Download Sahelian empire of the Western and Central Sudan

Section 101
Group Project
Africa
Abdulhadi AlKazmi:200700416
Ibrahim AlAddad: 201200915
Sharaf Salamah:
201200091
Mohammed AlOtaibi:201202606
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Egypt and other north African societies played a central role in Islamic and Mediterranean history
after 1000 C.E. from Tunisia to Egypt, Sunni religious and political leaders and their Shi'ite,
especially Ismail. Counterparts struggled for the minds of masses.
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The Shi'ites had become a small minority of the Muslims in Mediterranean Africa. In Egypt a Sunni
revival confirmed the Sunni character of Egyptian religiously and legal interpretation. In general, a
feisty regionalism characterized states, city-states, and tribal groups north of the Sahara and along he
lower Nile.
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By 1800 the nominally ottoman domains from Egypt to Algeria were effectively independent. In
Egypt the ottomans had established direct rule after defeating the mumluks in 1517 but by the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, power had passed to Egyptian governors descended from the
earlier mamluks. These governors survived until the rise of Muhammad Ali in the wake of the
French invasion of 1800 .
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Islamic influence in Africa began as early as the eighth century, and by 1800 it has affected most of
the Sudanic belt and the east African coast as far south as modern Zimbabwe .
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Islam Spread was peaceful and partial. Islamic faith tended to coexist or blend with indigenous
traditions. Agents of Islam brought not only the Qur'an, new religious practices, and literate culture
, but of expression for at least some social groups and classes over a vast area from Egypt to
Senegambia.
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South of the Sahara, dynamic state-building and trade were principal motors of cultural change In
sub Saharan Africa, except on the east coast and in the west African forests. There was little or no
Islam presence beyond individual Muslims involved in trade on the east coast. How ever Islam
influenced the development of Swahili culture and language.
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Islam was introduced into the Sudan by overland routes, primarily through trades from north Africa
and the Nile valley. Berbers who, as early as the eighth century, plied the desert routes to trading
towns such as awdaghast on the edge of the Sahel were Islam's chief agents from there Islam spread
south to centers.
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Another source of Islam's penetration into the central and western Sudan was migration from Egypt
and the Nilotic Sudan.
Four states developed into relatively long-lived empires: Ghana, Mali, and Songhai in the western
Sudan, and Kanem-Bornu in the central Sudan.
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Ghana:
 Established the model for later Sahelian empires in the western Sudan. Well north of modern Ghana
,it lay between the inland Niger Delta and the upper Sengal.Its capital is Kumbi.Ghanaian rulers
were descended matrilinealy and ruled through a council of ministers .Ghana’s hierarchical society
slaves were at the bottom; farmers and draftsmen above them; merchants above them; and the king,
his court, and the nobility on top.
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Ghana had a solid economic base. Tribute from the empire’s many chieftaincies and taxes on royal
lands and crops supplemented levies on all external trade.
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Although the Ghanaian king and court did not convert to Islam, they made elaborate arrangements to
accommodate Muslim traders and government servants in a separate settlement at a few miles from
Khumbi’s royal preserve.
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Ghana’s empire was probably destroyed in the late twelfth century by malinke clan from the
mountains southeast of kumbi saleh,the anti-Muslim Soso
Mali:
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In the mid-thirteenth century the keita ruling clan of a Ghanaian successor kingdom, forged a new and lasting
empire. This empire seems to have developed on the same economic base as had Ghana and Takrur earlier.
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Monopolization of the lucrative north-south gold trade. The Keita kings dominated sufficient Sahelian territory
to control the flow of West African gold from Senegal and forest regions south of the Niger ton the trans-Sahran
trade routs, and the influx of copper and salt in exchange.
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Because they were farther south than their Ghanaian predecessors had been, they were better placed to control
upper-Niger trade and add the Gambia and Senegal trade to the west .Agriculture and cattle farming were Mali’s
primary occupation and, together with the gold trade , its economic mainstays.
The Keita dynasty had converted to Islam, around 1100C.E.Keita’s rulers even claimed descent from Bilal Ibn
Ribah .
Mali’s imperial power was built largely by the Keita king Sundiata (1230-1255)he exploited their agricultural
resources, significant population growth to build and empire even more powerful than Ghana’s.
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The greatest Keita king was Mansa Musa(r. 1312-1337), famous for his pilgrimage through Mamnluk
Cairo to Mecca in 1324.He spent or gave away so much gold in Cairo alone that he started a massive
inflation that lasted over a decade. He brought many Muslims scholars, artists, and architects back to Mali,
where he consolidated his power, securing peace for most of his reign throughout his vast dominions.
