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{{distinguish|text=the modern country, [[Ghana]]}}
hello guys hows your day
{{Confusing|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox former country
|native_name = ''Wagadou''
|conventional_long_name = Ghana Empire
|common_name = The Ancient Ghana Empire
|continent = Africa
|region = West Africa
|era = Middle Ages
|status =
|event_start =
|year_start = {{circa}} 700
|event1 =
|date_event1 =
|event_end = Conquered by [[Sosso]]/Submitted to the [[Mali Empire]]
|year_end = {{circa}} 1240
|date_end =
|p1 = Djenné-Djenno
|flag_p1 =
|s1 = Mali Empire
|image_flag =
|flag_type =
|image_coat =
|image_map = Ghana empire map.png
|image_map_caption = The Ghana Empire at its greatest extent
|capital = [[Koumbi Saleh]]
|common_languages = [[Soninke language|Soninke]], [[Malinke languages|Malinke]], [[Mande languages|Mande]]
|religion = [[African traditional religion]], [[Islam]]
|government_type = Monarchy
|leader1 = [[Kaya Magan Cissé]]
|year_leader1 = 700
|leader2 = [[Majan Dyabe Cisse]]
|year_leader2 = 790s
|leader3 = [[Ghana Bassi]]
|year_leader3 = 1040–1062
|leader4 = [[Soumaba Cisse]]
|year_leader4 = 1203–1235
|title_leader = [[Ghana Empire#Rulers|Ghana]]
|legislature =
|stat_year1 = 1067 est.
|stat_area1 = 1600
|today = {{plainlist|
*{{flag|Mali}}
*{{flag|Mauritania}}
*{{flag|Senegal}}}}
}}

The '''Ghana Empire''' ({{circa}} 700 until {{circa}} 1240), properly known as '''Wagadou''' (''Ghana'' or ''Ga'na'' being the title of its ruler), was a West African empire located in the area of present-day southeastern [[Mauritania]] and western [[Mali]]. Complex societies based on [[trans-Saharan trade]] with salt and gold had existed in the region since ancient times<ref>Burr, J. Millard and Robert O. Collins, ''Darfur: The Long Road to Disaster'', Markus Wiener Publishers: Princeton, 2006, {{ISBN|1-55876-405-4}}, pp. 6–7.</ref>, but the introduction of the [[camel]] to the western Sahara in the 3rd century A.D. opened the way to great changes in the area that became the Ghana Empire. By the time of the [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb|Muslim conquest of North Africa]] in the 7th century the camel had changed the ancient, more irregular trade routes into a trade network running from [[Morocco]] to the [[Niger river]]. The Ghana Empire grew rich from this increased trans-Saharan trade in gold and salt, allowing for larger urban centres to develop. The traffic furthermore encouraged territorial expansion to gain control over the different trade-routes.

When Ghana's ruling dynasty began remains uncertain; it is mentioned for the first time in written records by [[Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī]] in 830.<ref>al-Kuwarizmi in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', p. 7.</ref> In the 11th century the [[Córdoba, Spain|Cordoban]] scholar [[Al-Bakri|Abuof]] travelled to the region and gave a detailed description of the kingdom. He claimed that the ''Ghana'' could "put 200,000 men into the field, more than 40,000 of them archers", and noted they had cavalry forces as well.<ref>al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 81.</ref>

As the empire declined it finally became a vassal of the rising [[Mali Empire]] at some point in the 13th century. When the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]] in 1957 became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to regain its independence from colonial rule, it renamed itself in honor of the long-gone empire.

==Origin==
[[File:Trans-Saharan routes early.svg|thumb|right|305px|Trade routes of the Western Sahara c. 1000–1500. Goldfields are indicated by light brown shading: [[Bambuk]], [[Siguiri|Bure]], [[Gaoua|Lobi]], and [[Tarkwa|Akan]].]]

===Theories of foreign state founders===
The origins of Ghana have been dominated by fights between ethno-historic accounts and archaeological interpretations. The earliest discussions of its origins are found in the Sudanese chronicles of [[Mahmud Kati]] and Abd al-Rahman as-Sadi. According to Kati's [[Tarikh al-fattash|''Tarikh al-Fettash'']] in a section probably composed by the author around 1580, but citing the authority of the chief judge of Massina, Ida al-Massini who lived somewhat earlier, twenty kings ruled Ghana before the advent of the Prophet, and the empire extended until the century after the prophet.<ref name=Houdas76>[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5439466q/f103.image Houdas & Delafosse 1913], p. 76.</ref>
In addressing the rulers' origin, the ''Tarikh al-Fettash'' provides three different opinions, one that they were [[Soninke people|Soninke]], another that they were [[Soninke Wangara|Wangara]] (which are a Soninke group), and another that they were Sanhaja berbers.

