# Ghana Empire

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{{Short description|Empire in West Africa from c. 200s to c. 1200s}}
{{distinguish|text=the modern country, [Ghana](/source/Ghana)}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = غانا<br>''Wagadu''<br>واغادو
| conventional_long_name = Ghana Empire
| common_name            = 
| era                    = 3rd century–13th century
| status                 = 
| event_start            = 
| year_start             = {{circa}} 300
| event1                 = Conversion to [Islam](/source/Islam)
| date_event1            = 11th century
| event_end              = Conquered by [Sosso](/source/Sosso)/Submitted to the [Mali Empire](/source/Mali_Empire)
| year_end               = {{circa}} mid-13th century
| date_end               = {{circa}} 15th century
| p1                     = Tichitt culture
| p2                     = Djenné-Djenno
| flag_p1                = 
| s1                     = Sosso Empire
| image_flag             = 
| s2                     = Kingdom of Diarra
| s3                     = Méma
| s4                     = Pre-imperial Mali
| s5                     = Gajaaga
| flag_type              = 
| image_coat             = 
| image_map              = Ghana empire map.png
| image_map_caption      = The Ghana Empire at its greatest extent
| capital                = [Koumbi Saleh](/source/Koumbi_Saleh) (likely a later capital)<ref>{{cite book |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedias |chapter=The Empire of Ghana |last=Gestrich |first=Nikolas |year=2019 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.396 |isbn=978-0-19-027773-4 |url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-396}}</ref>
| common_languages       = [Soninke](/source/Soninke_language), [Malinke](/source/Malinke_languages), [Mande](/source/Mande_languages)
| religion               = [African traditional religion](/source/African_traditional_religion)<br> Later [Islam](/source/Islam)
| government_type        = Feudal Monarchy
| leader0                = unknown
| year_leader0           = 100-300's
| leader1                = [Kaya Magan Cissé](/source/Kaya_Magan_Ciss%C3%A9)
| year_leader1           = 700
| leader2                = Dyabe Cisse
| year_leader2           = 790s
| leader3                = [Ghana Bassi](/source/Ghana_Bassi)
| year_leader3           = 1040–1062
| leader4                = Soumaba Cisse
| year_leader4           = 1203–1235
| title_leader           = Ghana
| legislature            = 
| stat_year1             = 1000
| stat_area1             = 650000
| ref_area1              = <ref name=":23">{{Cite web |last=Martin|first=J.P.|date=2023 |title=The Mali Empire |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Mali_Empire/jQWtEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Ghana+Empire%22+square+kilometers&pg=PT50&printsec=frontcover |access-date=2026-01-09 |publisher=[Trafford Publishing](/source/Trafford_Publishing) |language=en}}</ref>
| today                  = {{plainlist|
*[Mali](/source/Mali)
*[Mauritania](/source/Mauritania)
*[Senegal](/source/Senegal)}}
| demonym                = 
| area_km2               = 
| area_rank              = 
| GDP_PPP                = 
| GDP_PPP_year           = 
| HDI                    = 
| HDI_year               = 
}}

The '''Ghana Empire''' ({{langx|ar|غانا}}), also known as simply '''Ghana''',<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Etheredge |first=Laura |date=2009-04-14 |title=Ghana |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ghana-historical-West-African-empire |access-date=2023-07-09 |publisher=[Encyclopedia Britannica](/source/Encyclopedia_Britannica) |language=en}}</ref> '''Ghanata''', or '''Wagadu''', was an ancient western-Sahelian [empire](/source/empire) based in the modern-day southeast of [Mauritania](/source/Mauritania) and western [Mali](/source/Mali).

It is uncertain among historians when Ghana's ruling dynasty began. The first identifiable mention of the imperial dynasty in written records was made by [Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī](/source/Mu%E1%B8%A5ammad_ibn_M%C5%ABs%C4%81_al-Khw%C4%81rizm%C4%AB) in 830.<ref>al-Kuwarizmi in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', p. 7.</ref> Further information about the empire was provided by the accounts of [Cordoban](/source/C%C3%B3rdoba%2C_Spain) scholar [al-Bakri](/source/al-Bakri) when he wrote about the region in the 11th century.

After centuries of prosperity, the empire began its decline in the [second millennium](/source/2nd_millennium), and would finally become a [vassal state](/source/vassal) of the rising [Mali Empire](/source/Mali_Empire) at some point in the 13th century. Despite its collapse, the empire's influence can be felt in the establishment of numerous urban centers throughout its former territory. In 1957, the [Gold Coast](/source/Gold_Coast_(British_colony)), under the leadership of [Kwame Nkrumah](/source/Kwame_Nkrumah) named itself [Ghana](/source/Ghana) upon independence.

