introduction of the camel to the western Sahara in the 3rd century AD served as a major catalyst for the transformative social changes that resulted in the empire's formation. By the time of the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the 7th century, the camel had changed the ancient, irregular trade routes into a network running between North Africa and the Niger River. The Ghana Empire grew rich from this trans-Saharan trade in gold, textiles, foods, and salt, allowing for larger urban centers to develop. The traffic furthermore encouraged territorial expansion to gain control over the different trade routes.

According to Kati's Tarikh al-Fettash in a section probably composed by the author around 1580, but citing the authority of the chief judge of Messina, Ida al-Massini who lived somewhat earlier, twenty kings ruled Ghana before the advent of the prophet Muhammad, and the empire extended until the century after the prophet.[4]

Imperial decline edit

Given the scattered nature of the Arabic sources and the ambiguity of the existing archaeological record, it is difficult to determine when and how Ghana declined and fell. The earliest descriptions of the empire are vague as to its maximum extent, though according to al-Bakri, Ghana had forced Awdaghost in the desert to accept its rule sometime between 970 and 1054.[30] By al-Bakri's own time, however, it was surrounded by powerful kingdoms, such as Sila.

A tradition in historiography maintains that Ghana fell when it was sacked by the Almoravid invasion in 1076–77, although Ghanaians resisted attacks for a decade,[31] but this interpretation has been questioned. Conrad and Fisher (1982) argued that the notion of any Almoravid military conquest at its core is merely perpetuated folklore, derived from a misinterpretation or naive reliance on Arabic sources.[32] Dierke Lange agrees but argues that this does not preclude Almoravid political agitation, claiming that Ghana's demise owed much to the latter.[33] Sheryl L. Burkhalter (1992) was skeptical of Conrad and Fisher's arguments and suggested that there were reasons to believe that there was conflict between the Almoravids and the empire of Ghana.[34][35] Furthermore, the archaeology of ancient Ghana does not show the signs of rapid change and destruction that would be associated with any Almoravid-era military conquests.[36]

While there is no clear-cut account of a sack of Ghana in the contemporary sources, the country certainly did convert to Islam, for al-Idrisi, whose account was written in 1154, has the country fully Muslim by that date. Al-Idrisi's report does not give any reason to believe that the Empire was smaller or weaker than it had been in the days of al-Bakri, 75 years earlier. In fact, he describes its capital as "the greatest of all towns of the Sudan with respect to area, the most populous, and with the most extensive trade."[37]

Sosso occupation and successor states edit

 
Map of successor states to the Ghana Empire

Ibn Khaldun, a 14th-century North African historian who read and cited both al-Bakri and al-Idrisi, reported an ambiguous account of the country's history as related to him by 'Uthman, a faqih of Ghana who took a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1394, according to which the power of Ghana waned as that of the "veiled people" grew through the Almoravid movement.[38] Following Ghana's conversion, "the authority of the rulers of Ghana dwindled away and they were overcome by the Sosso...who subjugated and subdued them."[38] Some modern traditions identify the Susu as the Sosso, inhabitants of Kaniaga. According to much later traditions, from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Diara Kante took control of Koumbi Saleh and established the Diarisso dynasty. His son, Soumaoro Kante, succeeded him and forced the people to pay him tribute. The Sosso also managed to annex the neighboring Mandinka state of Kangaba to the south, where the important goldfields of Bure were located.

Mali dominance edit

In his brief overview of Sudanese history, Ibn Khaldun related that "the people of Mali outnumbered the peoples of the Sudan in their neighborhood and dominated the whole region." He went on to relate that they "vanquished the Susu and acquired all their possessions, both their ancient kingdom and that of Ghana."[39] According to a modern tradition, this resurgence of Mali was led by Sundiata Keita, the founder of Mali and ruler of its core area of Kangaba. Delafosse assigned an arbitrary but widely accepted date of 1230 to the event.[40]

This tradition states that Ghana Soumaba Cisse, at the time a vassal of the Sosso, rebelled with Kangaba and became part of a loose federation of Mande-speaking states. After Soumaoro's defeat at the Battle of Kirina in 1235 (a date again assigned arbitrarily by Delafosse), the new rulers of Koumbi Saleh became permanent allies of the Mali Empire. As Mali became more powerful, Koumbi Saleh's role as an ally declined to that of a submissive state.[41] According to a detailed account of al-'Umari, written around 1340 but based on testimony given to him by the "truthful and trustworthy" shaykh Abu Uthman Sa'id al-Dukkali, Ghana still retained its functions as a sort of kingdom within the empire, its ruler being the only one allowed to bear the title malik and "who is like a deputy unto him."[41]

Economy edit

Most of the information about the economy of Ghana comes from al-Bakri. He noted that merchants had to pay a tax of one gold dinar on imports of salt, and two on exports of salt. Other products had fixed dues; al-Bakri mentioned both copper and "other goods." Imports probably included products such as textiles, ornaments and other materials. Many of the hand-crafted leather goods found in present-day Morocco also had their origins in the empire.[42] al-Bakri also mentioned that Muslims played a central role in commerce and held court appointments.[43]

Ibn Hawqal quotes the use of a cheque worth 42,000 dinars.[44] The main centre of trade was Koumbi Saleh. The king claimed as his own all nuggets of gold, and allowed other people to have only 'gold dust'.[45] In addition to the influence exerted by the king in local regions, tribute was received from various tributary states and chiefdoms on the empire's periphery.[46] The introduction of the camel played a key role in Soninke success as well, allowing products and goods to be transported much more efficiently across the Sahara. These contributing factors all helped the empire remain powerful for some time, providing a rich and stable economy that was to last several centuries. The empire was also known to be a major educational hub.[citation needed] Ghana grew rich from the Trans-Saharan Trade by trading gold, iron, salt and slaves.

Government edit

Testimony about ancient Ghana depended on how well disposed the king was to foreign travelers, from whom the majority of information on the empire comes. Islamic writers often commented on the social-political stability of the empire based on the seemingly just actions and grandeur of the king. Al-Bakri, a Moorish nobleman living in Spain questioned merchants who visited the empire in the 11th century and wrote of the king:

He sits in audience or to hear grievances against officials in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with gold-embroidered materials. Behind the king stand ten pages holding shields and swords decorated with gold, and on his right are the sons of the kings of his country wearing splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold. The governor of the city sits on the ground before the king and around him are ministers seated likewise. At the door of the pavilion are dogs of excellent pedigree that hardly ever leave the place where the king is, guarding him. Around their necks they wear collars of gold and silver studded with a number of balls of the same metals.[47]

Ghana appears to have had a central core region and was surrounded by vassal states. One of the earliest sources to describe Ghana, al-Ya'qubi, writing in 889/90 (276 AH) says that "under his authority are a number of kings" which included Sama and 'Am (?) and so extended at least to the Niger River valley.[48] These "kings" were presumably the rulers of the territorial units often called kafu in Mandinka.