Al-Kati favored another interpretation in view of the fact that their genealogies linked them to this group, adding "What is certain is that they were not Soninke.” (''min al-sawadin'').<ref>{{Harvnb|Houdas|Delafosse|1913|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5439466q/f105.image 78]}}, translation from {{Harvnb|Levtzion|1973|p=19}}</ref> While the sixteenth-century versions of genealogies might have linked Ghana to the Sanhaja, earlier versions, for example as reported by the eleventh-century writer [[al-Idrisi]] and the thirteenth-century writer [[Ibn Said al-Maghribi|ibn Said]], noted that rulers of Ghana in those days traced their descent from the clan of the Prophet Muhammad either through his protector [[Abi Talib]], or through his son-in-law Ali.<ref>al-Idrisi in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', p. 109, and ibn Sa'id, p. 186.</ref> He says that 22 kings ruled before the [[Hijra (Islam)|Hijra]] and 22 after.{{sfn|Hunwick|2003|p=13 and note 5}} While these early views lead to many exotic interpretations of a foreign origin of Wagadu, these views are generally disregarded by scholars. Levtzion and Spaulding for example, argue that [[al-Idrisi]]'s testimony should be looked at very critically due to demonstrably gross miscalculations in geography and historical chronology, while they themselves associate Ghana with the local Soninke.<ref>Levtzion and Spaulding. ''Medieval West Africa: Views From Arab Scholars and Merchants'' (2003), p. 27.</ref> In addition, the archaeologist and historian Raymond Mauny argues that al-Kati's and al-Sadi's view of a foreign origin cannot be regarded as reliable. He argues that the interpretations were based on the later presence (after Ghana's demise) of nomadic interlopers on the assumption that they were the historic ruling caste, and that the writers did not adequately consider contemporary accounts such as those of al-Yakqubi (872&nbsp;A.D.) al-Masudi (c.&nbsp;944&nbsp;A.D.), Ibn Hawqal (c.&nbsp;977&nbsp;A.D.), al-Biruni (c.&nbsp;1036&nbsp;A.D.), as well as al-Bakri, all of whom describe the population and rulers of Ghana as "negroes".{{sfn|Mauny|1954|p=204}}

===History of Islam in the Ghana Empire===
{{See also|Islam in Mauritania|Islam in Mali}}
Modern scholars, particularly African Muslim scholars, have argued about the extension of the Ghana Empire and tenure of its reign. Islamic religion was known very well around the Asian-African-European area. The African Arabist, [[Abu-Abdullah Adelabu]] has claimed that some non-Muslim historians played down the territorial expansion of the Ghana Empire in what he called an attempt to undermine the influence of [[Islam]] in Old Ghana. In his work ''The Ghana World: A Pride For The Continent'', Adelabu maintained that works of such Muslim historians and geographers in Europe as the [[Córdoba, Andalusia|Cordoban]] scholar [[Al-Bakri|Abu-Ubayd al-Bakri]] had been subjugated to accommodate contrary views of non-Muslim Europeans.<ref>Al-Bakri Siffah Iftiqiyyah Wal-Maghrib (Description Of Africa and The Maghreb), D. Slan, Algeria, 1857, p. 158.</ref> [[Sheikh Adelabu|Adelabu]] claimed constant cold-shouldering of [[Abdallah ibn Yasin|Ibn Yasin]]'s Geography of School Of [[Imam Malik]] in which he gave a comprehensive account of social and religious activities in the Ghana Empire have well-attested compositional bias of Ghana history documentation, especially by the European historians on topics related to Islam and the ancient Muslim societies. [[Sheikh Adelabu|Adelabu]] said: "...the early Muslim documentaries including [[Abdallah ibn Yasin|Ibn Yasin]]'s revelations on ancient African major centers of Muslim culture crossing [[Maghreb|the Maghreb]] and [[Sahel|the Sahel]] to [[Timbuktu]] and downward to [[Ashanti Region|Ashanti regions]] had not just presented researchers in the field of [[African History]] with solutions to the scarcity of written sources in large parts of [[sub-Saharan Africa]], it consolidated confidence in techniques of oral history, historical linguistics and archaeology for authentic [[Islam|Islamic traditions]] in Africa".<ref>Dr. Hussein Mouanes ''Atlas Taarikh Al-Islam'' (Atlas of Islamic History), p. 372.</ref>

===Oral traditions===
{{See also|History of the Soninke people}}

In the late nineteenth century, as French forces occupied the region in which ancient Ghana lay, colonial officials began collecting traditional accounts, including some manuscripts written in [[Arabic]] somewhat earlier in the century. Several such traditions were recorded and published. While there are variants, these traditions called the most ancient polity they knew of Wagadu, or the "place of the Wago" the term current in the nineteenth century for the local nobility. The traditions described the kingdom as having been founded by a man named Dinga, who came "from the east" (e.g., [[Aswan]], [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=uivtCqOlpTsC&pg=PA104&dq=cisse+aswan#v=onepage&q=cisse+aswan&f=false|title=Encyclopedia of African American History [3 volumes]|first1=Leslie M.|last1=Alexander|first2=Walter C. Rucker|last2=Jr|date=9 February 2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|accessdate=13 September 2018|via=Google Books|isbn=9781851097746}}</ref>), after which he migrated to a variety of locations in the Western Sudan, in each place leaving children by different wives. In order to achieve power in his final location he had to kill a [[goblin]], and then marry his daughters, who became the ancestors of the clans that were dominant in the region at the time of the recording of the tradition. Upon Dinga's death, his two sons Khine and Dyabe contested the kingship, and Dyabe was victorious, founding the kingdom.{{sfn|Levtzion|1973|pp=16–17}}