==Etymology==
The word ''Ghana'' means ''warrior'' or ''war chief'', and was the title given to the rulers of the kingdom. ''Kaya Maghan'' (king of gold) was another title for these kings. The Soninke name for the polity was ''Ouagadou''.<ref>{{citation|title=Encyclopedia of African History and Culture|volume=2|pages=85–87|year=2005|editor=Willie F. Page|edition=revised|publisher=Facts on File|editor2=R. Hunt Davis, Jr.|entry=Ghana Empire}}</ref> This meant the "place of the Wague", the term current in the 19th century for the local [nobility](/source/nobility){{sfn|Levtzion|1973|pp=16–17}} or may have meant 'the land of great herds'.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=31}}

==Origin historiography==

===Oral traditions===
{{See also|History of the Soninke people|Oral traditions of the Soninke people}}

According to [oral tradition](/source/oral_tradition)s, although they vary much amongst themselves, the legendary progenitor of the Soninke was a man named Dinga, who came "from the east," after which he migrated to a variety of locations in western Sudan, in each place leaving children by different wives. In order to take power, he had to kill a serpent deity (named {{Interlanguage link|Bida (mythology)|lt=Bida|fr|Bida (mythologie)}}) and then marry his daughters, who became the ancestors of the clans that were dominant in the region at the time. Some traditions hold he made a deal with Bida to sacrifice one maiden a year in exchange for rainfall, and other versions add a constant supply of gold.{{sfn|Conrad|Fisher|1983|p=55}} Upon Dinga's death, his two sons Khine and Dyabe contested the kingship, and Dyabe was victorious, founding Wagadu.{{sfn|Levtzion|1973|pp=16–17}}

Bida is stressed as a protective force by narrators; some versions have Bida descending from Dinga, with his children founding Wagadu. Pythons are most at home in grasslands near water and likely came to be associated with the seasonal rains, with them rarely being seen during the dry periods. As such, snake deities feature prominently in West African [traditional religions](/source/Traditional_African_religions).{{sfn|Conrad|Fisher|1983|p=65}} The Bida tradition details Wagadu's founding and fall. This tale appears to have been a fragment of what once was a much longer narrative, now lost, however the legend of Wagadu continues to have a deep-rooted significance in Soninke culture and history.{{sfn|Conrad|Fisher|1983|pp=54–55}} The tradition of [Gassire's lute](/source/Gassire's_lute) mentions Wagadu's fall.

The traditions of the [Hassaniya](/source/Hassaniya) Arabs and [Berbers](/source/Berbers) in [Mauritania](/source/Mauritania) maintain that the earliest occupants of areas such as the [Adrar](/source/Adrar_Plateau) and [Tagant](/source/Tagant_Plateau) were Black. These regions, part of the core of Wagadu, remained largely [Soninke](/source/Soninke_people) until at least the 16th century.<ref name = Kane>{{cite book |last1=Kane |first1=Oumar |title=La première hégémonie peule. Le Fuuta Tooro de Koli Teηella à Almaami Abdul |date=2004|pages=57–60 |publisher=Karthala |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-84586-521-1 |url=https://www.cairn.info/la-premiere-hegemonie-peule--9782845865211-page-114.htm |access-date=18 March 2024}}</ref>

===Medieval Arab writers and a Berber origin===
The earliest discussions of Ghana's origins are found in the Sudanese chronicles of [Mahmud Kati](/source/Mahmud_Kati) (the [''Tarikh al-Fattash''](/source/Tarikh_al-fattash)) and Abd al-Rahman as-Sadi (the ''[Tarikh al-Sudan](/source/Tarikh_al-Sudan)'').{{sfn|Houdas|Delafosse|1913|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5439466q/f103.image 76]}} Addressing the rulers' origin, the ''Tarikh al-Fattash'' offers three different theories: that they were [Soninke](/source/Soninke_people); or [Wangara](/source/Soninke_Wangara) (a Soninke/Mande group), which the author considered improbable; or that they were [Sanhaja Berbers](/source/Sanhaja), which the author considered most likely. The author concludes that "the nearest to the truth is that they were not black."<ref>{{harvnb|Levtzion|1973|p=19}}: "It is disputed as to the tribe to which these kings belonged; some say they were Wa'kore [Soninke], others say they were Wangara [Malinke] which appears improbable. Others say they were Sanhaja which seems to me most likely ... The nearest to the truth is that they were not black."</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Houdas|Delafosse|1913|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5439466q/f105.image 78]}}</ref> This interpretation derived from his opinion that the rulers' genealogies linked them to the Berbers.<ref name=":2">{{Harvnb|Houdas|Delafosse|1913|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5439466q/f105.image 78]}}, translation from {{Harvnb|Levtzion|1973|p=19}}</ref> The ''Tarikh al-Sudan'' further states that "In origin they were white, though we do not know to whom they trace their origin. Their subjects, however, were Wa'kore [Soninke]."<ref>{{harvnb|Levtzion|1973|p=19}}: "Mali is the name of an extensive territory lying in the far west [of the Sudan] to the direction of the Ocean. It was Kaya-Magha who founded the first kingdom in that region. His capital was Ghana, an important town in the country of Baghana. It is said that their kingdom was in existence before the hijra, and that twenty-two kings reigned before it and twenty-two afterwards, making forty four in all. In origin they were white, though we do not know to whom they trace their origin. Their subjects, however, were Wa'kore [Soninke]."</ref> Chronicles by [al-Idrisi](/source/al-Idrisi) in the 11th century and [Ibn Said](/source/Ibn_Said_al-Maghribi) in the 13th noted that rulers of [Ghana](/source/Ghana) traced their descent from the clan of [Muhammad](/source/Muhammad), either through his protector [Abi Talib](/source/Abi_Talib) or through his son-in-law [Ali](/source/Ali).<ref>al-Idrisi in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', p. 109, and ibn Sa'id, p. 186.</ref>