The Arabic sources are vague as to how the country was governed. Al-Bakri, far and away the most detailed one, mentions that the king had officials (mazalim) who surrounded his throne when he gave justice, and these included the sons of the "kings of his country" which we must assume are the same kings that al-Ya'qubi mentioned in his account of nearly 200 years earlier. Al-Bakri's detailed geography of the region shows that in his day, or 1067/1068, Ghana was surrounded by independent kingdoms, and Sila, one of them located on the Senegal River, was "almost a match for the king of Ghana." Sama is the only such entity mentioned as a province, as it was in al-Ya'qubi's day.[49]

In al-Bakri's time, the rulers of Ghana had begun to incorporate more Muslims into government, including the treasurer, his interpreter, and "the majority of his officials."[47]

Koumbi Saleh edit

The empire's capital is believed to have been at Koumbi Saleh on the rim of the Sahara desert.[50] According to the description of the town left by Al-Bakri in 1067/1068, the capital actually consisted of two cities 10 kilometres (6 mi) apart but "between these two towns are continuous habitations", so that they might be said to have merged into one.[47]

El-Ghaba edit

According to al-Bakri, the major part of the city was called El-Ghaba and was the residence of the king. It was protected by a stone wall and functioned as the royal and spiritual capital of the Empire. It contained a sacred grove of trees in which priests lived. It also contained the king's palace, the grandest structure in the city, surrounded by other "domed buildings". There was also one mosque for visiting Muslim officials.[47] (El-Ghaba, coincidentally or not, means "The Forest" in Arabic.)

Muslim district edit

The name of the other section of the city is not recorded. In the vicinity were wells with fresh water, used to grow vegetables. It was inhabited almost entirely by Muslims, who had with twelve mosques, one of which was designated for Friday prayers, and had a full group of scholars, scribes and Islamic jurists. Because the majority of these Muslims were merchants, this part of the city was probably its primary business district.[51] It is likely that these inhabitants were largely black Muslims known as the Wangara and are today known as Jakhanke or Mandinka. The separate and autonomous towns outside of the main governmental center is a well-known practice used by the Jakhanke tribe of the Mandinka people throughout history.

Archaeology edit

 
The Western Nile according to al-Bakri (1068)
 
The Western Nile according to Muhammad al-Idrisi (1154)

A 17th-century chronicle written in Timbuktu, the Tarikh al-fattash, gave the name of the capital as "Koumbi".[4] Beginning in the 1920s, French archaeologists excavated the site of Koumbi Saleh, although there have always been controversies about the location of Ghana's capital and whether Koumbi Saleh is the same town as the one described by al-Bakri. The site was excavated in 1949–50 by Paul Thomassey and Raymond Mauny[53] and by another French team in 1975–81.[54] The remains of Koumbi Saleh are impressive, even if the remains of the royal town, with its large palace and burial mounds, have not been located. Another problem for archaeology is that al-Idrisi, a twelfth-century writer, described Ghana's royal city as lying on a riverbank, a river he called the "Nile" following the geographic custom of his day of confusing the Niger and Senegal Rivers, which do not meet, as forming a single river often called the "Nile of the Blacks". Whether al-Idrisi was referring to a new and later capital located elsewhere, or whether there was confusion or corruption in his text is unclear. However, he does state that the royal palace he knew was built in 510 AH (1116–1117 AD), suggesting that it was a newer town, rebuilt closer to the Niger than Koumbi Saleh.[37]

Demographics edit

The empire was populated by ancient Mande tribes and would come under unity through the Soninke tribe of the greater Mande ethnic group, with its citizens living in deeply established patrilineal/paternal clans and family structures.[1]

List of rulers edit

Soninke rulers ("Ghanas") of the Cisse dynasty edit

Almoravid occupation edit

Sosso rulers edit

  • Kambine Diaresso (sometimes also written as Jarisso): 1087–1090
  • Suleiman: 1090–1100
  • Bannu Bubu: 1100–1120
  • Magan Wagadou: 1120–1130
  • Gane: 1130–1140
  • Musa: 1140–1160
  • Birama: 1160–1180

Rulers during Kaniaga occupation edit

  • Diara Kante: 1180–1202
  • Soumaba Cisse as vassal of Soumaoro Kanté: 1203–1235