An old but increasingly explored view is the [[Akan people]] to the founding of the pre-Islamic Ghana Empire. Oral traditions of the ruling Abrade (Aduana) Clan relate that they originated from ancient Ghana. They migrated from the north, they went through Egypt and settled in Nubia (Sudan). Around 500 AD (5th century), due to the pressure exerted on Nubia by the Axumite kingdom of Ethiopia, Nubia was shattered, and the Akan people moved west and established small trading kingdoms. These kingdoms grew, and around 750 AD the Empire of Ghana was formed. The Empire lasted from 750 AD to 1200 AD and collapsed as a result of the introduction of Islam in the Western Sudan, and the zeal of the Muslims to impose their religion: their ancestors eventually left for Kong (i.e. present day Ivory Coast). From Kong they moved to Wam and then to Dormaa (both located in present-day Brong-Ahafo region). The movement from Kong was necessitated by the desire of the people to find suitable savannah conditions since they were not used to forest life. What adds credence to the oral narrative is that The ruling caste (Kings of Ancient Ghana) was described by Arab Historian [[Al-Bakri]] as matrilineal in succession (a system in all of Africa preserved and honored exactly the same) among Akan people.

Al-Bakri was fascinated by the matrilineal tradition of succession where he stated: "The Kingdom is inherited only by the son of the King's sister". Tunkamanin, the king during the time of Al-Bakri, was the nephew of the previous King, King Basi. Al-Bakri, coming from a patrilineal culture, explains: "The King has no doubt that his successor is the son of his sister, while he is not certain that his son is in fact his own, and he does not rely on the genuineness of this relationship." The matrilineal succession of ancient Ghana is paralleled exactly within the kingship/chieftaincy traditions, which still determine succession among Akans of the modern republic of Ghana and Ivory Coast. In addition, Al-Bakri's account of the splendour of the royal court of Ghana, its etiquette and ritual observance is virtually indistinguishable from [[Thomas Edward Bowdich]] descriptions of the splendours of the [[Empire of Ashanti]] court in 1817. Both describe pages or messengers with shields and breastplates decorated with gold and the "awesome sounds" of massed drummers and horns of gold.

The king of ancient Ghana was described as able to deploy 200,000 men (warriors) in the field just like the king of [[Empire of Ashanti|Ashanti]]. Although modern historians (whom are often driven and/or influenced by western and/or Islamic-religious bias) ignore the authenticity of the Akan ancestral "long March” from ancient North Africa’s Egypt-Sudan, and the Western Sudan's pre-islamicized empire of Ghana, the parallels in cultural identity indicate a historical legacy, which is more than just chance coincidence.

===Theories concerning the foundation of Ghana===
French colonial officials, notably [[Maurice Delafosse]] whose works on [[West Africa]]n history has been criticised by scholars such Monteil, Cornevin and others for being "unacceptable" and "too creative to be useful to historians" in relation to his falsification of West African genealogies,<ref>Monteil, Charles, ''Fin de siècle à Médine (1898-1899)'', Bulletin de l'lFAN, vol. 28, série B, n° 1-2, 1966, p. 166.</ref><ref>Monteil, Charles, ''La légende officielle de Soundiata, fondateur de l'empire manding'', Bulletin du Comité d 'Etudes historiques et scientifiques de l 'AOF, VIII, n° 2, 1924.</ref><ref>African Studies Association, ''History in Africa'', Vol. 11, African Studies Association, 1984, University of Michigan, pp. 42-51.</ref><ref>Cornevin, Robert, ''Histoire de l'Afrique'', Tome I: des origines au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1962), 347-48 (reference to Delafosse in ''Haut-Sénégal-Niger'' vol. 1, pp. 256-257)</ref> concluded that Ghana had been founded by the Berbers, a nomadic group originating from the Benu River, from Middle Africa, and linked them to North African and Middle Eastern origins. While Delafosse produced a convoluted theory of an invasion by "Judeo-Syrians", which he linked to the [[Fulbe]], others took the tradition at face value and simply accepted that nomads had ruled first.{{sfn|Delafosse|1912|pp=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k103554s/f231.image 215–226 Vol. 1]}} Raymond Mauny, synthesizing early archaeology, various traditions, and the Arabic materials in 1961 concluded that foreign trade was vital to the empire's foundation.{{sfn|Mauny|1961|pp=72–74, 508–511}} More recent work, for example by [[Nehemiah Levtzion]], in his classic work published in 1973, sought to harmonize archaeology, descriptive geographical sources written between 830 and 1400, the older traditions of the Tarikhs, from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and finally the traditions collected by French administrators. Levtzion concluded that local developments, stimulated by trade from North Africa were crucial in the development of the state, and tended to favor the more recently collected traditions over the other traditions in compiling his work.{{sfn|Levtzion|1973|pp=8–17}} While there has not been much further study of either traditions or documents, archaeologists have added considerable nuance to the ultimate play of forces.