French colonial officials, notably [Maurice Delafosse](/source/Maurice_Delafosse), concluded that Ghana had been founded by the [Berbers](/source/Berbers) and linked them to North African and Middle Eastern origins. Delafosse produced a convoluted theory of an invasion by "Judeo-Syrians", which he linked to the [Fulbe](/source/Fulbe) (who actually co-founded [Takrur](/source/Takrur)).<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Vicente |first1=Mário |last2=Priehodová |first2=Edita |last3=Diallo |first3=Issa |last4=Podgorná |first4=Eliška |last5=Poloni |first5=Estella S. |last6=Černý |first6=Viktor |last7=Schlebusch |first7=Carina M. |date=2019-12-02 |title=Population history and genetic adaptation of the Fulani nomads: inferences from genome-wide data and the lactase persistence trait |journal=BMC Genomics |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=915 |doi=10.1186/s12864-019-6296-7 |pmc=6888939 |pmid=31791255 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=McIntosh |first=Susan Keech |date=2017-01-01 |title=Seeking the Origins of Takrur: Human Settlement in the Middle Senegal Valley 2500-1000 BP |url=https://www.academia.edu/77825973 |journal=Preserving African Cultural Heritage: Proceedings of the Panafrican Archaeological Association 13th Congress, Dakar}}</ref>

[[File:Trans-Saharan routes early.svg|thumb|right|305px|Trade routes of the Western Sahara c. 1000–1500. Goldfields are indicated by light brown shading: [Bambuk](/source/Bambuk), [Bure](/source/Siguiri), [Lobi](/source/Gaoua), and [Akan](/source/Tarkwa).]]

This idea of a foreign origin for Wagadu is generally disregarded by modern scholars. Levtzion and Spaulding, for example, argue that al-Idrisi's testimony should be looked at skeptically due to serious miscalculations in geography and historical [chronology](/source/chronology).{{sfn|Levtzion|Spaulding|2003|p=27}} The archaeologist and historian Raymond Mauny argues that al-Kati's and al-Saadi's theories were based on the presence (after Ghana's demise) of nomadic Berbers originally from Libya, and the assumption that they were the ruling caste in an earlier age. Earlier accounts such [Ya'qubi](/source/Ya'qubi) (872 CE), [al-Masudi](/source/al-Masudi) (c.&nbsp;944 CE), [Ibn Hawqal](/source/Ibn_Hawqal) (977 CE), [al-Biruni](/source/al-Biruni) (c.&nbsp;1036 CE), and [al-Bakri](/source/al-Bakri) (1068 CE) all describe the population and rulers of Ghana as "[negro](/source/negro)es".{{sfn|Mauny|1954|p=204}} Delafosse's works, meanwhile, have been harshly criticised by scholars such as [Charles Monteil](/source/Charles_Monteil), Robert Cornevin and others for being "unacceptable" and "too creative to be useful to historians", particularly in relation to his interpretation of West African genealogies,<ref>{{cite journal | last=Monteil | first=Charles | year=1966| title=Fin de siècle à Médine (1898-1899) | journal=Bulletin de l'IFAN | volume=28 | series=série B | issue=1–2 | page=166}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Vidal | first=Jules | year=1924 | title=La légende officielle de Soundiata, fondateur de l'Empire manding | journal=Bulletin du Comité d'Études Historiques et Scientifiques de l'AOF | volume=8 | issue=2 | pages=317–328 | url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k122738f/f333.image}}</ref><ref>African Studies Association, ''History in Africa'', Vol. 11, African Studies Association, 1984, University of Michigan, pp. 42–51.</ref><ref>Cornevin, Robert, ''Histoire de l'Africa'', Tome I: des origines au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1962), 347-48 (reference to Delafosse in ''Haut-Sénégal-Niger'' vol. 1, pp. 256-257)</ref>

