Chapter Eight:
African Civilizations
and the Spread of Islam
Ms. Sheets
AP World History
University High School
African Regions
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
• 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
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
• 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
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
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
• 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
Songhai
• 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.
• Songhai 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
• 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.
Central Africa
• Across central Africa, agrarian
societies thrived and kingdoms
developed
• Yoruba
• Non Bantu-speaking
• Highly urbanized
agriculturalists
• Benin
• Forms in 14th century under
ruler/oba Ewuare the Great
• Ruled from the Niger River
to the coast near Lagos
• Luba
• Divine kingship
• Hereditary bureaucracy
Central Africa without Islam
• Both develop free of Islamic
contact
• Kongo
• Agricultural society, flourishes
by 15th
• Gender division of labor and
family-based villages
• Largest site: Mbanza Kongo =
60,000-100,000 people
• Zimbabwe
• Great Zimbabwe, largest site
• Dominated gold sources and
trade with coastal ports
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).
• 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 700-1500 CE between Africa and
Mediterranean and Asian civilizations.
• Sudanic states and 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.