Ghanas of Wagadou tributary edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b Etheredge, Laura (2009-04-14). "Ghana". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  2. ^ al-Kuwarizmi in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 7.
  3. ^ Willie F. Page; R. Hunt Davis, Jr., eds. (2005), "Ghana Empire", Encyclopedia of African History and Culture, vol. 2 (revised ed.), Facts on File, pp. 85–87
  4. ^ a b c Houdas & Delafosse 1913, p. 76.
  5. ^ Levtzion 1973, p. 19: "It is disputed as to the tribe to which these kings belonged; some say they were Wa'kore [Soninke], others say they were Wangara [Malinke] which appears improbable. Others say they were Sanhaja which seems to me most likely … The nearest to the truth is that they were not black."
  6. ^ Houdas & Delafosse 1913, p. 78
  7. ^ Levtzion 1973, p. 19: "Mali is the name of an extensive territory lying in the far west [of the Sudan] to the direction of the Ocean. It was Kaya-Magha who founded the first kingdom in that region. His capital was Ghana, an important town in the country of Baghana. It is said that their kingdom was in existence before the hijra, and that twenty-two kings reigned before it and twenty-two afterwards, making forty four in all. In origin they were white, though we do not know to whom they trace their origin. Their subjects, however, were Wa'kore [Soninke]."
  8. ^ Levtzion 1973, p. 4
  9. ^ Houdas & Delafosse 1913, p. 78, translation from Levtzion 1973, p. 19
  10. ^ al-Idrisi in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 109, and ibn Sa'id, p. 186.
  11. ^ Hunwick 2003, p. 13 and note 5.
  12. ^ Levtzion & Spaulding 2003, p. 27.
  13. ^ Mauny 1954, p. 204.
  14. ^ Alexander, Leslie M.; Rucker, Walter C. Jr. (9 February 2010). Encyclopedia of African American History [3 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851097746. Retrieved 13 September 2018 – via Google Books.
  15. ^ Levtzion 1973, pp. 16–17.
  16. ^ Monteil, Charles (1966). "Fin de siècle à Médine (1898-1899)". Bulletin de l'IFAN. série B. 28 (1–2): 166.
  17. ^ Vidal, Jules (1924). "La légende officielle de Soundiata, fondateur de l'Empire manding". Bulletin du Comité d'Études Historiques et Scientifiques de l'AOF. 8 (2): 317–328.
  18. ^ African Studies Association, History in Africa, Vol. 11, African Studies Association, 1984, University of Michigan, pp. 42-51.
  19. ^ Cornevin, Robert, Histoire de l'Africa, Tome I: des origines au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1962), 347-48 (reference to Delafosse in Haut-Sénégal-Niger vol. 1, pp. 256-257)
  20. ^ Delafosse 1912, pp. 215–226 Vol. 1.
  21. ^ Mauny 1961, pp. 72–74, 508–511.
  22. ^ Levtzion 1973, pp. 8–17.
  23. ^ Ehret 2016, p. 300.
  24. ^ Munson 1980.
  25. ^ Kevin McDonald, Robert Vernet, Dorian Fuller and James Woodhouse, "New Light on the Tichitt Tradition" A Preliminary Report on Survey and Excavation at Dhar Nema," pp. 78–80.
  26. ^ Burr, J. Millard and Robert O. Collins, Darfur: The Long Road to Disaster, Markus Wiener Publishers: Princeton, 2006, ISBN 1-55876-405-4, pp. 6–7.
  27. ^ Arazi, Noemie. "Tracing History in Dia, in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali -Archaeology, Oral Traditions and Written Sources" (PDF). University College London. Institute of Archaeology.
  28. ^ MacDonald, K.C. Before the Empire of Ghana: Pastoralism and the Origins of Cultural Complexity in the Sahel. pp. 71–103.
  29. ^ Mcintosh, Susan Keech; Mcintosh, Roderick J. (February 1980). "Jenne-Jeno: An Ancient African City". Archaeology. 33 (1): 8–14.
  30. ^ al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. Corpus, p. 73.
  31. ^ For example, Levtzion, Ghana and Mali, pp. 44–48.
  32. ^ Masonen & Fisher 1996.
  33. ^ Lange 1996, pp. 122–159.
  34. ^ "Listening for Silences in Almoravid History: Another Reading of "The Conquest that Never Was" Camilo Gómez-Rivas
  35. ^ "Law and the Islamization of Morocco under the Almoravids" Camilo Gómez-Rivas
  36. ^ Insoll 2003, p. 230.
  37. ^ a b al-Idrisi in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, pp. 109–110.
  38. ^ a b ibn Khaldun in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. Corpus, p. 333.
  39. ^ ibn Khaldun in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 333.
  40. ^ Delafosse 1912, p. 291 Vol. 1.
  41. ^ a b al-'Umari in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. Corpus, p. 262.
  42. ^ Chu, Daniel and Skinner, Elliot. A Glorious Age in Africa, 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965.
  43. ^ Meredith, Martin (2014). The fortunes of Africa : a 5000-year history of wealth, greed, and endeavour. United States: Public Affairs. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-61039-459-8.
  44. ^ Krätli, Graziano; Lydon, Ghislaine (2011). The Trans-Saharan Book Trade: Manuscript Culture, Arabic Literacy and Intellectual History in Muslim Africa. Brill Publishers. ISBN 9789004187429.
  45. ^ al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. Corpus, p. 81.
  46. ^ "The Story of Africa- BBC World Service". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  47. ^ a b c d al-Bakri (1067) in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 80.
  48. ^ al-Ya'qubi in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. Corpus, p. 21.
  49. ^ al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans., Corpus, pp. 77–83.
  50. ^ Levtzion 1973, pp. 22–26.
  51. ^ al-Bakri, 1067 in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, pp. 79–80.
  52. ^ Capel, Chloe (2021). "Le Tombeau à Colonnes de Koumbi Saleh (Mauritanie – xie-xiie siècle)". REMMM: 237–262.
  53. ^ Thomassey & Mauny 1951.
  54. ^ Berthier 1997.

Bibliography edit

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  • Lange, Dierk (2004), Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa, Dettelbach, Germany: J. H. Röll, ISBN 978-3-89754-115-3.
  • Levtzion, Nehemia (1973), Ancient Ghana and Mali (PDF), London: Methuen, ISBN 978-0-8419-0431-6. Reprinted with additions 1980.
  • Levtzion, Nehemia; Hopkins, John F. P. eds. and trans. (2000), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa, New York, NY: Marcus Weiner, ISBN 978-1-55876-241-1. First published in 1981 by Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-22422-5.
  • Levtzion, Nehemia; Spaulding, Jay (2003), Medieval West Africa: Views from Arab Scholars and Merchants, Princeton NJ: Markus Wiener, ISBN 978-1-55876-305-0. Excerpts from Levtzion & Hopkins 1981. Includes an extended introduction.
  • Masonen, Pekka; Fisher, Humphrey J. (1996), "Not quite Venus from the waves: The Almoravid conquest of Ghana in the modern historiography of Western Africa" (PDF), History in Africa, 23: 197–232, doi:10.2307/3171941, JSTOR 3171941, S2CID 162477947.
  • Mauny, Raymond A. (1954), "The question of Ghana", Journal of the International African Institute, 24 (3): 200–213, doi:10.2307/1156424, JSTOR 1156424, S2CID 143619637.
  • Mauny, Raymond (1961), Tableau géographique de l'ouest africain au moyen age, d'après les sources écrites, la tradition et l'archéologie, Dakar: Institut français d'Afrique Noire.
  • Munson, Patrick J. (1980), "Archaeology and the prehistoric origins of the Ghana Empire", The Journal of African History, 21 (4): 457–466, doi:10.1017/s0021853700018685, JSTOR 182004, S2CID 161981607.
  • Thomassey, Paul; Mauny, Raymond (1951), , Bulletin de I'lnstitut Français de I'Afrique Noire (B) (in French), 13: 438–462, archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Includes a plan of the site.