===Modern archaeology and a local origin===
Beginning in the mid 20th century as more archeological data became available, scholars began to favor a purely local origin for [Ghana](/source/Ghana). These works bring together archaeology, descriptive geographical sources written between 830 and 1400 CE, the Tarikhs from the 16th and 17th centuries, and the oral traditions.{{sfn|Mauny|1961|pp=72–74, 508–511}} In 1969 Patrick Munson excavated at [Dhar Tichitt](/source/Dhar_Tichitt) (a site associated with the ancestors of the Soninke), which clearly reflected a complex culture that was present by 1600 BCE and had architectural and material cultural elements similar to those found at [Koumbi Saleh](/source/Koumbi_Saleh) in the 1920s.{{sfn|Munson|1980|p=458}}

The earliest proto-polity ancestral to [Ghana](/source/Ghana) likely arose from a large collection of ancient proto-[Mande](/source/Mand%C3%A9_peoples) agro-pastoralist chiefdoms that were spread over the western-most portion of the [Niger River](/source/Niger_River) basin for over a millennium roughly spanning 1300 BCE ''–'' 300 BCE.<ref name="Arazi">{{cite thesis |last1=Arazi |first1=N. |title=Tracing history in Dia, in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali – archaeology, oral traditions and written sources. |date=2006 |publisher=University of London |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1444342/ }}{{page needed|date=January 2026}}</ref><ref name=Ghana>{{cite book|last1=MacDonald|first1=K.C.|title=Before the Empire of Ghana: Pastoralism and the Origins of Cultural Complexity in the Sahel|pages=71–103}}</ref><ref name="AAC">{{cite journal|last1=Mcintosh|first1=Susan Keech|last2=Mcintosh|first2=Roderick J.|title=Jenne-Jeno: An Ancient African City|journal=Archaeology|date=February 1980|volume= 33|issue= 1|pages=8–14}}</ref> Munsun theorized that, around 700 BCE Libyco-Berbers raiders destroyed this burgeoning state.{{sfn|Munson|1980|p=465}} Their opening of a trade route north, however, eventually changed the economic calculus from raiding to trade, and the native Soninke reasserted themselves around 300 BCE. This trade and the development of ironworking technology were crucial in the formation of the state.{{sfn|Levtzion|1973|pp=8–17}}{{sfn|Levtzion|Spaulding|2003|p=27}}{{sfn|Munson|1980|p=466}} Work in Dhar Tichitt, [Dhar Nema](/source/Dhar_Nema) and [Dhar Walata](/source/Dhar_Walata) has shown that, as the desert advanced, the local groups moved southward into the still well-watered areas of what is now northern Mali.<ref>Kevin McDonald, Robert Vernet, Dorian Fuller and James Woodhouse, "New Light on the Tichitt Tradition" A Preliminary Report on Survey and Excavation at Dhar Nema," pp. 78–80.</ref>

===Niger Bend theory===
Historian Dierk Lange has argued that the core of Wagadou was not Koumbi Saleh but in fact lay near [Lake Faguibine](/source/Lake_Faguibine), on the Niger Bend. This area was historically more fertile than the Tichitt zone, and Lange draws on oral traditions to support his argument, contending that dynastic struggles in the 11th century pushed the capital west.{{sfn|Lange|1996b|p=161}}

