Summary: The Empire Of Mali And Songhai

Midterm Paper: The Empire of Mali and Songhai

Diversity is essential for nations to thrive. West Africa, like Africa as a whole, was physically, ethnically, and culturally diverse. While diversity did lead to conflict in the early history of these empires, diversity is also the foundation of their great success. Through diversity kings were able to establish trade, create economic stability, and educate their nations.

History of the Nations

Before Mali and Songhai, there was another well-known Kingdom in western Sudan named Ghana. Ghana was founded by the Soninke people as early as the fourteenth century CE and existed until 1076 (Hine, Hine, & Harrold, 2014). The Kingdom owned iron weapons which enabled them to dominate surrounding tribes.

The capital had many mosques and some Soninke converted to Islam. Rivalry with the Almoravids, Islamic Berbers, lead to the decline of Ghana (Hine, Hine, & Harrold, 2014). The two kingdoms were competitors for control of the trans-Sahara trade. Ghana captured Awdaghost in 992, the Almoravid trade center, and the Almoravids responded by conquering Ghana in 1087(Hine, Hine, & Harrold, 2014). The Empire of Mali was forged in 1230 when the Mandinka defeated the Sosso (Hine, Hine, & Harrold,

Toure was Muslim and wanted to use his power to spread Islam through his empire. He replaced traditional Songhai administrators with Muslims in order to further spread Islam through Songhai (Ijebu,2002). The majority of the Songhai people, continued to follow traditional African religions. Muhammad Toure, like Mansa Musa, took a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1497 (Hine, Hine, & Harrold, 2014). During his pilgrimage, Toure established diplomatic relations with Egypt and Morocco. He also Recruited Muslim Scholars to teach at the Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu (Hine, Hine, & Harrold,