Further reading edit

  • Conrad, David C.; Fisher, Humphrey J. (1982), "The conquest that never was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. I. The external Arabic sources", History in Africa, 9: 21–59, doi:10.2307/3171598, JSTOR 3171598, S2CID 163009319.
  • Conrad, David C.; Fisher, Humphrey J. (1983), "The conquest that never was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The local oral sources", History in Africa, 10: 53–78, doi:10.2307/3171690, JSTOR 3171690, S2CID 162867483.
  • Cornevin, Robert (1965), "Ghana", Encyclopaedia of Islam Volume 2 (2nd ed.), Leiden: Brill, pp. 1001–2, ISBN 978-90-04-07026-4.
  • Cuoq, Joseph M., translator and editor (1975), Recueil des sources arabes concernant l'Afrique occidentale du VIIIe au XVIe siècle (Bilād al-Sūdān) (in French), Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link). Reprinted in 1985 with corrections and additional texts, ISBN 2-222-01718-1. Similar to Levtzion and Hopkins, 1981 & 2000.
  • Masonen, Pekka (2000), The Negroland revisited: Discovery and invention of the Sudanese middle ages, Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, pp. 519–23, ISBN 978-951-41-0886-0.
  • Mauny, Raymond (1971), "The Western Sudan", in Shinnie, P.L. (ed.), The African Iron age, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 66–87, ISBN 978-0-19-813158-8.
  • Monteil, Charles (1954), "La légende du Ouagadou et l'origine des Soninke", Mélanges Ethnologiques, Dakar: Mémoire de l'Institute Français d'Afrique Noire 23, pp. 359–408.

External links edit

  • Ghana Empire - World History Encyclopedia
  • Empires of west Sudan
  • Ancient Ghana — BBC World Service

