Chapter Eight: African Civilizations and the

Spread of Islam

Mr. Toma

AP World History

Midwest City High School

Background: African Civilizations and the Spread of

Islam • Extremely diverse• Wide variety of societies developed• Political unity was difficult• Universal states and religions do not develop in

Africa• Universal religions from elsewhere impact region

• Christianity and Islam sometimes influenced political and cultural development.

Background: African Civilizations and the Spread of

Islam • 800 -1500 C.E.: Increasing contact between Africa (esp. lower) and Mediterranean and Asian civilizations.

• State building in Africa influenced by a variety of things• West Africa: mix cultural influence from Islam with

indigenous culture• Mali and Songhay = depend on military power and

dynastic alliances more than cultural unity • Parts of Africa south of the Sahara entered into

expanding world network• Western and Eastern Africa connected by coasts

• Still, many remained in isolation.

5

African Societies: Diversity and Similarities

• Political forms• Hierarchical states

• Rulers who exercised control through a hierarchy of officials in states

• “Stateless" societies• organized on lineage or kinship principles• lacking concentration of power and authority• Authority and power normally exercised by a ruler

and court is held by a council or families or community

African Societies: Diversity and Similarities

• Weakness of stateless societies• No tax collection so no military• Difficult to resist external pressures• Hard to mobilize for war• No undertaking of large building projects• Hard to create stability for long-distance trade

• Still, many stateless societies thrived• Internal social pressures could be resolved by

allowing dissidents to leave and establish new villages

African Societies: Diversity and Similarities

• Bantu = common language • Animistic religion was common.

• Belief in natural forces personified as gods• Concepts of good and evil

• African economies vary by region• N. Africa was already integrated into the

world economy via Islamic trade routes• Settled agriculture and ironworking• W and E Africa are becoming more involved

in regional trade and urbanization. • Africans exchanged raw materials for

manufactured goods.

African Societies: Diversity and Similarities

• Mid-7th c. = Muslim armies moved west from Egypt across N. Africa• Spreads Islamic influence; rapid conversions

• Berbers (people of the Sahara) begin conversion• 11th century = reforming Muslim Berbers called

Almoravids from western Sahara grow• launch jihad (war to spread and protect faith)• move south against African kingdoms and west into

Spain. • 12th century = the Almohadis defeat Almoravids • Almoravids and Almohadis are essential to

penetration of Islam into sub-Saharan Africa

Almoravids

1040-1147

African Societies: Diversity and Similarities

• 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)• Oppression by Byzantine Christians

caused them to welcome Muslim invaders • The Nubians resisted Muslim incursions from

9th until 13th century. • Ethiopia continues to retain Christianity

Kingdoms of the Grasslands

Sahel Grasslands: zone of transition between Sahara Desert and Sudanic savannahs to the south

Point of exchange between North and South; important regions of trade

Kingdoms of the Grasslands

Ghana:

- Rose to power by taxing salt and gold- Almoravid armies invaded Ghana in 1076- By 13th c., new states would rise to take place

Kingdoms of the Grasslands• Sudanic States

• Often led by a patriarch or council of elders from a family or lineage.

• Control of subordinate societies• Arrival of Islam after the 10th century

reinforced ideas of kingship and ruling power: “royal cult”

• Majority of pop. never converted• Mali, Ghana and Songhay

• Combine Islamic religion/culture with local practices

Kingdoms of the Grasslands• Mali was formed by Malinke peoples

• broke away from Ghana in 13th c.• Economy: agriculture and gold trade

• Traders spread beyond W Africa• Islamicized state

• The ruler/mansa: Sundiata (Sunjata)• Credited with Malinke expansion and

unified state• a governing system based on clan

structure• Died 1260; Mansa Musa is successor

Kingdoms of the Grasslands• Jenne and Timbuktu, cities of W Sudan

• residents = scholars, craft specialists, and foreign merchants

• Timbuktu was famous for its library and university; book trade

• Cities of commercial exchange• Military expansion of Mali and Songhay contributed to

their strength. • Mali's population lived in villages and were agriculturists

(80%)• Poor soils, primitive technology, droughts, insect pests,

and storage problems

Kingdoms of the Grasslands• The Songhay Kingdom

• Became an independent state in the 7th century. • Capital city at Gao. • Prospered as a trading state.

