Transcript Chapter Eight: African Civilizations and the Spread of Islam

Chapter Eight:
African Civilizations
and the Spread of Islam
African Regions
African Civilizations and the Spread of Islam
• Between 800 and 1500 C.E., Africa below the Sahara
and civilizations in the Mediterranean and Asia had
more and more contact with one another.
• State building in Africa was influenced both by
indigenous and Islamic inspiration.
• Mali and Songhay = military power and dynastic alliances.
• Western and eastern Africa= larger trading networks.
• Parts of Africa south of the Sahara entered into the
expanding world network; many others remained in
isolation.
Pre-Islamic Africa
• Extremely diverse societies developed
• Political unity was difficult because of terrain
• Bantu is primary language spoken
• Oral traditions; very few written records
• Most communities are preliterate (lacking
writing system)
• Animistic and polytheistic religions common
• Majority of Africa, even after introduction of
Islam, will remain in isolation
• Many who are exposed to Islam do not convert
but remain practitioners of their indigenous
religion
“Stateless” Societies
• Many small communities are politically organized in this way
• Authoritarian and centralized empires will exist, however.
• Lack concentration of power and authority
• Authority and power normally exercised by a ruler and court
is held by a council or families or community
• Typically controlled by lineages or kinships
• Weakness of stateless societies
• No organization to collect taxes  no effective militaries
• No consensus  Difficult to resist external pressures
• No undertaking of large building projects
• Hard to create stability for long-distance trade
• Internal problems could be resolved by allowing dissidents to
leave and establish new villages
• Christianity and Islam sometimes influenced political and
cultural development
African Economy
• Economies vary by region
• N. Africa integrated into the world
economy via Islamic trade routes and
Mediterranean
• Most participate in agriculture and
ironworking
• Encouraged regional trade and
urbanization.
• Africans exchanged abundant raw materials
for manufactured goods.
Influence of Islam in Africa
• 7th century: Muslim armies moved west
from Egypt across N. Africa
• Spreads Islamic influence; rapid conversions
• Traders and travelers brought Islam along
pre-existing caravan routes.
• Berbers (people of the Sahara) begin to
convert to Islam
• 11th-12th centuries: Almoravids and
Almohads (reforming Muslim Berbers)
from western Sahara grow in power
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Launch jihad (war to spread and protect faith)
Almohads defeat Almoravids
Almohad Caliphate: 1121-1269
These groups are essential to penetration of
Islam throughout Africa.
Almoravids
1040-1147
Grasslands Kingdoms
• Sahel Grasslands: transition zone between Sahara Desert and
savannahs to the south
• Point of exchange between North and Sub-Saharan Africa;
important region of trade
• Grasslands Kingdoms = Sudanic States = Ghana, Mali, Songhai
• Most of their population did not convert
• Arrival of Islam after the 10th century reinforced ruling power
Story Time “Sub-Saharan
Africa” p. 123
• Take notes on “Sub-Saharan Africa”
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Sudanic States
• Islam reinforced ideas of kingship and power: “royal cult”
• Joining Islam gives rulers prestige and associates them with other great
Muslim leaders
• Majority of population never converted but retain their
polytheism/animism
• Trade gold for salt from Berbers in North Africa
• Mali, Ghana and Songhai
• Combine Islamic religion/culture with local practices
• Each incorporates the previous kingdom; bigger than last
Ghana
4th – 11th c.
• 1st great West African
empire
• Rose to power by
taxing salt and gold
• 10th c: rulers convert to
Islam while common
people remain loyal to
polytheism
• Reaches 11th c. height
• Almoravid armies
invaded Ghana in 1076
Story Time “Kingdom of
Ghana” p. 123
• Take notes on “The Kingdom of Ghana”
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Mali
• Broke away from Ghana in 13th c.
• Economy: agriculture and gold trade
• Traders spread beyond W Africa
• Very wealthy empire
• Islamized state in 13th c. when rulers convert
• Founder: Sundiata (dies 1260)
• Credited with Malinke expansion and
creation of unified state with each tribe
having a representative at court
• Governing system based on clan structure
• Mansa Musa is successor
• Jenne and Timbuktu
• Major cities of commercial exchange
• Scholars, craft specialists, and foreign
merchants
• Timbuktu was famous for its library and
university
Mansa Musa
• 1324: Hajj to Mecca
• Aligns himself with elite
Islamic rulers
• Brings back scholars,
architects
• Inadvertently devastates
economies he enters
• Indicates wealthy,
sophisticated empires
existed in Africa
• Estimated wealth: $400
billion
King Mansa Musa’s astounding wealth came from his country Mali’s
production of more than half the world’s gold and salt, Celebrity Net Worth
said. A photograph of Mansa Musa on a map of North Africa circa 1375.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/king-mansa-musa-named-richest-history-article1.1186261#ixzz2hKUI21QI
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Quoted from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/king-mansamusa-named-richest-history-article-1.1186261
• King Mansa Musa wasn’t just the 1% of the 14th century — he
may be the richest person of all time.