===Contribution of archaeological research===
Archaeological research was slow to enter the picture. While French archaeologists believed they had located the capital, [[Koumbi Saleh|Koumbi-Saleh]] in the 1920s, when they located extensive stone ruins in the general area given in most sources for the capital, and others argued that elaborate burials in the Niger Bend area may have been linked to the empire, it was not until 1969, when Patrick Munson excavated at [[Dhar Tichitt]] in modern-day [[Mauretania]] that the probability of an entirely local origin was raised.{{sfn|Munson|1980}} The Dar Tichitt site had clearly become a complex culture by 1600 BCE and had architectural and material culture elements that seemed to match the site at Koumbi-Saleh. In more recent work in Dar Tichitt, and then in Dhar Nema and [[Walata|Dhar Walata]], it has become more and more clear that as the desert advanced, the Dhar Tichitt culture (which had abandoned its earliest site around 300 BC, possibly because of pressure from desert nomads, but also because of increasing aridity) and moved southward into the still well watered areas of northern Mali.<ref>Kevin McDonald, Robert Vernet, Dorian Fuller and James Woodhouse, "New Light on the Tichitt Tradition" A Preliminary Report on Survey and Excavation at Dhar Nema," pp. 78–80.</ref> This now seems the likely history of the complex society that can be documented at Koumbi-Saleh.

==Kumbi Saleh==
The empire's capital is believed to have been at [[Koumbi Saleh]] on the rim of the Sahara desert.{{sfn|Levtzion|1973|pp=22–26}} According to the description of the town left by [[Al-Bakri]] in 1067/1068, the capital was actually two cities {{convert|6|mi|km|0|order=flip}} apart but "between these two towns are continuous habitations", so that they might be said to have merged into one.<ref name=corpus80>al-Bakri (1067) in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', p. 80.</ref>

===Muslim district===
The name of the other section of the city is not recorded. It was surrounded by wells with fresh water, where vegetables were grown. It was inhabited almost entirely by Muslims along with twelve [[mosques]], one of which was designated for Friday prayers, and had a full group of scholars, scribes and Islamic jurists. Because the majority of these Muslims were merchants, this part of the city was probably its primary business district.<ref>al-Bakri, 1067 in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', pp. 79–80.</ref> It is likely that these inhabitants were largely black Muslims known as the Wangara and are today known as Dyula and Jakhanke. The separate and autonomous ran towns outside of the main government is a well known practice used by the Dyula and Jakhanke Muslims throughout history.

===Archaeology===
[[File:Senegal River according to al-Bakri.jpg|right|thumb|250px|The Western Nile according to [[al-Bakri]] (1068)]]
[[File:Senegal River according to al-Idrisi.jpg|right|thumb|250px|The Western Nile according to [[Muhammad al-Idrisi]] (1154)]]
A seventeenth-century chronicle written in [[Timbuktu]], the ''[[Tarikh al-fattash]]'', gives the name of the capital as "Koumbi".<ref name=Houdas76/> Beginning in the 1920s, French archaeologists began excavating the site of Koumbi-Saleh, although there have always been controversies about the location of Ghana's capital and whether Koumbi-Saleh is the same town as the one described by al-Bakri. The site was excavated in 1949–50 by Thomassey and Mauny{{sfn|Thomassey|Mauny|1951}} and by another French team in 1975–81.{{sfn|Berthier|1997}} However, the remains of Koumbi Saleh are impressive, even if the remains of the royal town, with its large palace and burial mounds has not been located. Another problem for archaeology is that al-Idrisi, a twelfth-century writer, described Ghana's royal city as lying on a riverbank, a river he called the "Nile" following the geographic custom of his day of confusing the Niger and Senegal, which do not meet, as forming a single river often called the "Nile of the Blacks". Whether al-Idrisi was referring to a new and later capital located elsewhere, or whether there was confusion or corruption in his text is unclear, however he does state that the royal palace he knew of was built in 510&nbsp;AH (1116–1117&nbsp;AD), suggesting that it was a newer town, rebuilt closer to the Niger than Koumbi Saleh.<ref name="autogenerated109">al-Idrisi in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', pp. 109–110.</ref>

