Aim How should medieval Africa be remembered

Aim: How should medieval Africa be remembered?

I Great Zimbabwe (900 – 1500 CE) A) Bantu settled by the Limpopo river. B) They built stone enclosures to protect their livestock. C) By 1300 Zimbabwe “Stone House” was a city-state that traded with India and China. D) Zimbabwe’s decline by 1500 is unknown. It may have been due to invading Europeans. In 1871, archaeologist Cark Mauch began to excavate the site at Great Zimbabwe. He was so impressed with what he found, that unfortunately due to his racist beliefs, he concluded that a "civilized [white] nation must once have lived there. ” Thankfully today, the Bantu [African] builders have been given their due credit.

II Western African Civilizations

Western African Civilizations Continued… A) Ghana 800 – 1050 CE B) Mali 1200 – 1450 CE C) Songhai 1460 – 1600 CE Ghana developed by the Niger and Senegal rivers King Sundiata conquered Ghana and began the Kingdom of Mali. He kept control of the gold-salt trade. Sonni Ali conquered the weakened Mali Empire, and began the Kingdom of Songhai. He kept control of the goldsalt trade. Capital at Kumbi Saleh Mansa Musa was the most famous King of Mali (he ruled 1312 – 1337 CE). As a Muslim, he went on his hajj to Mecca in 1324. His caravan included 60, 000 travelers, and 80 camels, each loaded with 300 lbs of gold! Timbuktu flourished as great centers of trade and learning. Islam spread. Ghana became wealthy by controlling the gold – salt trade. By establishing ties across the Muslim world, Mansa Musa was able to make his city, Timbuktu, into a great center of trade and learning. The Kingdom of Songhai was conquered by Muslim Berbers (nomads of the Sahara Desert) from the north.

Western African Civilizations Continued… People from North Africa desired gold, and people from West Africa needed salt. Salt was mined northeast of Ghana in the Sahara Desert. Tribes close to Ghana in West Africa had access to gold mines (the locations were kept secret). Anyone who wished to trade gold for salt had to travel through Ghana and pay a tax. The trade was done by silent barter; the traders would leave their goods in a guarded location, and never meet the people they were trading with face to face!

Sahara Salt “Farm”

The Djenna Mosque at Timbuktu Unfortunately Islamic terrorists from the modern nation of Mali have recently been destroying many of Timbuktu’s sacred places, including burning ancient texts.

Mali’s Culture War: The Fate of the Timbuktu Manuscripts LONDON — Scholars are urgently trying to determine the fate of a treasure store of ancient manuscripts in the city of Timbuktu. As Frenchled forces consolidated their hold on northern Mali, international scholars feared the worst: that retreating Islamic militants had torched the Ahmed Baba Institute, home to 30, 000 priceless items of scholarship dating back to the 13 th century. But many volumes may have escaped destruction by being hidden from fundamentalist forces that seized the north last year. The militants launched a campaign to eradicate historic vestiges of a medieval Muslim civilization that they deemed un-Islamic… It was part of a culture war that [Sunni Salafist terrorists] waged to impose Sharia law after their capture of the north. The strict Sunni Salafists reject the worship of saints that is part of the Shia and Sufi tradition. By Harvey Morris, NY Times Jan 30, 2013

Western African Civilizations Continued… Mansa Musa Primary Source The following description of the visit to Cairo in 1324 by the King of Mali, Mansa Musa, was written by Al-Umari, who visited Cairo several years after the Mansa Musa’s visit. “From the beginning of my coming to stay in Egypt I heard talk of the arrival of this sultan Musa on his Pilgrimage and found the Cairenes eager to recount what they had seem of the Africans’ prodigal [wasteful] spending. I asked the emir Abu…and he told me of the opulence, manly virtues, and piety of his sultan. “When I went out to meet him… he did me extreme honor and treated me with the greatest courtesy. He addressed me, however, only through an interpreter despite his perfect ability to speak in the Arabic tongue. Then he forwarded to the royal treasury many loads of unworked native gold and other valuables… This man [Mansa Musa] flooded Cairo with his benefactions. He left no court emir nor holder of a royal office without the gift of a load of gold…. They exchanged gold until they depressed its value in Egypt and caused its price to fall. ” …

Mansa Musa Tops the 10 Wealthiest People in Human History! – Celebrity Net Worth’s List, 2012 1. Mansa Musa I, (Ruler of Malian Empire, 1280 -1331) $400 billion 2. Rothschild Family (banking dynasty, 1740 - ) $350 billion 3. John D Rockefeller (industrialist, 1839 -1937) $340 billion 4. Andrew Carnegie (industrialist, 1835 -1919) $310 billion 5. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (last Emperor of Russia, 1868 -1918) $300 billion 6. Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII (last ruler of Hyderabad, 1886 -1967) $236 billion 7. William the Conqueror (King of England, 1028 -1087) $229. 5 billion 8. Muammar Gaddafi (former Libyan leader, 1942 -2011) $200 billion 9. Henry Ford (Ford Motor Company founder, 1863 -1947) $199 billion 10. Cornelius Vanderbilt (industrialist, 1794 -1877) $185 billion

Ibn Battuta in Mali, 1352 Recall that Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan Berber, and famous medieval Muslim explorer and traveler. “The sultan of Malli is Mansa Sulayman, "mansa" meaning [in Mandingo] sultan, and Sulayman being his proper name. He is a miserly king, not a man from whom one might hope for a rich present. It happened that I spent these two months without seeing him, on account of my illness. Later on he held a banquet in commemoration of our master [the late sultan of Morocco] Abu'l-Hasan, to which the commanders, doctors, qadi and preacher were invited, and I went along with them. Reading-desks were brought in, and the Koran was read through, then they prayed for our master Abu'l-Hasan and also for Mansa Sulayman. When the ceremony was over I went forward and saluted Mansa Sulayman. The qadi, the preacher, and Ibn al-Faqih told him who I was, and he answered them in their tongue. They said to me, "The sultan says to you 'Give thanks to God, '" so I said, "Praise be to God and thanks under all circumstances. ” …

Ibn Battuta in Mali Continued… When I withdrew the [sultan's] hospitality gift was sent to me. It was taken first to the qadi's house, and the qadi sent it on with his men to Ibn al-Faqih's house. Ibn al-Faqih came hurrying out of his house barefooted, and entered my room saying, "Stand up; here comes the sultan's stuff and gift to you. " So I stood up thinking--since he had called it "stuff"--that it consisted of robes of honour and money, and lo!, it was three cakes of bread, and a piece of beef fried in native oil, and a calabash of sour curds. When I saw this I burst out laughing, and thought it a most amazing that they could be so foolish and make so much of such a paltry matter. ” Ibn Battuta,

Western African Civilizations Continued… D) Kingdom of Benin (1300 – 1897) 1. Located on the Niger river 2. Skilled in the art of making figurines from bronze, copper, and ivory

HW and Focus Questions 1. Fill in your Period 3 chart for Mali, Ghana, and Songhai. 2. What is your impression of Mansa Musa? Use evidence from the 2 primary sources. Key Vocabulary ü ü ü ü Benin Ghana Great Zimbabwe King Sundiata Mali Mansa Musa Songhai Timbuktu