• As the obscure ruler of West Africa’s Mali Empire, Musa
amassed a jaw-dropping $400 billion during his reign from
1312 to 1337, according to a new inflation-adjusted list by
celebritynetworth.com.
• That outranks the Rothschild family, whose European banking
dynasty landed them second on the list with $350 billion, and
John D. Rockefeller, the American industrialist worth $340
billion.
• Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/kingmansa-musa-named-richest-history-article1.1186261#ixzz2hKUcuQaB
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Songhay
• Independent from Mali in 1370s
• Prospered as a trading state and military power.
• Founded by Sunni Ali (1464-1492)
• Great military leader; extended rule over the entire
Niger River valley.
• Sunni Ali’s successors were Muslim rulers with the
title of askia
• Songhay remained dominant until defeated by
Moroccans in 1591 for not being “Muslim enough”
Influence of Islam
in Grasslands Kingdoms
• Islam provided universal faith and fixed law.
• Rulers reinforced authority through Muslim
ideology.
• Many Sudanic societies were matrilineal and did
not seclude women.
• Hesitancy over conversion to Islam since it
restricts women more than these societies did
• Slavery and slave trade was prevalent from
Muslim influence
Swahili Coast of East Africa
• Coasts enable East Africa to be connected to India Ocean
trade
• Islamized trading ports along coast by 13th c.
• Kilwa, Mogadishu, Mombasa: large city-state centers of
Islam
• Ibn Battuta: Islamic scholar/writer who visits these cities
• Exported raw materials in return for Indian, Islamic and
Chinese luxuries
• Swahili language (Bantu + Arabic) emerged in urbanized
trading ports
• More than 30 coastal trading towns flourished.
• Rulers and merchants were often Muslim.
• Most of the population retained African beliefs and few
converted to Islam
• Culture = Swahili as language and fused African and Islamic
practices
• Islam built a common bond between rulers and trading
families.
Central Africa
• Across central Africa, agrarian
societies thrived and kingdoms
developed
• Yoruba
• Non Bantu-speaking
• Highly urbanized agriculturalists
• Small city states
• Benin
• Forms in 14th century under
ruler/oba Ewuare the Great
• Ruled from the Niger River to
the coast near Lagos
• Artists worked in ivory and cast
bronze
• Luba (Near Southern tip)
• Divine kingship
• Hereditary bureaucracy
Central Africa without Islam
• Both develop free of Islamic
contact
• Kongo (lower Congo River)
• Agricultural society, flourishes
by 15th
• Gender division of labor and
family-based villages
• Largest site: Mbanza Kongo =
60,000-100,000 people
• Zimbabwe (east, central Africa)
• Great Zimbabwe, largest site
• Dominated gold sources and
trade with coastal ports
• Internal divisions split during
16th century)
Christianity in Africa
• Christian states are present in North
Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia before
the arrival of Islam.
• Egyptian Christians, the Copts, had a
rich and independent tradition
(Coptic Christianity).
• Oppressed by Byzantine Christians
caused them to welcome Muslim
invaders
• The Nubians resisted Muslim
incursions from 9th until 13th
century.
• Ethiopia continues to retain
Christianity.
• Christianity will come later to the
rest of the continent with the
presence of Europeans.
Global Connections
• Spread of Islam brought large areas of Africa into the
global community through increasing contact from 7001500 CE between Africa and Mediterranean and Asian
civilizations.
• South of the Sahara were Sudanic states and in East Africa
• However, most of Africa evolved in regions free of
Islamic contact (Central + Southern Africa).
• Organized their lives in stateless societies.
• While no universal empires and religions develop in
Africa, Christianity and Islam impact the region through
political, economic, and cultural development.
• Many Africans organized their lives in stateless societies.
Africa
• Story time p. 122
• Take notes on “The Nubian Civilization”
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• Take notes on “The Axumite Civilization”
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