KINGDOM OF GHANAAND

SPREAD OF ISLAM

SRISHTI WASANBHANU MITTALHARSHITA AGARWAL

2ND YEAR - B

HISTORY OF GHANA

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.

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.

GROWTH OF GHANA 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

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.

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.

POLITICAL FEATURES

CULTURE

A CARVED WOODEN FIGURE OF A MAN, THAT WAS AFFIXED TO THE TOP OF CEREMONIAL STAFF.

PEOPLE OF GHANA

MADE IN LAST-WAX PROCESS, THIS ANCIENT BRONZE BRACELET WAS EXCAVATED.

ARCHITECTUREAt 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

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.

GHANIAN COMPLEX

CITY OF KUMBI SALEH 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.

Although the two towns were linked by a continuum of houses, they were distinct in character and function.

The one part formed the Muslim quarter where the North African merchants resided during their trading missions to Ghana.

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.

SPREAD OF ISLAM IN GHANA

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.

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-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.

FAKR AD-DIN (1269)

LARABANGA MOSQUE

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

GREAT MOSQUE OF KAIROUAN

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.

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 stabilityof the mosque built on a soil subject to compaction.

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

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

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