CHAPTER 11: NORTH AND NORTH-EAST AFRICA
TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
KEY POINTS
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The ‘Arabisation’ of northern Africa
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From Fatimid to Mamluk: Egypt before the
Ottoman conquest
Egypt under the Fatimids
The Ayyubid dynasty
Egypt under the Mamluks, 1250-1117
 Egypt under Ottoman rule
 Nubia and the Funj Sultanate
The spread of Islam in Nubia
The Funj Sultanate
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Oromo migrations and the kingdom of Ethiopia
The Oromo migrations
The kingdom of Ethiopia
 States of the Maghrib, sixteenth to eighteenth
century
The eastern and central Maghrib
The rise of Morocco
The ‘Arabisation’ of northern Africa
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10th – 13th century immigration of Bedouin (badawin) into northern
Africa
Mobile pastoralists, camel-skin dwellings, family-sized clans
Blamed for disruption by some settled farmers
But generally spread Islam and Arabic language among rural Berber
population
250 000 moved west into Maghrib from Egypt
(Banu Sulaym), south of Atlas, absorbed many Berbers
13th century Arabised Berber nomads moved east into Egypt and up
Nile valley
Egypt and Maghrib become largely Arabic-speaking
From Fatimid to Mamluk: Egypt before the Ottoman
conquest
Egypt under the Fatimids, 969-1171 CE
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Fatimid prosperity and economic development
Delta cotton and textiles
Duties on trade and taxation of peasantry
Fatimid Berbers settled as new landed aristocracy
Tax-farming system, open to corruption
Turkish slave horsemen (‘Mamluks’) imported for army
Black ‘Sudanese’ slaves formed footsoldiers
Corrupt tax-farming: shortage of money for army: army discipline
broke down
Fatimid Egypt threatened by Christian Crusaders in Palestine
Salah al-Din ibn Ayyub (‘Saladin’), Kurdistan general of Fatimid
army
Saladin saved Egypt and conquered Jerusalem
The Ayybid dynasty
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Founded by Saladin,1171
Restored Sunni Islam in Egypt
Cairo: important centre of learning and culture
Restored importation of Mamluk slaves for army
Successful Mamluks earned freedom and allocated ‘tax-farms’
(iqta)
Iqta to provide soldiers for the state
Mamluks became new military landed aristocracy: title ‘amir’
1250 Mamluks seized throne
Egypt under the Mamluks, 1250-1517
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Powerful military dictatorship
More Mamluks imported
Conquest of Palestine and Syria
Defeated Asian Mongol invasion
Mamluk ‘protection’ over Medina and Mecca
Cairo: key city on route of pilgrimage
Visit my Mansa Musa (Mali) 1324-5)
Gold and emerald mining near Aswan
Expansion of Red Sea trade
Egyptian fellahin (‘peasantry’) still basis of Egyptian wealth
Abuse of iqta system and forced labour pressed heavily on fellahin
Expansion of public works (forced labour): expansion of canals for
irrigation: more land for cultivation: more iqta for Mamluks
Mamluk urban wealth prompted trade – Swahili coast and Indian
Ocean
1300 CE: 10 000 Mamluks, 4-5 million Egyptians
15th century: Mamluks abused their power, ceasing to provide
military service
Decline in agricultural productivity, and trade
By 1500 Mamluk army out of date, no match for firearms
Egypt under Ottoman rule
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1453 Ottoman conquest of Christian Constantinople – renamed
Istanbul
1517 Ottomans conquered Egypt – became province of Ottoman
empire
Restoration of iqta system
Conquered into Nubia as far south as 3rd cataract
Revival of Red Sea trade, seizing Ethiopian port of Massawa
17th – 18th centuries: hereditary Mamluk nobles regained power
Heads noble families: ‘beys’; viceroys (‘pashas’): appointed from
Istanbul, but effectively head of corrupt local nobility
Lacked national unity and allowed army to get out of date
Nubia and the Funj Sultanate
The spread of Islam in Nubia
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Gradual spread of Islam through Lower (northern) Nubia through
peaceful trading contact
14th century Arab nomad immigration into Nubia and south-west
into Darfur
Immigrants became ‘Africanised’, spreading Islam
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These Muslim Nubian pastoralists raided southwards for captives
to enslave as servants and concubines for Egypt and western Asia
The Funj Sultanate
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16th century Nubian Christian kingdom of Alwa replaced by nonArab Muslim Funj Sultanate
Cattle pastoralists from eastern foothills of Ethiopian highlands
By 1600 living in cities and controlling large part of modern Sudan
Small army of mounted soldiers to collect tribute from local
population
Oromo migrations and the kingdom of Ethiopia
The Oromo migrations
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16th-century wars between Christian Ethiopia and Muslim Adal
allowed migration of Oromo pastoralists into southern highlands
1530-65: occupied a third of Ethiopia, pushing towards Harar and
Awash valley
No central authority: loosely-organised extended-family clans
Five age-sets, based on age
Third age-set – folle – young men spearheaded search for new
pasture: acting as military escort to cattle and clan
Period of rapid expansion of herds: search for new seasonal pasture
led to push into fertile southern highlands
Many of those in contact with Adal became Muslim, others in
contact with Ethiopia became Christian
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By 1600 Oromo: dominant population of southern Ethiopia
The kingdom of Ethiopia
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Largely ignoring Oromo incursions, Saras Dengel (1562-97)
concentrated on northern region, opening trade with Ottomans at
Massawa
Captives from southeast were main export
(10 000 a year in this
Massawa and the origins of Eritrea
period)
After the Aksumite court withdrew into the
Opened way for more
highlands in the 9th century, Ethiopian access
Oromo expansion
to the Red Sea was maintained at Debarwa,
th
opposite
the Dahlak Islands (north of Adulis).