==Economy==
Most of our information about the economy of Ghana comes from [[al-Bakri]]. Al-Bakri noted that merchants had to pay a one gold dinar tax on imports of salt, and two on exports of salt. Other products paid fixed dues, al-Bakri mentioned both copper and "other goods." Imports probably included products such as textiles, ornaments and other materials. Many of the hand-crafted leather goods found in old [[Morocco]] also had their origins in the empire.<ref>Chu, Daniel and Skinner, Elliot. A Glorious Age in Africa, 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965.</ref> The main centre of trade was [[Koumbi Saleh]]. The king claimed as his own all nuggets of gold, and allowed other people to have only gold dust.<ref>al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. ''Corpus'', p. 81.</ref> In addition to the exerted influence of the king onto local regions, tribute was also received from various tributary states and [[chiefdoms]] to the empire's periphery.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/4chapter1.shtml|title=The Story of Africa- BBC World Service|website=www.bbc.co.uk|accessdate=13 September 2018}}</ref> The introduction of the [[Dromedary|camel]] played a key role in Soninke success as well, allowing products and goods to be transported much more efficiently across the Sahara. These contributing factors all helped the empire remain powerful for some time, providing a rich and stable economy that was to last over several centuries.
The empire was also known to be a major education hub.{{citation needed|reason=No source.|date=April 2016}}
Once originally name Wagadu, The Kingdom of Ghana was located in present day Mauritania and western Mali. The Kingdom of Ghana was a very wealthy kingdom for numerous reasons, one of the reasons being the Trans-Saharan Trade. The Kingdom of Ghana was very populated and had many people from outside the kingdom travel through in order to trade with those from the Kingdom of Ghana or to trade with other outsiders, making Ghana a focal point trading center. Some of the most important parts of products that were trade within Ghana were salt and gold. With gold and salt being transported and traded through Ghana, the Kingdom of Ghana was able to become very wealthy by taxing the goods that came through the trade center. Other materials that were popular within trading in Ghana were ivory, slaves, horses, swords, spices, silks, and even books from Europeans. Because Ghana had a large military force, they would charge people for protection if they so desired it when trading to protect themselves and their goods. The fact that Ghana had many trade routes that were well protected also encouraged other merchants to come to Ghana and trade. With the amount of protection on the trade routes and the large number of trade routes, Ghana was given the nickname The Gold Coast. Because so many people trade through Ghana, Ghana was essentially a melting pot, spreading ideas, culture, technology and other aspects of what makes different societies what they were. Eventually the Kingdom of Ghana came to its downfall; a decline in power. Ghana was attacked by other regions who were in need of the resources that Ghana possessed. The Kingdom of Ghana eventually merged with Mali, which became one of the largest empires in African history and one of the richest as well.

==Government==
Much testimony on ancient Ghana depended on how well disposed the king was to foreign travellers, from which the majority of information on the empire comes. Islamic writers often commented on the social-political stability of the empire based on the seemingly just actions and grandeur of the king. A [[Moors|Moorish]] nobleman living in Spain by the name of [[Al-Bakri]] questioned merchants who visited the empire in the 11th century and wrote of the king:

{{Quotation|He sits in audience or to hear grievances against officials in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with gold-embroidered materials. Behind the king stand ten pages holding shields and swords decorated with gold, and on his right are the sons of the kings of his country wearing splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold. The governor of the city sits on the ground before the king and around him are ministers seated likewise. At the door of the pavilion are dogs of excellent pedigree that hardly ever leave the place where the king is, guarding him. Around their necks they wear collars of gold and silver studded with a number of balls of the same metals.<ref name=corpus80/>}}

Ghana appears to have had a central core region and was surrounded by vassal states. One of the earliest sources to describe Ghana, al-Ya'qubi, writing in 889/90 (276&nbsp;AH) says that "under his authority are a number of kings" which included Sama and 'Am (?) and so extended at least to the Niger valley.<ref>al-Ya'qubi in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. ''Corpus'', p. 21.</ref> These "kings" were presumably the rulers of the territorial units often called ''kafu'' in Mandinka.

The Arabic sources, the only ones to give us any information, are sufficiently vague as to how the country was governed, that we can say very little. Al-Bakri, far and away the most detailed one, does mention that the king had officials (''mazalim'') who surrounded his throne when he gave justice, and these included the sons of the "kings of his country" which we must assume are the same kings that al-Ya'qubi mentioned in his account of nearly two hundred years earlier. Al-Bakri's detailed geography of the region shows that in his day, or 1067/1068, Ghana was surrounded by independent kingdoms, and Sila, one of them located on the Senegal River, was "almost a match for the king of Ghana." Sama is the only such entity mentioned as a province, as it was in al-Ya'qubi's day.<ref>al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans., ''Corpus'', pp. 77–83.</ref>

In al-Bakri's time, the rulers of Ghana had begun to incorporate more Muslims into government, including the treasurer, his interpreter and "the majority of his officials."<ref name=corpus80/>

==Decline==
Given the scattered nature of the Arabic sources and the ambiguity of the existing archaeological record, it is difficult to determine when and how Ghana declined and fell. The earliest descriptions of the Empire are vague as to its maximum extent, though according to al-Bakri, Ghana had forced [[Awdaghost]] in the desert to accept its rule sometime between 970 and 1054.<ref>al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. ''Corpus'', p. 73.</ref> By al-Bakri's own time, however, it was surrounded by powerful kingdoms, such as Sila. Ghana was combined in the kingdom of Mali in 1240 marking the end of the Ghana Empire.

