Origins Towards the end of the 3rd century CE, a
wet period in the Sahel created areas for human habitation and exploitation which had not been habitable for the best part of a millennium, resulting in Wagadu rising out of the
Tichitt culture. The introduction of the
camel to the western Sahara in the 3rd century CE and pressure from the nomadic Saharan
Sanhaja served as major catalysts for the transformative social changes that resulted in the empire's formation. By the time of the
Muslim conquest of North Africa in the 7th century, the camel had changed the ancient, irregular trade routes into a network running between North Africa and the
Niger River.
Soninke tradition portrays early Ghana as very warlike, with horse-mounted warriors key to increasing its territory and population, although details of their expansion are extremely scarce. Wagadu made its profits from maintaining a monopoly on
gold heading north and
salt heading south, despite not controlling the gold fields themselves. It is possible that Wagadu's dominance on trade allowed for the gradual consolidation of many smaller polities into a
confederated state, whose composites stood in varying relations to the core, from fully administered to nominal tribute-paying parity. Based on
large tumuli scattered across West Africa dating to this period, it has been proposed that relative to Wagadu there were many more simultaneous and preceding kingdoms which have been lost to time.
First apogee and early Arab records Information about the empire at its height is sparse. According to Kati's
Tarikh al-Fettash, in a section probably composed around 1580 but citing the chief judge Ida al-Massini who lived somewhat earlier, twenty kings ruled Ghana before the advent of Islam. Al-Sadi purports that approximately 18 through 34 ancient Kaya (kings) ruled before the
Hijra and 24 more kaya (kings) ruled afterward. In 734 the
Umayyad Caliphate launched an expedition, commanded by
Habib ibn Abi Ubayda al-Fihri, against the
Sous and
Sudan. While the location and outcome of this expedition to the Sudan is unknown,
Al-Bakri writing in the 11th century noted that the descendants of these troops, called the Hunayhin, could still be found within the Ghana Empire and that they were now following the native religion. At this time, when Muslim merchants first crossed the desert, Ghana was the most powerful state in the Sahel. By the time Arab writers started describing the Ghana Empire in the 8th century it was already regarded as a wealthy state that
Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī lists as being equal in size to the
Idrisid state of Morocco while also coining it the "Land of Gold." And in 833 was featured on
Al-Khwarizmi's world map. It had developed a trade route that led directly to Egypt and was recorded to have also been used by Egyptian and Nubian merchants to visit the Sudan, but it was closed during the reign of
Ahmad ibn Tulun (r. 868-884), due to safety concerns.
Al-Ya'qubi describes its king as very powerful and mentions the gold mines and the number of vassals under their authority.
Al-Masudi, writing in the first half of the 10th century, refers to the King of Ghana as supreme with vassals under him and describes the kingdom itself as being of great importance because of its gold trade. Adding to the newly gained prestige of Ghana,
Ibn Hawqal writing during the 970s proclaimed the King of Ghana as the "wealthiest king on the face of the earth," who also maintained relations with the king of
Aoudaghost. In 990, presumably for commercial and economic reasons, the Ghana Empire conquered
Awdaghust and installed its own governor. Written sources are vague as to the empire's maximum extent. Oral traditions indicate that, at its height, the empire controlled
Takrur,
Jafunu,
Jaara, Bakhunu,
Neema,
Soso,
Guidimakha,
Guidimé,
Gajaaga, as well as the Awker, Adrar, and
Hodh to the north. It also had some degree of influence over
Kaniaga,
Kaarta, and
Khasso. but this interpretation has been sharply questioned by modern scholars. Conrad and Fisher (1982) argued that the notion of any Almoravid military conquest at its core is merely perpetuated folklore, derived from a misinterpretation or naive reliance on Arabic sources. Dierke Lange agrees but argues that this does not preclude Almoravid political agitation, claiming that Ghana's demise owed much to the latter. The first to hint of a supposed conquest was
Ibn Khaldun who was writing 300 years after and even then doesn't outright claim any
Almoravid conquest of Ghana.
