2. The Ghana Empire was the first
Empire to form in the area that
was to become Mali. It was
controlled by the Soninke
people, who are the
northernmost Mande
people,who might have been in
power as early as the fourth
century A.D., but the first
written source mentioning the
Ghana Empire was from the
830s A.D.
3. Ghana was to the north of the Upper Niger river on the trade
routes that carried salt and gold across the Sahara to the
Mediterranean Sea.
In Arabic, the word Ghana is associated with gold and it is
apparent that the Arab conquest of North Africa brought Islam
as well as the trans-Saharan trade capabilities to the Ghana
Empire.
Through trade with Arab merchants from the north the Ghana
Empire gained wealth and influence in the present day Mali
region.
The region was rich in gold and
salt,which came from mines of
the sahara, and its acquisition
meant that Ghana would
become a leading force in the
trans-Saharan trade network.
4. The name of the state was originally known
as Wagadou by its rulers, but one of the
king's titles "Ghana" meant war chief.
Each succeeding king was known by his own
name and also by the title of Ghana.
Another important title of the king was Kaya
Maghan. This means "Lord of the gold"
because he controlled the export of the
valuable metal.
The king's main duties were to organise the
trade and keep good relations with the
Saharan traders.
GOLD RESERVES
5. Next came an expansion of Serahule power over
neighboring peoples who were also involved in
trade.
The wider the territory the Serahule could control,
the more prosperous they would be.
The kings of Ghana were able to make more kings
or chiefs obey their laws and pay them taxes which
increased the wealth of Ghana.
With more wealth the kings of Ghana had more
power and could command the services of many
descent lines. They could raise big armies and
employ large numbers of messengers and other
servants.
6. Ghana was successful as a political state in northwest Africa for
several reasons:
It was controlled by powerful rulers who had strong
centralized powers.
Those rulers were able to effectively control the gold trade.
The rulers adhered to their ancestral religion, the religion of
the people of the Empire, but did not exclude the Muslim
merchants who were living there.
This kept good relations with the people who were essential
to the Trans-Saharan trade and the lifeline of Ghana.
The Ghana Empire fell in 1078 to the Almoravids who were
nomads Muslims from the north. Within a century the once
powerful Ghana Empire had returned to its previous state.
7. A CARVED
WOODEN PEOPLE OF GHANA
FIGURE OF A
MAN, THAT MADE IN LAST-WAX
WAS AFFIXED PROCESS, THIS ANCIENT
TO THE TOP OF BRONZE BRACELET WAS
CEREMONIAL EXCAVATED.
STAFF.
8. At Kumbi Saleh, locals lived in
domed-shaped dwellings in the
king's section of the city,
surrounded by a great enclosure.
Traders lived in stone houses in a
section which possessed 12
beautiful mosques (as described by
al-bakri), one centered on Friday
prayer.
DWELLING AT KUMBI SALEH
VIEW OF KUMBI SALEH
9. The king is said to have
owned several mansions, one
of which was sixty-six feet
long, forty-two feet
wide, contained seven
rooms, was two stories
high, and had a staircase; with
the walls and chambers filled
with sculpture and painting.
Sahelian architecture initially
grew from the two cities of
Djenné and Timbuktu.
The Sankore Mosque in
Timbuktu, constructed from
mud on timber, was similar in
style to the Great Mosque of
Djenné.
11. At the height of Ghana's
prosperity, before 1240 AD,
the city of Kumbi Saleh was
the biggest West African city
of its day and had as many as
15,000 inhabitants.
About 320 kilometres north of
modern Bamako, Kumbi was a
twin city with two separate
centres 9.6 kilometres apart. The one part formed the Muslim
Although the two towns were quarter where the North African
linked by a continuum of merchants resided during their
houses, they were distinct in trading missions to Ghana.
character and function.
12. This was the main commercial area and their influence was
apparent in the many stone built houses, the 12 mosques
and the presence of many clerical scholars.
So long as they obeyed the laws and paid their taxes, the
traders were accorded safety and hospitality. This was a
partnership in long-distance trade that lasted for a very long
time.
The other 'town' of Kumbi,
known as Al-Ghaba, was the
more important for it was the
administrative centre of the
Serahule Empire and where the
King of Ghana lived in his royal
residence made of stone and
decorated with paintings,
carvings and fitted with glass
windows.
13.
14. The peaceful introduction of Islam
in the early medieval era of
Somalia's history brought Islamic
architectural influences from
Arabia and Persia, which stimulated
a shift from dry stone and other
related materials in construction to
coral stone, sundried bricks, and
the widespread use of limestone in
Somali architecture.
Many of the new architectural
designs such as mosques were built
on the ruins of older structures, a
practice that would continue over
and over again throughout the
following centuries.
15. One architectural feature that
made mosques distinct from other
mosques in Africa were minarets.
For centuries, Arba Rukun (1269),
the Friday mosque of Merca (1609)
and Fakr ad-Din (1269) were, in
fact, the only mosques in East
Africa to have minarets. Fakr ad- FAKR AD-DIN (1269)
Din, which dates back to the
Mogadishan Golden Age, was built
with marble and coral stone and
included a compact rectangular
plan with a domed mihrab axis.
Glazed tiles were also used in the
decoration of the mihrab, one of
which bears a dated inscription.
16.
17. The mosque was built in the 13th
century by Moorish traders. It is believed
that a copy of Holy Quran descended
directly from heaven to this mosque. The
book of Holy Quran is still kept inside the
mosque. Showing signs of Sudanese style
in its architecture, Larabanga Mosque is
one of the most photographed buildings
in Ghana.
Constructed primarily using packed
earth, the mosque was built in a style
heavily influenced by western Sudanese
architecture, characterized by the use of
horizontal timber, pyramidal towers,
buttresses, and triangular perforations
over entry portals
18.
19. The building is a vast irregular quadrilateral, longer (with 127.60
meters) from the eastern side than on the opposite side (with
125.20 meters) and less wide (with 72.70 meters) on the north
side (the minaret) that the opposite side (with 78 meters). It
covers a total area of 9000 m2.
20. From the outside, the Great Mosque of
Kairouan is a fortress-like building, which
required as much by its massive ocher walls
of 1.90 metersthick composed of well-worked
stones, courses of rubble stone and courses of
baked bricks,as the square angle towers
measuring 4.25 meters on each side and
the solid and projecting buttresses that
support and bind.
More than a defensive role,
the buttresses and towers full
serve more to enhance the stability
of the mosque built on a soil subject
to compaction.
21. Although a seemingly harsh, the
external facades, punctuated with
powerful buttresses and towering
porches, some of which are
surmounted by cupolas, give to the
sanctuary a striking aspect
characterized by majestic sobriety
22. Although a seemingly harsh, the
external facades, punctuated
with powerful buttresses and
towering porches, some of which
are surmounted by cupolas, give
to the sanctuary a striking aspect
characterized by majestic
sobriety.
MOSQUE OF KAIOURAN
MINARET IN
EARLY 20TH
CENTURY