==History==

===Origins===
Towards the end of the 3rd century CE, a [wet period](/source/Monsoon) in the Sahel created areas for human habitation and exploitation which had not been habitable for the best part of a millennium, resulting in Wagadu rising out of the [Tichitt culture](/source/Tichitt_culture). The introduction of the [camel](/source/camel) to the western Sahara in the 3rd century CE and pressure from the nomadic Saharan [Sanhaja](/source/Sanhaja) served as major catalysts for the transformative social changes that resulted in the empire's formation. By the time of the [Muslim conquest of North Africa](/source/Muslim_conquest_of_the_Maghreb) in the 7th century, the camel had changed the ancient, irregular trade routes into a network running between North Africa and the [Niger River](/source/Niger_River). [Soninke](/source/Soninke_people) [tradition](/source/Oral_tradition) portrays early Ghana as very warlike, with horse-mounted warriors key to increasing its territory and population, although details of their expansion are extremely scarce.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gestrich |first1=Nikolas |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History |chapter=The Empire of Ghana |date=2019 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.396 |isbn=978-0-19-027773-4 }}</ref> Wagadu made its profits from maintaining a monopoly on [gold](/source/gold) heading north and [salt](/source/salt) heading south, despite not controlling the gold fields themselves.<ref name=":02">{{cite web |last=Abbou |first=Tahar |date=August 2020 |title=The Origins of the Empire of Ghana |url=https://www.vitaminedz.com/articlesfiche/7182/7182321.pdf |website=Vitaminedz.com}}</ref> It is possible that Wagadu's dominance on trade allowed for the gradual consolidation of many smaller polities into a [confederated state](/source/Confederation), whose composites stood in varying relations to the core, from fully administered to nominal tribute-paying parity.<ref>{{cite journal |last=McIntosh |first=Susan |year=2008 |title=Reconceptualizing Early Ghana |journal=Canadian Journal of African Studies |publisher=Taylor and Francis |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=347–373 |jstor=40380172 }}</ref> Based on [large tumuli](/source/Tumulus) scattered across West Africa dating to this period, it has been proposed that relative to Wagadu there were many more simultaneous and preceding kingdoms which have been lost to time.<ref name=":12">{{cite book |last=Posnansky |first=Merrick |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/in/documentViewer.xhtml?v=2.1.196&id=p::usmarcdef_0000184265&file=/in/rest/annotationSVC/DownloadWatermarkedAttachment/attach_import_976b4f2f-4e7c-44ec-a92e-2014aa9d86f0%3F_%3D184265engo.pdf&locale=en&multi=true&ark=/ark:/48223/pf0000184265/PDF/184265engo.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22%3A2903%2C%22gen%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22name%22%3A%22XYZ%22%7D%2Cnull%2Cnull%2C0%5D |title=General History of Africa: Volume 2 |publisher=UNESCO |year=1981 |page=729 |chapter=The societies of Africa south of the Sahara in the Early Iron Age}}</ref><ref name=":22">{{cite journal |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin |title=Background to the Ghana empire: Archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (Mauritania) |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |date=1985 |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=73–115 |doi=10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4 }}</ref>

=== First apogee and early Arab records ===
Information about the empire at its height is sparse. According to Kati's [''Tarikh al-Fettash''](/source/Tarikh_al-fattash), in a section probably composed around 1580 but citing the chief judge Ida al-Massini who lived somewhat earlier, twenty kings ruled Ghana before the advent of Islam.{{sfn|Houdas|Delafosse|1913|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5439466q/f103.image 76]}} Al-Sadi purports that approximately 18 through 34 ancient Kaya (kings) ruled before the [Hijra](/source/Hijra_(Islam)) and 24 more kaya (kings) ruled afterward.{{sfn|Hunwick|2003|p=13 and note 5}}

In 734 the [Umayyad Caliphate](/source/Umayyad_Caliphate) launched an expedition, commanded by [Habib ibn Abi Ubayda al-Fihri](/source/Habib_ibn_Abi_Ubayda_al-Fihri), against the [Sous](/source/Sous) and [Sudan](/source/Sudan_(region)). While the location and outcome of this expedition to the Sudan is unknown, [Al-Bakri](/source/Al-Bakri) writing in the 11th century noted that the descendants of these troops, called the Hunayhin, could still be found within the Ghana Empire and that they were now following the native religion.{{sfn|Levtzion|Spaulding|2003|p=20}} At this time, when Muslim merchants first crossed the desert, Ghana was the most powerful state in the Sahel.<ref>Lewicki, Tadeusz. “Les Origines de l’Islam Dans Les Tribus Berbères Du Sahara Occidental: Mūsā Ibn Nuṣayr et ’Ubayd Allāh Ibn al-Ḥabḥāb.” Studia Islamica, no. 32, 1970, pp. 203–14. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1595220. Accessed 6 Jan. 2026.</ref>

By the time Arab writers started describing the Ghana Empire in the 8th century it was already regarded as a wealthy state that [Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī](/source/Mu%E1%B8%A5ammad_ibn_Ibr%C4%81h%C4%ABm_al-Faz%C4%81r%C4%AB) lists as being equal in size to the [Idrisid state](/source/Idrisid_dynasty) of Morocco while also coining it the "Land of Gold." And in 833 was featured on [Al-Khwarizmi's](/source/Al-Khwarizmi) world map.{{sfn|Trimingham|1962|pp=48–49}} It had developed a trade route that led directly to Egypt and was recorded to have also been used by Egyptian and Nubian merchants to visit the Sudan, but it was closed during the reign of [Ahmad ibn Tulun](/source/Ahmad_ibn_Tulun) (r. 868-884), due to safety concerns.{{sfn|Hopkins|Levtzion|1981|p=51}}

