Transcript 1000 different languages

African Civilizations and the
Spread of Islam
AP World History
Marinate on this…
• Earlier in this unit, we learned about Pre-Columbian
Civilizations…. The Americas on the eve of European
invasion.
• Just as Pre-Columbian civs were forever changed by
European conquest, so too were traditional African
societies we learn about here.
• Though many aspects of traditional African civilizations
survived, Africa was irrevocably changed by the European
“Scramble for Africa.” More about Euro colonization later.
• Relevant to what you just learned about the Islamic
World, you will see how the spread of Islam impacted
African civs as well.
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning ™ is a trademark used herein under license.
The Continent of Africa
1000 different languages; 1000+ different tribes
The Classical Period in
Africa
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The Kushites seem to have established a monarchy- divine kingship.
Kingdom of Kush was defeated by a rival kingdom called Axum by 300 B.C.E.
Axum fell to another regional kingdom, Ethiopia. Axum and Ethiopia had
contacts with the eastern Mediterranean world until after the fall of Rome.
Greek-speaking merchants had considerable influence, and it was through
them that Christianity was brought to Ethiopia by the 4th c C.E.
Ethiopian Christianity flourished in isolation to modern times.
For sub-Saharan Africa, the further extension of agriculture was the major
development up to 500 C.E.
Toward the end of the classical era, important regional kingdoms were
forming in western Africa, leading to the 1st great state in the region: Ghana.
African Development
• Differences in geography, language,
religion, and politics contribute to Africa’s
lack of political unity.
– No universal states, nor universal religions
• Christianity and Islam do find adherents in
Africa, sometimes leading to large empires.
Stateless Societies
• Organized around kinship
• Lacking the concentration of political power
and authority normally associated with the
“state”
• No taxation
• Dissenters encouraged to move to other
sparsely populated areas to create their own
community.
• External pressures, warfare, large building
projects and the impact of long-distance trade
causes many of these societies to move
towards the formation of states.
Common Elements…
• Bantu migrations
offered a linguistic
base for Africans
– Different dialects
• Animism: belief in the
power of natural
forces personified as
spirits or gods in the
form of dancing,
drumming, and
sacrifice.
African Diviner (Shaman)
Fetishes
Rubbing Oracle, wood
Economics of Africa
• North Africa: involved
in Mediterranean and
Arab Trade system
• Sub-Saharan varies
from one region to the
next- mostly
agricultural.
• Throughout the postclassical period,
increased international
trade was apparent
Arrival of Islam
• Northern Africa has
always been part of
the classical world
• After the age of the
Pharaohs, Egypt was
an important part of
the Greek Empire,
then later in the
Roman Empire.
Arrival of Islam
• Toward the end of the Roman Empire,
Christianity had taken hold in
Mediterranean Africa.
• Between 640 and 700 CE followers of
Muhammad swept across Northern Africa.
• By 670, Muslims ruled Tunisia
Arrival of Islam
– Conversion was fast and easy in North Africa
with the success and unity of the Abbasid
Dynasty.
– This unity will break down eventually, and
North Africa will divide into several separate
states, but Islam endures.
What does Islam offer
Africa?
• All Muslims are equal within the community
of believers made acceptance easier.
• Islamic tradition of uniting the powers of the
state in a ruler reinforces the concept of the
African King.
• The equality of the umma put Africans
legally at the same level as the Arabs.
However…
• Practices differ considerably at the local
level.
– Social Stratification
– Ethnic divisions
– Gender differences
North African Christianity
• Christian converts were made in Egypt long
before the conversion of the Roman
Empire.
• Christian kingdom of Axum, with
communities in Nubia and Egypt (Copts).
– Copts maintained religious connection with the
Byzantine Empire. When Egypt was conquered
by the Arabs and converted to Islam, the Copts
were able to keep their religion.
North African Christianity
• The Ethiopian
kingdom that grew
from Axum in the 13th
and 14th centuries was
the most important
Christian outpost.
• Constant struggle with
Christian Ethiopia and
Muslim Somalia
Kingdoms of the Grasslands
• Merchants and
travelers spread the
word of Islam from
North Africa across
the Sahara towards
the Savanna on the
southern edge of the
Sahara
The Grasslands
• The SAHEL was the
extensive grassland belt
at the southern edge of
the Sahara.