During 17 century
Ethiopian rulers
In 1557 the Ottoman Turks occupied this
officially recognised
coastal area of the Red Sea and established the
port of Massawa, just north of Debarwa,
Oromo presence
cutting the Ethiopians off from direct access
Fasiladas (1632-67)
to the Red Sea. The Ottomans established the
established permanent
province of Habesh, although their occupation
was effectively confined to the Red Sea ports
capital at Gondar
of Massawa and Sawakin (Suakin). In the
th
18 century: kings
nineteenth century the Egyptians (under
Muhammad Ali and his successors) took over
lost control of
the Ottoman occupation of Massawa until,
provinces to local
during the Mahdist revolt in Sudan, they
nobility
evacuated Suakin and Massawa in 1885. The
States of the Maghrib,
sixteenth to eighteenth
century
The eastern and central
Maghrib
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Mahdist state took over Suakin, but not
Massawa, which was occupied by the Italians
in 1887. It was thus from this part of Italian
East Africa (Eritrea) that the Italians launched
their failed invasion of Ethiopia in 1896, and
their successful one in 1936. Following the
defeat of the Italians in east Africa in 1941,
the British occupied Eritrea until 1952 when
they handed it over to Ethiopia as a selfgoverning state with the Ethiopian empire.
Ethiopia annexed it as a province in 1962 on
Late 15th century
the grounds that it was an historic part of
Portuguese and
ancient Ethiopia and Axum, although none of
Spanish Christian
it had actually been part of Ethiopia since the
Ottoman occupation of 1517. Thus began
revival
Eritrea’s thirty-year war of independence.
1492 Spanish drove
Muslims out of
Granada (Spain)
Over following
decades Spanish and
Portuguese seized
north African ports (Tangier, Algiers, Tripoli Tunis)
Turkish corsairs responded – attacking Christian shipping in
western Med.
Turks lost 2 major battles (Malta 1565, Lepanto 1571) so failed to
dominate Med.
But Ottoman Turks regained north African ports for Islam
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Ottoman occupation: mainly port cities, used for raiding shipping
Little control over rural areas: raided for tribute
Tripoli trade relations with Borno: shortest trans-Saharan trade
route: horses and firearms to Borno, exchanged for slaves and
concubines for Ottoman empire
The rise of Morocco
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16th century rise of Morocco as independent state
Arab nomad Sa’dis clan, claiming descent from Prophet’s daughter
Fatima, gradually conquered and united Morocco
Prevented Ottoman conquest, defeated Portuguese (battle of alKsar Kebir 1578)
Sultan killed in battle: succeeded by Ahmad al-Mansur (15781603)
Aim: conquer Songhay, seize control of gold trade to stop it being
diverted to Ottomans
Trade with English: sugar (slave grown) exchanged for English
firearms
Strengthened army: slave soldiers (from Songhay) and Arab
horsemen, trained by European and Turkish mercenaries
1591 conquest of Songhay (see also Ch 13)
Short-term: sacking Gao and Timbuktu brought initial rewards
Long-term:
o heavy cost in men and equipment
o too far from Morocco to control effectively
o local military governors, increasingly independent
o trade disrupted (much of it diverted to Europeans at west
African coast),
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17 century, Morocco weakened by dynastic disputes: rival
sultanates of Fes and Marrakesh
1669, Mawlay al-Rashid founded Alawid dynasty: unity reestablished
For much of 18th century effective government control confined to
cities
Rural people (Atlas mountains) only paid tribute when threatened
by sultan’s army
© Kevin Shillington, 2012