[Al-Ya'qubi](/source/Al-Ya'qubi) describes its king as very powerful and mentions the gold mines and the number of vassals under their authority.{{sfn|Levtzion|Spaulding|2003|p=2}} [Al-Masudi](/source/Al-Masudi), writing in the first half of the 10th century, refers to the King of Ghana as supreme with vassals under him and describes the kingdom itself as being of great importance because of its gold trade.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fage |first=J. D. |date=1957 |title=Ancient Ghana: A Review of the Evidence |journal=Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=4–5 |jstor=41405704 }}</ref> Adding to the newly gained prestige of Ghana, [Ibn Hawqal](/source/Ibn_Hawqal) writing during the 970s proclaimed the King of Ghana as the "wealthiest king on the face of the earth," who also maintained relations with the king of [Aoudaghost](/source/Aoudaghost).{{sfn|Levtzion|Spaulding|2003|p=5}} In 990, presumably for commercial and economic reasons, the Ghana Empire conquered [Awdaghust](/source/Aoudaghost) and installed its own governor.{{sfn|Trimingham|1962|p=26}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abun-Nasr |first=Jamil M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jdlKbZ46YYkC&dq=990+awdaghust&pg=PA79 |title=A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period |date=1987-08-20 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-33767-0 |pages=79 |language=en}}</ref>

Written sources are vague as to the empire's maximum extent. Oral traditions indicate that, at its height, the empire controlled [Takrur](/source/Takrur), [Jafunu](/source/Diafunu), [Jaara](/source/Kingdom_of_Diarra), Bakhunu, [Neema](/source/Dhar_Nema), [Soso](/source/Sosso_Empire), [Guidimakha](/source/Guidimakha), [Guidimé](/source/Guidim%C3%A9), [Gajaaga](/source/Gajaaga), as well as the Awker, Adrar, and [Hodh](/source/Hodh) to the north. It also had some degree of influence over [Kaniaga](/source/Kaniaga), [Kaarta](/source/Kaarta), and [Khasso](/source/Khasso).<ref name = Kane/> Diabe, supposedly the son of Dinga, is sometimes given credit for driving the [Mandinka](/source/Mandinka_people) out of the Gajaaga.{{sfn|Fall|2021|p=28}} Two other Soninke groups to the south, the Gaja and the Karo, were dominated by the Wagu.{{sfn|Fall|2021|p=32}}

During the 1060s they were at war with [Silla](/source/Silla_(Senegal_River_Valley)) as reported by [Al-Bakri](/source/Al-Bakri).{{sfn|Levtzion|Spaulding|2003|p=18}} At this time the ruler of Ghana was [Tunka Manin](/source/Tunka_Manin), who had succeeded [Ghana Bassi](/source/Ghana_Bassi) in 1063.{{sfn|Levtzion|Spaulding|2003|p=14}}  He makes mention of scholars, jurists, salaried imams, and muezzins there, and that the kings interpreters, the official in charge of the treasury, and the majority of the kings ministers were Muslim.{{sfn|Levtzion|Spaulding|2003|p=15}} [Tunka Manin](/source/Tunka_Manin) was also in written correspondence with [Yusuf ibn Tashfin](/source/Yusuf_ibn_Tashfin) and the [Almoravids](/source/Almoravid_dynasty) during this decade.{{sfn|Conrad|Fisher|1982|p=30}}

===Almoravids===
Given the scattered nature of the Arabic sources and the ambiguity of the existing archaeological record, it is difficult to determine when and how Ghana declined. With the gradual drying of the Sahel, the all-important epicenters of trade began to move south to the [Niger River](/source/Niger_River) and west to the [Senegal River](/source/Senegal_River). This gradually strengthened Ghana's vassals while weakening the core.{{sfn|Fall|2021|p=26}} Awdaghost, at the time a seat of the king, fell to the Almoravids in 1054.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=37}}

[Ghana Bassi](/source/Ghana_Bassi) died in 1063, and was succeeded by his nephew [Tunka Manin](/source/Tunka_Manin). This may have created a succession dispute with Bassi's son Qanamar, providing an opportunity for the [Almoravids](/source/Almoravid_dynasty) to intervene in the empire, promoting pro-Islam candidates for the throne.{{sfn|Lange|1996b|p=165-6}}

A tradition in historiography maintains that Ghana was conquered by the [Almoravid dynasty](/source/Almoravid_dynasty) in 1076–77,<ref>For example, Levtzion, ''Ghana and Mali'', pp. 44–48.</ref> but this interpretation has been sharply questioned by modern scholars. Conrad and Fisher (1982) argued that the notion of any Almoravid military conquest at its core is merely perpetuated folklore, derived from a misinterpretation or naive reliance on Arabic sources.{{sfn|Masonen|Fisher|1996}} Dierke Lange agrees but argues that this does not preclude Almoravid political agitation, claiming that Ghana's demise owed much to the latter.{{sfn|Lange|1996a|p=347}}

