Islam in the Ancient Empires of West Africa

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the influence of Islamic influence on West Africa's ancient empires, like the Songhay empire under the Askiya Dynasty.
The author also provides a background study on two other empires, the Mali and Ghana empires, analyzing how they stood to prosper by the conquest by the leaders of the Songhay empire. Furthermore, the paper discusses how the leaders of the Askiya Dynasty sought a pure, institutionalized form of Islam and practice, in combination with the traditional religions. The paper also talks of how they used this opportunity to invest in education, resulting in the creation of an elite intelligentsia that produced extensive literary and cultural works.

From the Paper:

"As merchants crossed the desert into black Africa, they not only brought goods but their Islamic customs and traditions, often bringing Muslim clerics in their caravans, who were eager to settle in these new lands and spread the teachings of Islam. These teachings, would at first, appeal to only a small sect of the population, namely the aristocracy. Prior to the rise of the Songhay empire, Islam was practiced only by royalty and scholars during the Mansa Dynasty, while the population remained largely pagan. It was by the mid-eleventh century that the kings of Mali started becoming Islamized and so began the era of Islam as a royal religion. In a wonderful narrative, Al-Bakri describes how the Malian king became Islamized and came to be known as al-Musulmani. This account underscores the important role clerics played in the Islamization of West Africa during Mali's reign. According to Al-Bakri's account, the Malian king sought help from a Muslim divine in a time of terrible drought and famine. This divine makes the king promise to convert to Islam before he will pray for him."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Dubois, Felix. Timbuctoo the Mysterious. Trans. Diana White. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.
• Hamdun, Said and Noel King, eds. Ibn Battuta in Black Africa. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1994.
• Hunwick, John O. Shari'a in Songhay. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
• Levtzion, Nehemia and J.F.P. Hopkins, eds. Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000.
• Levtzion, Nehemia and Randall L. Pouwels, eds. The History of Islam in Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000.

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