15°40′N 8°00′W / 15.667°N 8.000°W / 15.667; -8.000

ghana, empire, confused, with, modern, country, ghana, arabic, غانا, also, known, simply, ghana, ghanata, wagadou, west, african, classical, post, classical, western, sahelian, empire, based, modern, southeast, mauritania, western, mali, with, collapse, dhar, . Not to be confused with the modern country Ghana The Ghana Empire Arabic غانا also known as simply Ghana 1 Ghanata or Wagadou was a West African classical to post classical era western Sahelian empire based in the modern day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali With the collapse of the Dhar Tichitt culture circa 400 B C E The Ghana Empire s latency phase is hypothesized to have spanned from the 4th century B C E to approximately the 1st century C E with the eventual imperial state materializing between the 1st and 3rd centuries C E ultimately dissolving in the 1300s Ghana EmpireغاناWagadouواغادوc 100 300 c mid 1200sThe Ghana Empire at its greatest extentCapitalKoumbi SalehCommon languagesSoninke Malinke MandeReligionAfrican traditional religion Later IslamGovernmentMonarchyGhana 700Kaya Magan Cisse 790sDyabe Cisse 1040 1062Ghana Bassi 1203 1235Soumaba CisseHistorical era1st 3rd century 13th century Establishedc 100 300 Conversion to Islam1050 Conquered by Sosso Submitted to the Mali Empirec mid 1200sPreceded by Succeeded byTichitt cultureDjenne Djenno Mali EmpireToday part ofMali Mauritania SenegalIt is uncertain when Ghana s ruling dynasty began among historians The first identifiable mention of the imperial dynasty in written records was made by Muḥammad ibn Musa al Khwarizmi in 830 2 Further information about the empire was provided by the accounts of Cordoban scholar al Bakri when he wrote about the region in the 11th century After centuries of prosperity the empire began its decline in the second millennium and would finally become a vassal state of the rising Mali Empire at some point in the 13th century Despite its collapse the empire s influence can be felt in the establishment of numerous urban centers throughout its former territory In 1957 the British colony of the Gold Coast under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah named itself Ghana upon independence in honor and remembrance of the historic empire although their geographic boundaries never overlapped Contents 1 Etymology 2 Sources and theories of origin 2 1 Founders ethnicity 2 2 Oral traditions 2 3 Contribution of archaeological research 3 History 3 1 Early centuries 3 2 Formation of the Empire 3 3 Imperial decline 3 4 Sosso occupation and successor states 3 5 Mali dominance 4 Economy 5 Government 6 Koumbi Saleh 6 1 El Ghaba 6 2 Muslim district 6 3 Archaeology 7 Demographics 8 List of rulers 8 1 Soninke rulers Ghanas of the Cisse dynasty 8 2 Almoravid occupation 8 3 Sosso rulers 8 4 Rulers during Kaniaga occupation 8 5 Ghanas of Wagadou tributary 9 See also 10 References 10 1 Bibliography 11 Further reading 12 External linksEtymology editThe word ghana means warrior or war chief and was the title given to the rulers of the original kingdom whose Soninke name was Ouagadou Kaya Maghan king of gold was another title for these kings 3 Sources and theories of origin editFounders ethnicity edit Theorizing concerning the origins of Ghana has been dominated by disputes between ethnohistoric accounts and archaeological interpretations The earliest discussions of its origins are found in the Sudanese chronicles of Mahmud Kati the Tarikh al Fattash and Abd al Rahman as Sadi the Tarikh al Sudan 4 In addressing the rulers origin the Tarikh al Fattash provides three different opinions that they were Soninke or Wangara a Soninke Mande group which the author considered improbable or that they were Sanhaja Berbers which the author considered most likely The author concludes that the nearest to the truth is that they were not black 5 6 The Tarikh al Sudan further states that In origin they were white though we do not know to whom they trace their origin Their subjects however were Wa kore Soninke 7 According to Levtzion 1973 Historical traditions recorded since the turn of the century among the Soninke repeat the claim that their ancestor was a white man who had come from the east 8 Mahmud Kati favored his interpretation in view of his opinion that the rulers genealogies linked them to the Berbers 9 While the 16th century versions of genealogies might have linked Ghana to the Sanhaja earlier versions for example as reported by the 11th century writer al Idrisi and the 13th century writer Ibn Said noted that rulers of Ghana in those days traced their descent from the clan of the Prophet Muhammad either through his protector Abi Talib or through his son in law Ali 10 He purports that approximately 18 through 34 ancient Kaya kings ruled before the Hijra and 24 more kaya kings ruled afterward 11 While these early views lead to many exotic interpretations of a foreign origin of Wagadu these views are generally disregarded by modern scholars Levtzion and Spaulding for example argue that al Idrisi s testimony should be looked at very critically due to demonstrably gross miscalculations in geography and historical chronology while they themselves associate Ghana with the local Soninke Mande 12 In addition the archaeologist and historian Raymond Mauny argues that al Kati s and al Saadi s view of a foreign origin cannot be regarded as reliable He argues that the interpretations were based on the later presence after Ghana s demise of nomadic Berber interlopers from Libya on the assumption that they were the ruling caste and that the writers did not adequately consider contemporary accounts such as those of Ya qubi 872 CE al Masudi c 944 CE Ibn Hawqal 977 CE and al Biruni c 1036 CE as well as al Bakri all of whom describe the population and rulers of Ghana as negroes 13 nbsp Trade routes of the Western Sahara c 1000 1500 Goldfields are indicated by light brown shading Bambuk Bure Lobi and Akan Oral traditions edit See also History of the Soninke people In the late 19th century as French forces occupied the region in which ancient Ghana lay colonial officials began collecting traditional accounts including some manuscripts written in Arabic somewhat earlier in the century Several such traditions were recorded and published While there are variants these traditions called the most ancient polity they knew of Wagadu or the place of the Wague the term current in the 19th century for the local nobility The traditions described the kingdom as having been founded by a man named Dinga who came from the east possibly Aswan Egypt 14 after which he migrated to a variety of locations in western Sudan in each place leaving children by different wives In order to achieve power in his final location he had to kill a goblin and then marry his daughters who became the ancestors of the clans that were dominant in the region at the time of the recording of the religion Upon Dinga s death his two sons Khine and Dyabe contested the kingship and Dyabe was victorious founding the kingdom 15 French colonial officials notably Maurice Delafosse whose works on West African history has been criticised by scholars such Charles Monteil Robert Cornevin and others for being unacceptable and too creative to be useful to historians in relation to his interpretation of West African genealogies 16 17 18 19 concluded that Ghana had been founded by the Berbers a nomadic group originating from the Benue River and linked them to North African and Middle Eastern origins While Delafosse produced a convoluted theory of an invasion by Judeo Syrians which he linked to the Fulbe who actually co founded the Takrur civilization other scholars took the accounts at face value and simply accepted that foreigners had ruled first 20 Raymond Mauny synthesizing early archaeology various traditions and the Arabic materials in 1961 concluded that foreign trade was vital to the empire s foundation 21 More recent work for example by Nehemiah Levtzion in his classic work published in 1973 sought to harmonize archaeology descriptive geographical sources written between 830 and 1400 AD the older traditions of the Tarikhs from the 16th and 17th centuries and at last the traditions collected by French administrators Levtzion concluded that local developments stimulated by trade from North Africa were crucial in the development of the state and he tended to favor the more recently collected traditions over the