• African state of Ghana
had already formed there
by the 8th Century.
– TRADE:
• Exchange gold from the
forests of West Africa for
salt from the Sahara (or
goods from North Africa)
• Camels, introduced from
Asia, had improved trade
possibilities.
The Grasslands
• The SAHEL becomes an active
“coast” of trade between the
forests to the south and North
Africa.
• States develop along with trading
cities to take advantage of their
position as intermediaries in the
trade.
Ghana
• The “first” of the West African Kingdoms
• Rose to power in the 3rd Century CE by taxing
the heavy Gold-Salt trade within its borders.
• By the 900’s, its rulers converted to Islam and
Ghana was at the height of its power.
• Almoravid armies invade Ghana in 1076, and
even though it survives, its power was in
decline, such that by the beginning of the
1200’s (13th Century), new states emerged in
the savanna.
Ghana
Common elements in West
African States
• Patriarch, or council of
elders as leaders
• Territorial core with
peoples of the same
linguistic or ethnic
background
– Power extended over
subordinate
communities which
were often the result of
conquest
• Rulers were sacred
and were surrounded
by rituals.
• Islam was used to
reinforce indigenous
ideas of kingship.
• Mali and Songhay fit
the description of the
fusion of Islamic and
African culture.
The West African Kingdoms
Mali
• Created by the Malinke people who broke
away from Ghana.
• Rulers supported Islam by building
mosques, and supporting preachers.
– In return, sermons would encourage loyalty to
the king.
– Mali became a model of the Islamicized
Kingdom
Mosque at Jenne
Mali
• Economic base was agriculture
• Sundiata: Malinke leader who led towards
prosperity as the state of Mali.
• Mansa = emperor
• Crime was severely punished (as
evidenced by Ibn Batuta, the Arab traveler).
– Security of travelers and trade was a key
element to Mali’s success as a state where
commerce plays such an important role
Mali
• Sundiata dies around
1260 CE.
• Of his sucessors,
Mansa Musa was the
most famous (r. 13121337)
Mansa Musa!!!
• Made a pilgrimage to
Mecca in 1324 with 100+
camels and a blinged out
entourage.
• His wealth and polished
manners dazzled all in his
path.
• Spent so much gold in the
markets of Cairo and gave
so much in alms that the
price of gold declined due
to its ample supply.
• Mansa Musa’s
fantastic voyage, and
the history of Mali in
general underlines the
fact that Sub-Saharan
Africa was never
totally isolated from
Egypt, West Asia, and
the Mediterranean.
• Mansa Musa's
Musical Debut
Mali
• Cities and towns of
• By the 14th century
West Africa came to
Timbuktu had a
be modeled after
population of 50,000.
North Africa, but with
– Contained a library and
university.
a distinctive flair.
• 80% of the villagers
• Cosmopolitan court
lived by the
life.
agricultural lifestyle.
• Timbuktu was a center
– Labor intensive
of culture and
– Polygamy was
learning.
common
Mali elephant migration
Roll Tide.
Songhai
• Songhai begins to form
around the 7th century.
By 1010, a capital had
been established at
Gao on the Niger River.
– Rulers became Muslim
– Dominated by Mali for a
while
– By 1370’s, had
established themselves
as an independent state
• Under the leadership of
Sunni Ali (1464-1492)
the Empire of Songhai
began.
– Tactical commander
– Ruthless leader.
– Successors known as
askia’s.
– Muhammad the Great
expanded the borders of
the empire.
Songhai
• Remained the dominant power in the
region until the end of the 16th century.
• In 1591, a Muslim army with muskets
crossed the Sahara and defeated the larger
forces of Songhai.
• Songhai split up, but other groups
experienced success:
– The Hausa peoples of Northern Nigeria
Political Life
• Unified states allowed the various
communities, clans, and ethnic groups to
coexist.
• Movement and fusion of populations was
constant in the Sudanic Kingdoms
• Common religion and law provided
solidarity and trust to the merchants.