The first to hint of a supposed conquest was [Ibn Khaldun](/source/Ibn_Khaldun) who was writing 300 years after and even then doesn't outright claim any [Almoravid](/source/Almoravid_dynasty) conquest of Ghana.{{sfn|Conrad|Fisher|1982|pp=39–41}} [Al-Ghazali](/source/Al-Ghazali), a contemporary of the Almoravids at the peak of their size and the alleged conquest, explicitly references the Almoravids as only bordering the Ghana Empire and the land of the Franks.{{sfn|Conrad|Fisher|1982|p=36}} In the 16th century many notables of the Saadi Kingdom of Morocco, in an attempt to dissuade al-Mansur from fighting [Songhai](/source/Songhai_Empire), argued that none of the previous Moroccan dynasties had ever attempted such an expedition into the [Sudan](/source/Bilad_es-Sudan). Indicating that such a conquest wasn't known in their history.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cory |first=Stephen Charles |title=Reviving the Islamic Caliphate in Early Modern Morocco |date=2024 |publisher=Taylor & Francis Ltd |isbn=978-1-032-92319-2 |location=London |pages=127}}</ref> Furthermore, the archaeology of ancient Ghana does not show the signs of rapid change and destruction that would be associated with any Almoravid-era military conquests.{{sfn|Insoll|2003|p=230}}

Sheryl L. Burkhalter (1992) suggested that there were reasons to believe that there was conflict between the Almoravids and the empire of Ghana.<ref>"Listening for Silences in Almoravid History: Another Reading of "The Conquest that Never Was"  Camilo Gómez-Rivas</ref><ref>"Law and the Islamization of Morocco under the Almoravids" Camilo Gómez-Rivas</ref> Ibn Khaldun, a 14th-century North African historian who read and cited both al-Bakri and al-Idrisi, reported an ambiguous account of the country's history as related to him by 'Uthman, a [faqih](/source/Faq%C4%ABh) of Ghana who took a [pilgrimage to Mecca](/source/pilgrimage_to_Mecca) in 1394, according to which the power of Ghana waned as that of the "veiled people" grew through the Almoravid movement.<ref name="Hopkins p. 333">ibn Khaldun in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. ''Corpus'', p. 333.</ref>

===Second apogee===
Whether the Almoravids conquered Ghana or not, the country certainly did convert to Islam around 1076.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=37}} This conversion and its accompanying rejection of the earlier, more accommodating Islam may have pushed the [Wangara](/source/Soninke_Wangara) diaspora throughout the region.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=38}} In 1083, Ghana requested the help of the Almoravids to attack and conquer [Tadmekka](/source/Tadmekka), [Silla](/source/Silla_(Senegal_River_Valley)), an unidentified town named NSLA, and may have reached [Gao](/source/Gao), helping to spread Sunni orthodoxy there as well.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=26}} [Zafun](/source/Diafounou) is implied to have also fallen under Ghana's authority around this time too, although without Almoravid help.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fisher |first=Humphery J. |date=1982 |editor-last=Hopkins |editor-first=J. F. P. |editor2-last=Levtzion |editor2-first=N. |title=Early Arabic Sources and the Almoravid Conquest of Ghana |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=549–560 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700021356 |jstor=182041 }}</ref>

[Yaqut al-Hamawi](/source/Yaqut_al-Hamawi), writing in 1220, recounting an event that occurred sometime during the first half of the 12th century, records an interaction between the [Almoravids](/source/Almoravid_dynasty) and the king of Zafun, a province within the Ghana Empire or possibly a reference to the king of Ghana himself:

{{Blockquote|text=The king of Zafun is stronger than the latter and more versed in the art of kingship. The veiled people acknowledge his superiority over them, obey him and resort to him in all important matters of government. One year this king, on his way to the Pilgrimage, came to the Maghrib to pay a visit to the Commander of the Muslims, the Veiled King of the Maghrib, of the tribe of the Lamtuna. The Commander of the Muslims met him on foot, whereas the [King of] Zafun did not dismount for him. A certain person who saw him in Marrakeh on the day he came there said that he was tall, of deep black complexion and veiled. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot as if they were two glowing coals, and the palms of his hands were yellow as if tinted with saffron. He was wearing a cut (maqtu) garment enveloped in a white cloak. He entered the palace of the Commander of the Muslims mounted, while the latter walked in front of him.{{sfn|Conrad|Fisher|1982|p=31}}|source=}}