A tradition in historiography maintains that Ghana fell when it was sacked by the [[Almoravid dynasty|Almoravid]] movement in 1076–77, although Ghanaians resisted attack for a decade.<ref>For example, Levtzion, ''Ghana and Mali'', pp. 44–48.</ref> but this interpretation has been questioned. 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.{{sfn|Masonen|Fisher|1996}} Dierke Lange agrees but argues that this does not preclude Almoravid political agitation, claiming that Ghana's demise owed much to the latter.{{sfn|Lange|1996|pp=122–59}}Sheryl L. Burkhalter(1992) was sceptical of Conrad and Fisher's arguments and suggested that there was reasons to believe that there was conflict between the Almoravids and the empire of Ghana.<ref>"Listening for Silences in Almoravid History: Another Reading of “The Conquest that Never Was” Camilo Gómez-Rivas</ref><ref>"Law and the Islamization of Morocco under the Almoravids” Camilo Gómez-Rivas</ref> Furthermore, the archaeology of ancient Ghana simply does not show the signs of rapid change and destruction that would be associated with any Almoravid-era military conquests.{{sfn|Insoll|2003|p=230}}

While there is no clear-cut account of a sack of Ghana in the contemporary sources, the country certainly did convert to Islam, for al-Idrisi, whose account was written in 1154, has the country fully Muslim by that date. [[Ibn Khaldun]], a fourteenth-century North African historian who read and cited both al-Bakri and al-Idrisi, does report an ambiguous account of the country's history as related to him report 'Uthman, a [[Faqīh|faqih]] of Ghana who took a [[pilgrimage to Mecca]] in 1394, that the power of Ghana waned as that of the "veiled people" grew, through the Almoravid movement.<ref name="Hopkins p. 333">ibn Khaldun in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. ''Corpus'', p. 333.</ref> Al-Idrisi's report does not give any reason in particular to cause us to believe that the Empire was any smaller or weaker than it had been in the days of al-Bakri, seventy five years earlier, and 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."<ref name="autogenerated109"/> It is clear, however, that Ghana was incorporated into the [[Mali Empire]], according to a detailed account of al-'Umari, written around 1340, but based on testimony given to him by the "truthful and trustworthy shaykh Abu Uthman Sa'id al-Dukkali, a long term resident. In al-'Umari/al-Dukkali's version, Ghana still retained its functions as a sort of kingdom within the empire, its ruler being the only one allowed to bear the title ''malik'' and "who is like a deputy unto him."<ref>al-'Umari in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. ''Corpus'', p. 262.</ref>

==Aftermath and Sosso occupation==
[[File:Ghana successor map 1200.png|right|thumb]]

According to Ibn Khaldun, following Ghana's conversion, "the authority of the rulers of Ghana dwindled away and they were overcome by the Sosso...who subjugated and subdued them."<ref name="Hopkins p. 333"/> Some modern traditions identify the Susu as the [[Sosso]], inhabitants of [[Kaniaga]]. According to much later traditions, from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, [[Diara Kante]] took control of Koumbi Saleh and established the [[Diarisso]] Dynasty. His son, [[Soumaoro Kante]], succeeded him and forced the people to pay him tribute. The Sosso also managed to annex the neighboring [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] state of [[Kangaba]] to the south, where the important goldfields of [[Siguiri|Bure]] were located.

==Malinke rule==
In his brief overview of Sudanese history, ibn Khaldun related that "the people of Mali outnumbered the peoples of the Sudan in their neighborhood and dominated the whole region." He went on to relate that they "vanquished the Susu and acquired all their possessions, both their ancient kingdom and that of Ghana."<ref>ibn Khaldun in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', p. 333.</ref> 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 1230 to the event.{{sfn|Delafosse|1912|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k103554s/f310.image 291 Vol. 1]}} 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, Koumbi Saleh's role as an ally declined to that of a submissive state, and it became the client described in al-'Umari/al-Dukkali's account of 1340.

==Etymology==
The word Ghana means "warriors" and was the title given to the rulers of the original kingdom whose Soninke name was ''Ouagadou''. ''Kaya Maghan'' (lord of the gold) was another title for these kings.<ref>{{citation | editor=Willie F. Page | editor2=R. Hunt Davis, Jr. | entry=Ghana Empire | title=Encyclopedia of African History and Culture | edition=revised | volume=2 | publisher=Facts on File | year=2005 | pages=85–87}}</ref> The extraordinary renown of the Ghana empire induced [[Kwame Nkrumah]], the political leader of the Gold Coast, to name his country Ghana when it attained independence in 1957.<ref>{{citation | author=R. Cornevin | contribution=<u>GH</u>ĀNA | title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam | edition=2nd | volume=2 | publisher=Brill | year=1991 | pages=1001–1003| title-link=The Encyclopaedia of Islam }}</ref>