other traditions in compiling his work 22 While there has not been much further study of either traditions or documents archaeologists have added considerable nuance Christopher Ehret observes that the proposed founding date of c 100 300 CE fits very well within what is known about the Wagadu state s control of the trans saharan gold trade and its scale of time 23 Contribution of archaeological research edit Archaeological research was slow to enter the picture While French archaeologists believed they had located the capital Koumbi Saleh in the 1920s when they located extensive stone ruins in the general area given in most sources for the capital others argued that elaborate burials in the Niger Bend area may have been linked to the empire It was not until 1969 when Patrick Munson excavated at Dhar Tichitt the site of a culture associated with the ancient ancestors of the Soninke people in modern day Mauritania that the probability of an entirely local origin was raised 24 The Dhar Tichitt site clearly reflected a complex culture present by 1600 BC and had architectural and material culture elements that seemed to match the site at Koumbi Saleh In more recent work in Dhar Tichitt and then in Dhar Nema and Dhar Walata it has become more and more clear that as the desert advanced the Dhar Tichitt culture which had abandoned its earliest site around 300 BC possibly because of pressure from desert nomads but also because of increasing aridity moved southward into the still well watered areas of northern Mali 25 This now seems the likely history of the complex society that can be documented at Koumbi Saleh History editEarly centuries edit No native written records have been unearthed despite decades of archaeological study although a plethora of native local Malian adjacent West African and non native medieval Arabic accounts have substantiated and reinforced the empire s ancient existence It likely began as a much earlier proto polity from a large collection of ancient proto Mande agro pastoralist chiefdoms At that point in time Proto Mande chiefdoms were already in the western most portion of the Niger River basin for over a millennium roughly spanning 1300 BCE 300 BCE 26 27 28 29 Formation of the Empire edit The state and then empire started coalescing in the c 1st century AD 3rd century AD The main ethnic group known was the Soninke The capital was in the city of Koumbi Saleh The introduction of the camel to the western Sahara in the 3rd century AD served as a major catalyst for the transformative social changes that resulted in the empire s formation By the time of the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the 7th century the camel had changed the ancient irregular trade routes into a network running between North Africa and the Niger River The Ghana Empire grew rich from this trans Saharan trade in gold textiles foods and salt allowing for larger urban centers to develop The traffic furthermore encouraged territorial expansion to gain control over the different trade routes According to Kati s Tarikh al Fettash in a section probably composed by the author around 1580 but citing the authority of the chief judge of Messina Ida al Massini who lived somewhat earlier twenty kings ruled Ghana before the advent of the prophet Muhammad and the empire extended until the century after the prophet 4 Imperial decline edit Given the scattered nature of the Arabic sources and the ambiguity of the existing archaeological record it is difficult to determine when and how Ghana declined and fell The earliest descriptions of the empire are vague as to its maximum extent though according to al Bakri Ghana had forced Awdaghost in the desert to accept its rule sometime between 970 and 1054 30 By al Bakri s own time however it was surrounded by powerful kingdoms such as Sila A tradition in historiography maintains that Ghana fell when it was sacked by the Almoravid invasion in 1076 77 although Ghanaians resisted attacks for a decade 31 but this interpretation has been questioned Conrad and Fisher 1982 argued that the notion of any Almoravid military conquest at its core is merely perpetuated folklore derived from a misinterpretation or naive reliance on Arabic sources 32 Dierke Lange agrees but argues that this does not preclude Almoravid political agitation claiming that Ghana s demise owed much to the latter 33 Sheryl L Burkhalter 1992 was skeptical of Conrad and Fisher s arguments and suggested that there were reasons to believe that there was conflict between the Almoravids and the empire of Ghana 34 35 Furthermore the archaeology of ancient Ghana does not show the signs of rapid change and destruction that would be associated with any Almoravid era military conquests 36 While there is no clear cut account of a sack of Ghana in the contemporary sources the country certainly did convert to Islam for al Idrisi whose account was written in 1154 has the country fully Muslim by that date Al Idrisi s report does not give any reason to believe that the Empire was smaller or weaker than it had been in the days of al Bakri 75 years earlier In fact he describes its capital as the greatest of all towns of the Sudan with respect to area the most populous and with the most extensive trade 37 Sosso occupation and successor states edit nbsp Map of successor states to the Ghana EmpireIbn Khaldun a 14th century North African historian who read and cited both al Bakri and al Idrisi reported an ambiguous account of the country s history as related to him by Uthman a faqih of Ghana who took a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1394 according to which the power of Ghana waned as that of the veiled people grew through the Almoravid movement 38 Following Ghana s conversion the authority of the rulers of Ghana dwindled away and they were overcome by the Sosso who subjugated and subdued them 38 Some modern traditions identify the Susu as the Sosso inhabitants of Kaniaga According to much later traditions from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries Diara Kante took control of Koumbi Saleh and established the Diarisso dynasty His son Soumaoro Kante succeeded him and forced the people to pay him tribute The Sosso also managed to annex the neighboring Mandinka state of Kangaba to the south where the important goldfields of Bure were located Mali dominance edit In his brief overview of Sudanese history Ibn Khaldun related that the people of Mali outnumbered the peoples of the Sudan in their neighborhood and dominated the whole region He went on to relate that they vanquished the Susu and acquired all their possessions both their ancient kingdom and that of Ghana 39 According to a modern tradition this resurgence of Mali was led by Sundiata Keita the founder of Mali and ruler of its core area of Kangaba Delafosse assigned an arbitrary but widely accepted date of 1230 to the event 40 This tradition states that Ghana Soumaba Cisse at the time a vassal of the Sosso rebelled with Kangaba and became part of a loose federation of Mande speaking states After Soumaoro s defeat at the Battle of Kirina in 1235 a date again assigned arbitrarily by Delafosse the new rulers of Koumbi Saleh became permanent allies of the Mali Empire As Mali became more powerful Koumbi Saleh s role as an ally declined to that of a submissive state 41 According to a detailed account of al Umari written around 1340 but based on testimony given to him by the truthful and trustworthy shaykh Abu Uthman Sa id al Dukkali Ghana still retained its functions as a sort of kingdom within the empire its ruler being the only one allowed to bear the title malik and who is like a deputy unto him 41 Economy editMost of the information about the economy of Ghana comes from al Bakri He noted that merchants had to pay a tax of one gold dinar on imports of salt and two on exports of salt Other products had fixed dues al Bakri mentioned both copper and other goods Imports probably included products such as textiles ornaments and other materials Many of the hand crafted leather goods found in present day Morocco also had their origins in the empire 42 al Bakri also mentioned that Muslims played a central role in commerce and held court appointments 43 Ibn Hawqal quotes the use of a cheque worth 42 000 dinars 44 The main centre of trade was Koumbi Saleh The king claimed as his own all nuggets of gold and allowed other people to have only gold dust 45 In addition to the influence