Page 16 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

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ninth century about kingdoms south of the Sahara. These are the best
records to have survived to the present day.
In the eighth century, even before these Arab geographers had
their first contact with the North African kingdoms, they were aware
that the kingdom of Ghana existed below the Sahara. They had
also heard there was a great river in the land of the Sudan, but they
thought it must be the Nile. They knew the Nile was very long and
that it began somewhere deep in Africa, but they had never heard of
the Niger.
What got the Arab geographers’ attention in the first place were
stories they heard from travelers, who told tales of fabulous wealth
to be found in Ghana. Late in the eighth century, Arab astronomer
and scholar Ibrahim al-Fazari (d. ca. 777) called Ghana “the land
of gold” (as quoted by N. Levtzion and J. F. P. Hopkins in Corpus of
Early Arabic Sources for West African History). Others repeated what
he said. The Arab geographer al-Hasan ibn Ahmad al-Hamdani (ca.
893–945) declared that the richest gold mine on earth was in Ghana.
For geographers such as al-Hamdani, Ghana was a mysterious place
of darkness where there were “waters that make the gold grow” (from
Levtzion and Hopkins).

Three greaT Medieval eMpireS
The empire of Ghana was one of three great West African empires of
the medieval period that were described by Arab travelers and geogra-
phers. An empire is formed when one kingdom becomes more power-
ful than its neighbors. The more powerful king forms an empire by
conquering his weaker rivals and adding their lands and wealth to his
kingdom.
After Ghana, the empire of Mali rose to power, and after Mali
came Songhay. The three of them together dominated West African
history for about 900 years.
From the eighth century to about the last part of the 12th century,
Ghana was the major power south of the Sahara. It is recognized as an
empire because the Arab geographer and historian Ahmad al-Yaqubi
(d. 897), among others, described its king as very powerful, with lesser
kings under his authority.
In the late 11th century, Ghana was seriously challenged for control
of the trade routes that ran through the south. Awdaghust, Ghana’s

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