==Rulers==

===Soninke rulers ("Ghanas") of the Cisse dynasty===
*[[Kaya Magan Cissé|King Kaya Magha]] (or Kaya Magan): circa 700 AD
* Mayan Dyabe Cisse: circa 790s
*[[Ghana Bassi|Bassi]]: 1040–1062
*[[Tunka Manin]]: 1062–1076

===Almoravid occupation===
*[[Abu Bakr ibn Umar]]: 1076–1087

===Sosso rulers===
*Kambine Diaresso: 1087-1090
*Suleiman: 1090-1100
*Bannu Bubu: 1100-1120
*Majan Wagadou: 1120-1130
*Gane: 1130-1140
*Musa: 1140-1160
*Birama: 1160-1180

===Rulers during Kaniaga occupation===
*Diara Kante: 1180-1202
*Soumaba Cisse as vassal of Soumaoro: 1203–1235

===Ghanas of Wagadou Tributary===
*Soumaba Cisse as ally of Sundjata Keita: 1235–1240

==See also==
*[[History of the Soninke people]]
*[[Islam in Africa]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|3}}

==References==
*{{citation | last=Berthier | first=Sophie | title=Recherches archéologiques sur la capitale de l'empire de Ghana: Etude d'un secteur, d'habitat à Koumbi Saleh, Mauritanie: Campagnes II-III-IV-V (1975–1976)-(1980–1981) |series=British Archaeological Reports 680, Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 41 | year=1997 | place=Oxford | publisher=Archaeopress | isbn=978-0-86054-868-3}}.
*{{citation | last=Delafosse | year=1912 | first=Maurice | author-link=Maurice Delafosse |title=Haut-Sénégal-Niger: Le Pays, les Peuples, les Langues; l'Histoire; les Civilizations. 3 Vols |publisher=Émile Larose |location=Paris | language=French}}. Gallica: Volume 1, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k103554s Le Pays, les Peuples, les Langues]; Volume 2, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1035644 L'Histoire]; Volume 3, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k103565h Les Civilisations].
*{{citation | editor1-last=Houdas | editor1-first= Octave | editor2-last= Delafosse | editor2-first= Maurice | year=1913 | title=Tarikh el-fettach par Mahmoūd Kāti et l'un de ses petit fils (2 Vols.)| publisher=Ernest Leroux | place=Paris | url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5439466q }}. Volume 1 is the Arabic text, Volume 2 is a translation into French. Reprinted by [http://maisonneuve-adrien.com/description/afrique/tarikh_fettach.htm Maisonneuve] in 1964 and 1981. The French text is also [http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.CH.DOCUMENT.nuhmkati1&pgs= available] from Aluka but requires a subscription.
*{{citation | last=Hunwick | first= John O.| author-link=John Hunwick | year=2003 |title= Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents | publisher=Brill| place=Leiden | isbn=978-90-04-12560-5}}. Reprint of the 1999 edition with corrections.
*{{citation | last=Insoll | first=Timothy | year=2003 | title=Archaeology of Islam in Sub-saharan Africa | publisher=Cambridge University Press | place=Cambridge| isbn=978-0-521-65702-0 }}.
*{{citation | last=Lange | first=Dierk | year=1996 | title=The Almoravid expansion and the downfall of Ghana | journal=Der Islam | volume=73 | issue=2 | pages=313–51 | doi=10.1515/islm.1996.73.2.313 }}. Reprinted in Lange 2004, pp.&nbsp;455–493.
*{{citation | last=Lange | first=Dierk | year=2004 | title=Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa | publisher=J. H. Röll | place=Dettelbach, Germany | isbn=978-3-89754-115-3 }}.
*{{citation | last=Levtzion | first=Nehemia | title=Ancient Ghana and Mali | publisher=Methuen | place=London | year=1973 | isbn=978-0-8419-0431-6}}. Reprinted with additions 1980.
*{{citation | last1=Levtzion | first1=Nehemia | last2=Hopkins | first2=John F. P. eds. and trans. |title=Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa | publisher=Marcus Weiner | place=New York, NY | year=2000 | isbn=978-1-55876-241-1}}. First published in 1981 by Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0-521-22422-5}}.
*{{citation | last1=Levtzion | first1=Nehemia | last2=Spaulding | first2=Jay | year=2003 | title=Medieval West Africa: Views from Arab Scholars and Merchants | publisher=Markus Wiener | place=Princeton NJ | isbn=978-1-55876-305-0 }}. Excerpts from Levtzion & Hopkins 1981. Includes an extended introduction.
*{{citation | last=Masonen | first=Pekka | last2=Fisher | first2=Humphrey J. | title=Not quite Venus from the waves: The Almoravid conquest of Ghana in the modern historiography of Western Africa | year=1996 | journal=History in Africa | volume=23 | pages=197–232 | jstor=3171941 | url=http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~amcdouga/Hist446/readings/conquest_in_west_african_historiography.pdf | doi = 10.2307/3171941 }}.*{{citation | last=Mauny | first=Raymond A. | year=1954 | title=The question of Ghana | journal= Journal of the International African Institute | volume=24 | issue=3 | pages=200–213 | jstor=1156424 }}.
*{{citation | last=Mauny | first=Raymond | year=1961 | title=Tableau géographique de l'ouest africain au moyen age, d'après les sources écrites, la tradition et l'archéologie | publisher= Institut français d'Afrique Noire | place=Dakar }}.
*{{citation | last=Munson | first=Patrick J. | year=1980 | title= Archaeology and the prehistoric origins of the Ghana Empire | journal=The Journal of African History | volume=21 | issue=4 | pages=457–466 | jstor=182004 }}.
*{{citation | last1=Thomassey | first1=Paul | last2=Mauny | first2=Raymond | year=1951 | title=Campagne de fouilles à Koumbi Saleh | journal=Bulletin de I'lnstitut Français de I'Afrique Noire (B) | volume=13 | pages=438–462 | url=http://www.mr.refer.org/numweb/spip.php?article20 | language=French | deadurl=yes | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726200810/http://www.mr.refer.org/numweb/spip.php?article20 | archivedate=2011-07-26 | df= }}. Includes a plan of the site.