exerted by the king in local regions tribute was received from various tributary states and chiefdoms on the empire s periphery 46 The introduction of the camel played a key role in Soninke success as well allowing products and goods to be transported much more efficiently across the Sahara These contributing factors all helped the empire remain powerful for some time providing a rich and stable economy that was to last several centuries The empire was also known to be a major educational hub citation needed Ghana grew rich from the Trans Saharan Trade by trading gold iron salt and slaves Government editTestimony about ancient Ghana depended on how well disposed the king was to foreign travelers from whom the majority of information on the empire comes Islamic writers often commented on the social political stability of the empire based on the seemingly just actions and grandeur of the king Al Bakri a Moorish nobleman living in Spain questioned merchants who visited the empire in the 11th century and wrote of the king He sits in audience or to hear grievances against officials in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with gold embroidered materials Behind the king stand ten pages holding shields and swords decorated with gold and on his right are the sons of the kings of his country wearing splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold The governor of the city sits on the ground before the king and around him are ministers seated likewise At the door of the pavilion are dogs of excellent pedigree that hardly ever leave the place where the king is guarding him Around their necks they wear collars of gold and silver studded with a number of balls of the same metals 47 Ghana appears to have had a central core region and was surrounded by vassal states One of the earliest sources to describe Ghana al Ya qubi writing in 889 90 276 AH says that under his authority are a number of kings which included Sama and Am and so extended at least to the Niger River valley 48 These kings were presumably the rulers of the territorial units often called kafu in Mandinka The Arabic sources are vague as to how the country was governed Al Bakri far and away the most detailed one mentions that the king had officials mazalim who surrounded his throne when he gave justice and these included the sons of the kings of his country which we must assume are the same kings that al Ya qubi mentioned in his account of nearly 200 years earlier Al Bakri s detailed geography of the region shows that in his day or 1067 1068 Ghana was surrounded by independent kingdoms and Sila one of them located on the Senegal River was almost a match for the king of Ghana Sama is the only such entity mentioned as a province as it was in al Ya qubi s day 49 In al Bakri s time the rulers of Ghana had begun to incorporate more Muslims into government including the treasurer his interpreter and the majority of his officials 47 Koumbi Saleh editMain article Koumbi Saleh nbsp Central mausoleum in 1951 left and 2007 right nbsp Column Tomb with remains of the corner columns still intact nbsp Individual burial from the Column Tomb with isolated stele placed at the head nbsp Western necropolis of Koumbi Saleh showing the density of funerary structuresThe empire s capital is believed to have been at Koumbi Saleh on the rim of the Sahara desert 50 According to the description of the town left by Al Bakri in 1067 1068 the capital actually consisted of two cities 10 kilometres 6 mi apart but between these two towns are continuous habitations so that they might be said to have merged into one 47 El Ghaba edit According to al Bakri the major part of the city was called El Ghaba and was the residence of the king It was protected by a stone wall and functioned as the royal and spiritual capital of the Empire It contained a sacred grove of trees in which priests lived It also contained the king s palace the grandest structure in the city surrounded by other domed buildings There was also one mosque for visiting Muslim officials 47 El Ghaba coincidentally or not means The Forest in Arabic Muslim district edit The name of the other section of the city is not recorded In the vicinity were wells with fresh water used to grow vegetables It was inhabited almost entirely by Muslims who had with twelve mosques one of which was designated for Friday prayers and had a full group of scholars scribes and Islamic jurists Because the majority of these Muslims were merchants this part of the city was probably its primary business district 51 It is likely that these inhabitants were largely black Muslims known as the Wangara and are today known as Jakhanke or Mandinka The separate and autonomous towns outside of the main governmental center is a well known practice used by the Jakhanke tribe of the Mandinka people throughout history nbsp Funerary complex of the Column Tomb 52 nbsp Central mausoleum the qubba of the Column Tomb nbsp Burial excavation showing the over pit system and surface arrangementsArchaeology edit nbsp The Western Nile according to al Bakri 1068 nbsp The Western Nile according to Muhammad al Idrisi 1154 A 17th century chronicle written in Timbuktu the Tarikh al fattash gave the name of the capital as Koumbi 4 Beginning in the 1920s French archaeologists excavated the site of Koumbi Saleh although there have always been controversies about the location of Ghana s capital and whether Koumbi Saleh is the same town as the one described by al Bakri The site was excavated in 1949 50 by Paul Thomassey and Raymond Mauny 53 and by another French team in 1975 81 54 The remains of Koumbi Saleh are impressive even if the remains of the royal town with its large palace and burial mounds have not been located Another problem for archaeology is that al Idrisi a twelfth century writer described Ghana s royal city as lying on a riverbank a river he called the Nile following the geographic custom of his day of confusing the Niger and Senegal Rivers which do not meet as forming a single river often called the Nile of the Blacks Whether al Idrisi was referring to a new and later capital located elsewhere or whether there was confusion or corruption in his text is unclear However he does state that the royal palace he knew was built in 510 AH 1116 1117 AD suggesting that it was a newer town rebuilt closer to the Niger than Koumbi Saleh 37 Demographics editThe empire was populated by ancient Mande tribes and would come under unity through the Soninke tribe of the greater Mande ethnic group with its citizens living in deeply established patrilineal paternal clans and family structures 1 List of rulers editSoninke rulers Ghanas of the Cisse dynasty edit Kaya Magan Cisse also known as Dinga Cisse Dyabe Cisse circa 790s Bassi 1040 1062 Tunka Manin 1062 1076Almoravid occupation edit Abu Bakr ibn Umar 1076 1086Sosso rulers edit Kambine Diaresso sometimes also written as Jarisso 1087 1090 Suleiman 1090 1100 Bannu Bubu 1100 1120 Magan Wagadou 1120 1130 Gane 1130 1140 Musa 1140 1160 Birama 1160 1180Rulers during Kaniaga occupation edit Diara Kante 1180 1202 Soumaba Cisse as vassal of Soumaoro Kante 1203 1235Ghanas of Wagadou tributary edit Soumaba Cisse as ally of Sundiata Keita 1235 1240See also editHistory of the Soninke people Islam in Africa Mande PeopleReferences edit a b Etheredge Laura 2009 04 14 Ghana Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved 2023 07 09 al Kuwarizmi in Levtzion and Hopkins Corpus p 7 Willie F Page R Hunt Davis Jr eds 2005 Ghana Empire Encyclopedia of African History and Culture vol 2 revised ed Facts on File pp 85 87 a b c Houdas amp Delafosse 1913 p 76 Levtzion 1973 p 19 It is disputed as to the tribe to which these kings belonged some say they were Wa kore Soninke others say they were Wangara Malinke which appears improbable Others say they were Sanhaja which seems to me most likely The nearest to the truth is that they were not black Houdas amp Delafosse 1913 p 78 Levtzion 1973 p 19 Mali is the name of an extensive territory lying in the far west of the Sudan to the direction of the Ocean It was Kaya Magha who founded the first kingdom in that region His capital was Ghana an important town in the country of Baghana It is said that their kingdom was in existence before the hijra and that twenty two kings reigned before it and twenty two afterwards making forty four in all In origin they were white though we do not know to whom they trace their origin Their subjects