• Organized under Muslim concept of a ruler
who united civil and religious authority.
Political Life
• Formation of large state heightened social
differences and made societies more
hierarchical.
• Islam tended to accommodate pagan
practices and beliefs. Large populations of
Mali and Songhai never converted.
– Many Sudanic states were matrilineal, which is
contrary to patrilineal lines of kinship in the
Sharia, or Islamic law.
Slavery
• Slave trade between Africa and the Islamic
World predated the arrival of Islam
– Muslims viewed slavery as a stage in the
process of conversion.
• Slaves were used as domestic servants, laborers,
soldiers, eunuchs, concubines.
The Swahili Coast of East
Africa
• From the Horn of Africa to modern-day
Mozambique lay a string of Islamicized
trading cities with contacts from Arabia,
Persia, India, and China.
• As in the Savanna Kingdoms of West
Africa, Islam was slow to reach the general
population in East Africa, and when it did, it
was a fusion of indigenous beliefs and the
new Islamic faith.
East Africa
• Coastal cities developed
from the mixture of
Bantu migrants, as well
as with Indonesian
seaborne migrants.
– Settled on the island of
Madagascar, introducing
bananas and coconuts.
• Coastal villages of
fishers, farmers dotted
the coast
East Africa
• Different Muslim ruling
• Zenj: Arabic for the
families, but similar
East African Coast.
language united them
th
• 13 Century:
in trade.
urbanized East African
– Towns such as
trading ports develop.
Mogadishu (Somalia),
– Shared Bantu-based
and Arabic Influenced
Swahili (coastal)
language.
Mombasa, Malindi
(Kenya), Kilwa, and
Zanzibar (Tanzania).
• Ibn Batuta said of Kilwa
that it was “one of the
most beautiful and wellconstructed towns in the
world”
East Africa
• Kilwa was wealthy
because of its access
to the Gold produced
in the interior.
• Many port towns were
tied to each other in
an active trade
network.
– 1300s-1400s: large
sailing expeditions
stopped at the East
African coast for ivory,
and gold.
• After 1431, only the
Arabs and Indians
continued this trade.
Central/Southern Africa
• While the impact of trade and Islam
radically altered the West/North/East
African “coasts”, Central and Southern
Africa was developing on its own trajectory.
• By 1000 CE, still small agricultural
societies, preliterate, but with great strides
in arts, building, and statecraft…without
writing.
Artists…
• Terra Cotta objects
discovered in Nok, in
the forests of Central
Nigeria dating to 500200 BCE.
• Terra Cotta and
bronze portrait heads
were found among the
Yoruba people of
Nigeria
The Yoruba
• Agricultural society
supported by a peasantry
and dominated by a ruling
family and aristocracy.
• Spoke a non-Bantu
language and recognized
a relationship with the
Hausa, who spoke AfroAsian language.
• Small city-states, each
controlling about 50 miles.
• Highly urbanized.
Benin
• Similar settlement
patterns as the Yoruba
can be found among Edo
people who formed the
state of Benin.
• Ewuare the Great (r.
1440-1473) extended
Benin’s control from the
Niger River to the Coast.
• The Oba, or ruler, lived in
a huge royal compound.
Central African Kingdoms
• By the 5th Century CE,
Bantu farmers and
fishers reach central
Africa.
• By the 13th Century,
they were approaching
the southern end of the
continent.
• Beyond the scope of
Islam
• By 1000 CE, many of
these groups were
forming states.
Kongo
• Late 15th Century, the
Kongo was forming
along the lower Congo
River.
• Agricultural base, with
skills of weaving,
pottery, blacksmithing,
and carving.
• Men:
– Clearing the forest,
producing palm oil and
palm wine, building
houses, hunting, longdistance trade.
• Women:
– Cultivation, care of
animals, household
duties, made salt from
seawater, collected
seashells which were
used as currency.
Kongo
Great Zimbabwe
• Farther to the east,
among the farming
and cattle-herding
Shona-speaking
peoples.
• Creation of GREAT
stone enclaves to
serve as the capital
town area.
• By the 15th century, a
centralized state had
begun to form
controlling central
Africa to the Indian
Ocean.
Great Zimbabwe