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Rivalries for the throne diminished Mali’s dominance. The empire slowly withered until a new Songhai
power supplanted it after about 1450.
Songhai:
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In the early eleventh or twelfth century there was a Songhai kingdom around Gao.In 1325 Mansa
Musa brought this kingdom and the Gao region under the control of Mali. Mali’s domination ended
with the rise of the Sonni dynasty in Gao in the mid-1300s. The kingdom became an empire under
ruler Sonni Ali(r. 1462-1492).
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The Songhai empire was the most powerful state in Africa .Askia Muhammad AL-Turi (r. 14931528) is the successor of Sonni Ali,he continued Ali’s expansionist policies taking advantage of his
control over the trade of gold.
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Askia Muhammad modeled the Songhai state on the Islamic empire of Mali. In his reign many
Muslims scholars came to Gao,he appointed Muslim judges through out the empire and made
Timbuktu a major intellectual and legal training center for the whole Sudan. He replaced native
songhai with Arab Muslim immigrants as government officials.
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The last powerful Askia leader was Askai Dawud(r. 1549-1583),under whom Songhai prosperity
and intellectual life reached its apogee. Civil war broke out over the royal succession in
1586,dividing the empire. In 1591 an expedition sent by the Moroccan Sa’dis used superior
gunpowder weapons and help from disaffected Songhia princes to defeat the last Askia of Gao at
Tondibi,and the empire collapsed
Kanem-Bornu:
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Kanem arose in the central Sudan after 1100.It began as confederation of nomadic tribes.The
zaghawah group known as Kanuri had settled in Kanem and from there they began a military
campaign of expansion in the thirteenth century.
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Mai Dunama was the leader during his reign Islam appears to have become entrenched among the
Kanuri ruling class.Dunama and his successor extended Kanuri power north and north east and in
both directions they controlled important trade routes.
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Because of the mixing between Kanuri and local Kanembu peoples there was a corresponding
transformation of the Kanuri leader from a nomadic shaykh to Sudanic king and of Kanem from a
traveling to a largely sedentary
Sahelian empire of the Western and
Central Sudan
BY ABDULHADI AL-KAZMI
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Kanem’s dominion was of two kind:
direct rule over and taxation of core territories
indirect control over and collection of tribute from a wider region of vassal chieftaincies.
Civil strife over royal succession weakened the Kanuri state in the later fourteenth and fifteenth
century .after 1400 the locus of power shifted from Kanem to Bornu . With the help of firearms and
Turkish military Kanuri leader Idris Alawma(r. ca. 1575-1610) unify Kanem and Bornu .He set up
avowedly Islamic state and extended hid rule as far as hausaland. His empire survived a century but
after that it was finally broken up by long famine and weak leadership, and loss of control over trade
to smaller states .the ruling dynasty held out until 1846
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Eastern Sudan:

The Christian states of Maqurra and Alwa in the Nilotic Sudan, or Nubia , lasted more then 600 years they
maintained a political and religious and commercial contact with Egypt, the Red Sea world.

After 1000 C.E. the Mamluks intervened repeatedly in Nubian affairs, and Arabs nomads constantly
threatened the Nubian states. Bothe Maqurra and Alwa were increasingly subjected to immigrating
Muslim Arab tribesmen, traders, and growing Muslim minorities. The result of this was a new Nilotic
Sudanese culture.
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Maqurra became officially Muslim in early fourteenth century. The Islamization of Alwa came somewhat
later, most effectively under funj sultnate the replaced the Alwa state.
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The Funj state flourished between the Blue and White Niles and to the north along the main Nile from just
after 1500 until 1762. they adopted Islam soon after establishing their kingdom in the late sixteenth and the
seventeenth century.
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The Funj developed an Islamic society whose Arabized character was unique in sub-Saharan Africa. They
lasted until the Ottoman Egyptian invasion in 1821.
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Benin state and society: The Edo speakers of Benin have occupied the southern Nigerian, and
traditional Edo society is organized according to a patrilineal system emphasizing primogeniture.
Around 1300c prince lfe ruled Benin and they believed the god who sent him to rule Benin. Edo
leaders who invited the foreign ruler were called Uzama.
Benin Art : Benin Art includes a range of animal heads, figurines, busts, plaques, and other artifacts. They
art contain a lot of martial such as bronze, brass, terracotta, and wood. Most Benin art serves the historical
events that happened in the past.