however were Wa kore Soninke Levtzion 1973 p 4 Houdas amp Delafosse 1913 p 78 translation from Levtzion 1973 p 19 al Idrisi in Levtzion and Hopkins Corpus p 109 and ibn Sa id p 186 Hunwick 2003 p 13 and note 5 Levtzion amp Spaulding 2003 p 27 Mauny 1954 p 204 Alexander Leslie M Rucker Walter C Jr 9 February 2010 Encyclopedia of African American History 3 volumes ABC CLIO ISBN 9781851097746 Retrieved 13 September 2018 via Google Books Levtzion 1973 pp 16 17 Monteil Charles 1966 Fin de siecle a Medine 1898 1899 Bulletin de l IFAN serie B 28 1 2 166 Vidal Jules 1924 La legende officielle de Soundiata fondateur de l Empire manding Bulletin du Comite d Etudes Historiques et Scientifiques de l AOF 8 2 317 328 African Studies Association History in Africa Vol 11 African Studies Association 1984 University of Michigan pp 42 51 Cornevin Robert Histoire de l Africa Tome I des origines au XVIe siecle Paris 1962 347 48 reference to Delafosse in Haut Senegal Niger vol 1 pp 256 257 Delafosse 1912 pp 215 226 Vol 1 Mauny 1961 pp 72 74 508 511 Levtzion 1973 pp 8 17 Ehret 2016 p 300 Munson 1980 Kevin McDonald Robert Vernet Dorian Fuller and James Woodhouse New Light on the Tichitt Tradition A Preliminary Report on Survey and Excavation at Dhar Nema pp 78 80 Burr J Millard and Robert O Collins Darfur The Long Road to Disaster Markus Wiener Publishers Princeton 2006 ISBN 1 55876 405 4 pp 6 7 Arazi Noemie Tracing History in Dia in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali Archaeology Oral Traditions and Written Sources PDF University College London Institute of Archaeology MacDonald K C Before the Empire of Ghana Pastoralism and the Origins of Cultural Complexity in the Sahel pp 71 103 Mcintosh Susan Keech Mcintosh Roderick J February 1980 Jenne Jeno An Ancient African City Archaeology 33 1 8 14 al Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins eds and trans Corpus p 73 For example Levtzion Ghana and Mali pp 44 48 Masonen amp Fisher 1996 Lange 1996 pp 122 159 Listening for Silences in Almoravid History Another Reading of The Conquest that Never Was Camilo Gomez Rivas Law and the Islamization of Morocco under the Almoravids Camilo Gomez Rivas Insoll 2003 p 230 a b al Idrisi in Levtzion and Hopkins Corpus pp 109 110 a b ibn Khaldun in Levtzion and Hopkins eds and trans Corpus p 333 ibn Khaldun in Levtzion and Hopkins Corpus p 333 Delafosse 1912 p 291 Vol 1 a b al Umari in Levtzion and Hopkins eds and trans Corpus p 262 Chu Daniel and Skinner Elliot A Glorious Age in Africa 1st ed Garden City NY Doubleday 1965 Meredith Martin 2014 The fortunes of Africa a 5000 year history of wealth greed and endeavour United States Public Affairs p 73 ISBN 978 1 61039 459 8 Kratli Graziano Lydon Ghislaine 2011 The Trans Saharan Book Trade Manuscript Culture Arabic Literacy and Intellectual History in Muslim Africa Brill Publishers ISBN 9789004187429 al Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins eds and trans Corpus p 81 The Story of Africa BBC World Service www bbc co uk Retrieved 13 September 2018 a b c d al Bakri 1067 in Levtzion and Hopkins Corpus p 80 al Ya qubi in Levtzion and Hopkins eds and trans Corpus p 21 al Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins eds and trans Corpus pp 77 83 Levtzion 1973 pp 22 26 al Bakri 1067 in Levtzion and Hopkins Corpus pp 79 80 Capel Chloe 2021 Le Tombeau a Colonnes de Koumbi Saleh Mauritanie xie xiie siecle REMMM 237 262 Thomassey amp Mauny 1951 Berthier 1997 Bibliography edit Berthier Sophie 1997 Recherches archeologiques sur la capitale de l empire de Ghana Etude d un secteur d habitat a Koumbi Saleh Mauritanie Campagnes II III IV V 1975 1976 1980 1981 British Archaeological Reports 680 Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 41 Oxford Archaeopress ISBN 978 0 86054 868 3 Delafosse Maurice 1912 Haut Senegal Niger Le Pays les Peuples les Langues l Histoire les Civilizations 3 Vols in French Paris Emile Larose Gallica Volume 1 Le Pays les Peuples les Langues Volume 2 L Histoire Volume 3 Les Civilisations Ehret Christopher 2016 The Civilizations of Africa A History to 1800 Charlottesville University of Virginia Press Houdas Octave Delafosse Maurice eds 1913 Tarikh el fettach par Mahmoud Kati et l un de ses petit fils 2 Vols Paris Ernest Leroux Volume 1 is the Arabic text Volume 2 is a translation into French Reprinted by Maisonneuve in 1964 and 1981 The French text is also available from Aluka but requires a subscription Hunwick John O 2003 Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire Al Sadi s Tarikh al Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents Leiden Brill ISBN 978 90 04 12560 5 Reprint of the 1999 edition with corrections Insoll Timothy 2003 Archaeology of Islam in Sub saharan Africa Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 65702 0 Lange Dierk 1996 The Almoravid expansion and the downfall of Ghana Der Islam 73 2 313 51 doi 10 1515 islm 1996 73 2 313 S2CID 162370098 Reprinted in Lange 2004 pp 455 493 Lange Dierk 2004 Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa Dettelbach Germany J H Roll ISBN 978 3 89754 115 3 Levtzion Nehemia 1973 Ancient Ghana and Mali PDF London Methuen ISBN 978 0 8419 0431 6 Reprinted with additions 1980 Levtzion Nehemia Hopkins John F P eds and trans 2000 Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa New York NY Marcus Weiner ISBN 978 1 55876 241 1 First published in 1981 by Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 22422 5 Levtzion Nehemia Spaulding Jay 2003 Medieval West Africa Views from Arab Scholars and Merchants Princeton NJ Markus Wiener ISBN 978 1 55876 305 0 Excerpts from Levtzion amp Hopkins 1981 Includes an extended introduction Masonen Pekka Fisher Humphrey J 1996 Not quite Venus from the waves The Almoravid conquest of Ghana in the modern historiography of Western Africa PDF History in Africa 23 197 232 doi 10 2307 3171941 JSTOR 3171941 S2CID 162477947 Mauny Raymond A 1954 The question of Ghana Journal of the International African Institute 24 3 200 213 doi 10 2307 1156424 JSTOR 1156424 S2CID 143619637 Mauny Raymond 1961 Tableau geographique de l ouest africain au moyen age d apres les sources ecrites la tradition et l archeologie Dakar Institut francais d Afrique Noire Munson Patrick J 1980 Archaeology and the prehistoric origins of the Ghana Empire The Journal of African History 21 4 457 466 doi 10 1017 s0021853700018685 JSTOR 182004 S2CID 161981607 Thomassey Paul Mauny Raymond 1951 Campagne de fouilles a Koumbi Saleh Bulletin de I lnstitut Francais de I Afrique Noire B in French 13 438 462 archived from the original on 2011 07 26 Includes a plan of the site Further reading editConrad David C Fisher Humphrey J 1982 The conquest that never was Ghana and the Almoravids 1076 I The external Arabic sources History in Africa 9 21 59 doi 10 2307 3171598 JSTOR 3171598 S2CID 163009319 Conrad David C Fisher Humphrey J 1983 The conquest that never was Ghana and the Almoravids 1076 II The local oral sources History in Africa 10 53 78 doi 10 2307 3171690 JSTOR 3171690 S2CID 162867483 Cornevin Robert 1965 Ghana Encyclopaedia of Islam Volume 2 2nd ed Leiden Brill pp 1001 2 ISBN 978 90 04 07026 4 Cuoq Joseph M translator and editor 1975 Recueil des sources arabes concernant l Afrique occidentale du VIIIe au XVIe siecle Bilad al Sudan in French Paris Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a first has generic name help CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Reprinted in 1985 with corrections and additional texts ISBN 2 222 01718 1 Similar to Levtzion and Hopkins 1981 amp 2000 Masonen Pekka 2000 The Negroland revisited Discovery and invention of the Sudanese middle ages Helsinki Finnish Academy of Science and Letters pp 519 23 ISBN 978 951 41 0886 0 Mauny Raymond 1971 The Western Sudan in Shinnie P L ed The African Iron age Oxford Oxford University Press pp 66 87 ISBN 978 0 19 813158 8 Monteil Charles 1954 La legende du Ouagadou et l origine des Soninke Melanges Ethnologiques Dakar Memoire de l Institute Francais d Afrique Noire 23 pp 359 408 External links editGhana Empire World History Encyclopedia African Kingdoms Ghana Empires of west Sudan Kingdom of Ghana Primary Source Documents Ancient Ghana BBC World Service 15 40 N 8 00 W 15 667 N 8 000 W 15 667 8 000 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Ghana Empire amp oldid 1207315468, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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