==Further reading==
*{{citation | last1=Conrad | first1=David C. | last2=Fisher | first2=Humphrey J. | year=1982 | title=The conquest that never was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. I. The external Arabic sources | journal= History in Africa | volume=9 | pages=21–59 | jstor= 3171598 | ref=none}}.
*{{citation | last1=Conrad | first1=David C. | last2=Fisher | first2=Humphrey J. | year=1983 | title=The conquest that never was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The local oral sources | journal= History in Africa | volume=10 | pages=53–78 | jstor= 3171690 | ref=none}}.
*{{citation | last=Cornevin | first=Robert | title=Encyclopaedia of Islam Volume 2 | edition=2nd | year=1965 | contribution=Ghana | publisher=Brill | place=Leiden | url= https://archive.org/stream/EncyclopaediaDictionaryIslamMuslimWorldEtcGibbKramerScholars.13/02.EncycIslam.NewEdPrepNumLeadOrient.EdEdComCon.LewPelScha.etc.UndPatIUA.v2.C-G.4th.Leid.EJBrill.1965.1991.#page/n1043/mode/1up | isbn= 978-90-04-07026-4 | pages=1001–2 | ref=none }}.
*{{citation | last=Cuoq | first=Joseph M., translator and editor | year=1975 | title= Recueil des sources arabes concernant l'Afrique occidentale du VIIIe au XVIe siècle (Bilād al-Sūdān) | publisher=Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique | place=Paris | language=French | ref=none }}. Reprinted in 1985 with corrections and additional texts, {{ISBN|2-222-01718-1}}. Similar to Levtzion and Hopkins, 1981 & 2000.
*{{citation | last=Masonen | first=Pekka | year=2000 | title=The Negroland revisited: Discovery and invention of the Sudanese middle ages | publisher=Finnish Academy of Science and Letters | place=Helsinki | isbn=978-951-41-0886-0 | pages=519–23 | ref=none }}.
*{{citation | last=Mauny | first=Raymond | year=1971 | contribution=The Western Sudan | editor-last=Shinnie | editor-first=P.L. | title=The African Iron age | publisher=Oxford University Press | place=Oxford | isbn= 978-0-19-813158-8 | pages=66–87 | ref=none }}.
*{{citation | last=Monteil | first=Charles | year=1954 | contribution=La légende du Ouagadou et l’origine des Soninke | title=Mélanges Ethnologiques | place=Dakar | publisher=Mémoire de l'Institute Français d'Afrique Noire 23 | pages=359–408 | ref=none}}.

==External links==
<!--
This link is reported as an attack site by Google. We probably shouldn't link to it until they clean up their act!
*[http://www.ghana.co.uk/history/history/ancient_ghana.htm Ancient Ghana]
-->
* [http://www.africankingdoms.com/ African Kingdoms | Ghana]
* [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ghan/hd_ghan.htm Empires of west Sudan]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081212110749/http://www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/materials/handouts/k_o_ghana.html Kingdom of Ghana, Primary Source Documents]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/4chapter1.shtml Ancient Ghana] — BBC World Service

{{Mali topics}}
{{Sahelian kingdoms}}
{{Empires}}

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[[Category:1240 disestablishments]]
[[Category:13th-century disestablishments in Africa]]
[[Category:8th-century establishments in Africa]]
[[Category:Countries in medieval Africa]]
[[Category:Ghana Empire]]
[[Category:History of Mauritania]]
[[Category:History of Senegal]]
[[Category:Political history of Mali]]
[[Category:History of Azawad]]
[[Category:Sahelian kingdoms]]
[[Category:Spread of Islam]]

Revision as of 16:06, 13 December 2018


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