There were a lot of changes between 1500 and 1800 were wrought by burgeoning Atlantic slave trade the
most notorious if comparable importance are
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Senegambia: The name takes from the Senegal and Gambia River. Senegambia trade with
European in gold and some products like salt and cottons and hides. However Senegambia state was
providing slave for Europeans. Over time British come to control on Gambia River trade, while the
French take the Senegal River markets.
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The Gold Coast: It is one of the West African coastal like Senegambia. In 1600 European built
coastal forts to protect their trade from enemies. They were trade in gold, kola nuts, and other
commodities. Also slaves trade were big business in this time.
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The Kongo Kingdom:
It was located a fertile between the coast and Kwango river. There
were famous in weaving, pottery, salt production, fishing and metalworking. Also slaves were traded
for foreign luxuries.
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In 1483 Portuguese come to central Africa coast looking for gold and silver but they found nothing.
However they started export the slaves for sugar plantations in Portuguese. Then they succeed to
exports them to English and French
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In 1600c the Ndongo Kingdom flourished among the Mbundu people even the Portuguese
controlled parts of Angola. Around 1600 Angola was exporting thousand of slaves until the slave
lands became deserted. Also there was new internal trade in salt and the spread of American food
crops like maize and cassava.
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Swahili Culture and Commerce: Swahili culture is basically African with a large
contribution by Arab, Persian so there was a lot of Muslims between them. Swahili language was
developed in the northern towns of Manda, Lamuand Mombasa. Most of the towns trading were
sited on coastal islands. There was impressive mosque and commercial building. Also they lived in
stone house. Swahili exports many things like gold, leopard skins and cotton cloths.
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The Portuguese and Omanis of Zanzibar: In sixteenth century Swahili cavitations declined and
Arabs traders leaved the trades islands because Portuguese destroyed most citied that Arabs trader
were used it. After several years they spared in many places like Mozambique and Mombasa. In
1698 the Omanis ejected the Portuguese north Mozambique. They control on slaves trade and costal
ivory.
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Southeastern Africa: “Great Zimbabwe”
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This is a civilization that lays between Limpopo and the Zimbabwe rivers, in modern southern
Zimbabwe. Founded in the tenth or eleventh century by Bantu speaking “Shona” people, who still
live around this area to this day.
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Great Zimbabwe flourished between the late thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. All the
information we know about this civilization came from archaeological remains of around 150
settlements in the region. The most impressive of these findings was a 60 acre site which held
two major building complexes, the acropolis, royal palace and fort, each were spectacular
findings.
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Their was a major population growth in Great Zimbabwe before 1500 C.E. while at the same
time an increase in Zimbabwe’s prosperity happened. Mining and farming techniques were
brought by late iron age Shona speakers, these new techniques may have helped with
population growth and the continued regional domination for nearly 200 years. The fall of
great Zimbabwe came when northern and southern sectors of the state split while farming
land become scarce and exhausted.
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Swahili control of both the inland gold trade and the multifaceted overseas trade was destroyed by
the Portuguese. The Portuguese main goal was to obtain gold from upper Zambezi regions.
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The regional gold production was small and the Portuguese faced many difficulties while trying to
control it, they didn’t make much profit. After failing to sustain Zambezi gold trade by
supplementing Swahili merchants on the coast, they made fortified posts in Zambezi and disrupted
regional politics. This led to many conflicts with the Shona kingdom.
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After the Changamire Shona dynasty conquered northern Shona territory in the 1960’s they finally
pushed the Portuguese out of their country. A main destabilizing situation was left behind by the
Portuguese this was tribal chiefdoms which were led by mixed blood Portuguese landholders, which
then continued to form clan like groups with other mixed blood members this became a destructive
force.
 The first European colonials emerged in South Africa after being planted by the Dutch, which had
a major impact on Africa. The first of these settlements was built in 1652 by the Dutch east India
company for resupplies and stations of Dutch vessels on their voyages between the Netherlands and
East Indies.
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In 1700 the colony became a large settler colony, going from 392 people in 1662 to 2,878 by 1714.
Most of these settlers where from the Afrikaners of modern South Africa, many were gradually
incorporated into the colonial economy. Local khoikhoi were mostly pastoralists without strong
political organization or an economic base.
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To begin they sold livestock to the Dutch, and then to company settlement from iron, copper and
tobacco. Conflicts happened when the khoikhoi were displaced by the settlers, this lead to the
breakdown of khoikhoi society. The colony imported slaves from different regions and slavery
became a relation between races. Later the rich began to move towards drier tableland while
commando secured their way of life. People moved north to join refugee camps to avoid raiding
bands, the disintegration continued over the years and small pox helped with this heavily.
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