• Dominated by Mali, then in 1370s independent• Empire founded by Sunni Ali (1464-1492)

• great military leader• extended rule over the entire middle Niger valley.

• Sunni Ali’s successors were Muslim military rulers, askia• Muhammad the Great extends borders

• Songhay remained dominant until defeated by Moroccans in 1591.

Kingdoms of the Grasslands

• Islam provided universal faith and fixed law. • Rulers reinforced authority through Muslim

ideology. • Many Sudanic societies were matrilineal and

did not seclude women. • Slavery and slave trade was prevalent from

Muslim influence• Viewed as stage in conversion process

• Development of unified states/empires provided structure that allowed various groups and communities to coexist

The Swahili Coast of East Africa

• Islamicized trading ports along Africa’s Indian Ocean coast• Increases contact with other regions

• Bantu speaking migrants• Bantu Swahili language emerged in a

string of urbanized trading ports• Immigrants from Southeast Asia• Exported raw materials in return for

Indian, Islamic and Chinese luxuries• 30 coastal trading towns flourished

• 13th-15th Century= Kilwa was the most important.

The Swahili Coast of East Africa

• Islam built a common bond between rulers and trading families.

• Allowed them to operate under common culture.

• Rulers and merchants were often Muslim. • Most of the population retained African

beliefs. • Culture = Swahili as language and

incorporated African and Islamic practices.

• Fused Islam and Swahili culture

Peoples of the Forest and Plains

• Across central Africa, agrarian societies thrived and kingdoms developed

• The Yoruba city-states• Non Bantu speaking peoples• Highly urbanized agriculturalists• Ile-Ife was the holiest Yoruba city;

“place of their birth”• Remarkable terra-cotta and bronze

portrait heads produced of rulers• Also work in ivory and wood

Peoples of the Forest and Plains

Peoples of the Forest and Plains

• Benin • Forms in 14th century

under ruler/oba Ewuare the Great

• Ruled from the Niger River to the coast near Lagos

• Peoples of east Yoruba• Artists worked in ivory

and cast bronze to produce art celebrating royal authority

People of the Forest and Plains

• 13th century, Bantu speakers approached the southern tip of Africa

• The Luba peoples, in Katanga, created a form of divine kingship• Divine kingship; ruler has power to

ensure fertility of people and crops• Hereditary bureaucracy formed to

administer the state• Allowed the integration of many

people into one political unit

People of the Forest and Plains

• Kingdom of Kongo (lower Congo River, 13th c.)• Agricultural society, flourishes by 15th

• Gender division of labor and family-based villages• Mbanza Kongo = 60,000-100,000 people

• Zimbabwe, 15th c. - the east, in central Africa• Shona-speaking peoples• Great Zimbabwe, largest site• Ruler = Mwene Mutapa• Dominated gold sources and trade with coastal

ports• Internal divisions split Zimbabwe during the 16th

century

Global Connections: Internal Development and External

Contacts • The spread of Islam had brought large areas of

Africa into the global community. • The most pronounced contacts

• south of the Sahara were in the Sudanic states and • East Africa

• Most of Africa evolved in regions free of Islamic contact.

• Many other Africans organized their lives in stateless societies.

Chapter 8 Homework Questions• What is the difference between a state and stateless

society? Where did stateless and state societies develop in Africa?

• In what ways did Islam influence sub-Saharan African culture?

• Who are the Almoravids and Almohadis? Why are they important?

• Where did Islamicized African ports develop? Why? What are the items traded?

• Describe the process of developing kingdoms in Central Africa.