Al-Ghazali, a contemporary of the Almoravids at the peak of their size and the alleged conquest, explicitly references the Almoravids as only bordering the Ghana Empire and the land of the Franks. In the 16th century many notables of the Saadi Kingdom of Morocco, in an attempt to dissuade al-Mansur from fighting
Songhai, argued that none of the previous Moroccan dynasties had ever attempted such an expedition into the
Sudan. Indicating that such a conquest wasn't known in their history. Furthermore, the archaeology of ancient Ghana does not show the signs of rapid change and destruction that would be associated with any Almoravid-era military conquests. Sheryl L. Burkhalter (1992) suggested that there were reasons to believe that there was conflict between the Almoravids and the empire of Ghana. Ibn Khaldun, a 14th-century North African historian who read and cited both al-Bakri and al-Idrisi, reported an ambiguous account of the country's history as related to him by 'Uthman, a
faqih of Ghana who took a
pilgrimage to Mecca in 1394, according to which the power of Ghana waned as that of the "veiled people" grew through the Almoravid movement.
Second apogee Whether the Almoravids conquered Ghana or not, the country certainly did convert to Islam around 1076. This conversion and its accompanying rejection of the earlier, more accommodating Islam may have pushed the
Wangara diaspora throughout the region. In 1083, Ghana requested the help of the Almoravids to attack and conquer
Tadmekka,
Silla, an unidentified town named NSLA, and may have reached
Gao, helping to spread Sunni orthodoxy there as well.
Zafun is implied to have also fallen under Ghana's authority around this time too, although without Almoravid help.
Yaqut al-Hamawi, writing in 1220, recounting an event that occurred sometime during the first half of the 12th century, records an interaction between the
Almoravids and the king of Zafun, a province within the Ghana Empire or possibly a reference to the king of Ghana himself:
Al-Idrisi, whose account was written in 1154, has the country fully Muslim by that date. He describes an empire as powerful as it had been in the days of al-Bakri, 75 years earlier. In fact, he describes its capital as "the greatest of all towns of the Sudan with respect to area, the most populous, and with the most extensive trade." This capital may not be the same city as the one described by al-Bakri, however. More places during this time are mentioned as being under Ghana's authority such as the land of Wanqara, Tiraqqa, Madasa; A berber region and town, the region of Saghmara; A berber nomadic area near
Tadmekka,
Samaqanda, Gharbil, and
Ghiyara. Ghana was the master of an extensive trade system in the
Senegal river valley, first established by
Takrur in the 10th century, that exported salt from
Awlil throughout the region. It also controlled the gold mines of
Bambuk. During this period it was fully Islamized, and the judicial system had shifted to something more closely resembling
Sharia. Al-Sharīshī, writing in the late 12th century mentions the spread of Islam among its inhabitants and makes note the their schools.
Sosso occupation This resurgence did not last, however. By 1203, the
Sosso had risen against their masters and conquered Ghana, establishing
a short-lived empire. According to a modern tradition, this resurgence of Mali was led by
Sundiata Keita, the founder of Mali and ruler of its core area of
Kangaba.
Delafosse assigned an arbitrary but widely accepted date of 1235 to the event. This tradition states that
Ghana Soumaba Cisse, at the time a vassal of the
Sosso, rebelled with Kangaba and became part of a loose federation of Mande-speaking states. After Soumaoro's defeat at the
Battle of Kirina in 1235 (a date again assigned arbitrarily by Delafosse), the new rulers of Koumbi Saleh became permanent allies of the
Mali Empire. As Mali became more powerful, the Ghana's role as an ally declined to that of a submissive state, although he was still accorded prestige as the leader of an ancient and storied state. Koumbi Saleh was abandoned sometime in the 15th century. ==Economy and Trade==