[Al-Idrisi](/source/Muhammad_al-Idrisi), whose account was written in 1154, has the country fully Muslim by that date. He describes an empire as powerful as it had been in the days of al-Bakri, 75 years earlier. In fact, he describes its capital as "the greatest of all towns of the Sudan with respect to area, the most populous, and with the most extensive trade."<ref name="autogenerated109">al-Idrisi in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', pp. 109–110.</ref> This capital may not be the same city as the one described by al-Bakri, however.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=39}} More places during this time are mentioned as being under Ghana's authority such as the land of Wanqara, Tiraqqa, Madasa; A berber region and town, the region of Saghmara; A berber nomadic area near [Tadmekka](/source/Essouk), [Samaqanda](/source/Samaqanda), Gharbil, and [Ghiyara](/source/Ghiyara).{{sfn|Hopkins|Levtzion|1981|pp=111–112}} Ghana was the master of an extensive trade system in the [Senegal river](/source/Senegal_river) valley, first established by [Takrur](/source/Takrur) in the 10th century, that exported salt from [Awlil](/source/Awlil) throughout the region. It also controlled the gold mines of [Bambuk](/source/Bambuk).{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=39}} During this period it was fully Islamized, and the judicial system had shifted to something more closely resembling [Sharia](/source/Sharia).{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=40}}

Al-Sharīshī, writing in the late 12th century mentions the spread of Islam among its inhabitants and makes note the their schools.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gomez |first=Michael A. |title=African dominion: a new history of empire in early and medieval West Africa |date=2019 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-19682-4 |edition=First paperback printing |location=Princeton Oxford |pages=40}}</ref>

===Sosso occupation===
thumb|right|Map of successor states to the Ghana Empire

This resurgence did not last, however. By 1203, the [Sosso](/source/Susu_people) had risen against their masters and conquered Ghana, establishing [a short-lived empire](/source/Sosso_empire).{{sfn|Lewicki|1971|p=504}}<ref name="Hopkins p. 333" /> Soninke traditions attribute Ghana's fall to a noble who killed Bida in order to save a maiden from sacrifice (against her wish), unleashing a curse which caused a 7 year-long drought and famine,{{Efn|The generation of Soninke that survived the drought were called "it has been hard for them" ("a jara nununa") and given the family name ''Gumané''.{{sfn|Conrad|Fisher|1983|p=64}}}} with some traditions including the discovery of gold at [Bure](/source/Siguiri) and an increase in production there while supply decreased at Bambuk.{{Efn|In Bambuk, gold was collected via [alluvial deposits](/source/Placer_mining), so drought could have meant no new deposits.{{sfn|Conrad|Fisher|1983|p=68}}}}{{sfn|Conrad|Fisher|1983|pp=55-6, 64}}

According to much later traditions, from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Diara Kante of Sosso took control of Koumbi Saleh and established the Diarisso dynasty. His son, [Soumaoro Kante](/source/Soumaoro_Kante), succeeded him and forced the people to pay him tribute. The Sosso also managed to annex the neighboring [Mandinka](/source/Mandinka_people) state of [Kangaba](/source/Kangaba) to the south, where the important goldfields of Bure were located.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

===Vassal of Mali===
In his brief overview of Sudanese history, [Ibn Khaldun](/source/Ibn_Khaldun) related that "the people of [Mali](/source/Mali_Empire) outnumbered the peoples of the Sudan in their neighborhood and dominated the whole region." He went on to relate that they "vanquished the [Susu](/source/Sosso_Empire) and acquired all their possessions, both their ancient kingdom and that of Ghana."<ref>ibn Khaldun in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', p. 333.</ref> According to a modern tradition, this resurgence of Mali was led by [Sundiata Keita](/source/Sundiata_Keita), the founder of Mali and ruler of its core area of [Kangaba](/source/Kangaba). [Delafosse](/source/Maurice_Delafosse) assigned an arbitrary but widely accepted date of 1235 to the event.{{sfn|Delafosse|1912|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k103554s/f310.image 291 Vol. 1]}}

This tradition states that ''Ghana'' Soumaba Cisse, at the time a vassal of the [Sosso](/source/Sosso), rebelled with Kangaba and became part of a loose federation of Mande-speaking states. After Soumaoro's defeat at the [Battle of Kirina](/source/Battle_of_Kirina) in 1235 (a date again assigned arbitrarily by Delafosse), the new rulers of Koumbi Saleh became permanent allies of the [Mali Empire](/source/Mali_Empire). As Mali became more powerful, the Ghana's role as an ally declined to that of a submissive state, although he was still accorded prestige as the leader of an ancient and storied state.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=41}}<ref name=corpus262/> According to a detailed account of from [al-Umari](/source/Ibn_Fadlallah_al-Umari), written around 1340 but based on testimony given to him by the "truthful and trustworthy" shaykh Abu Uthman Sa'id al-Dukkali, Ghana still retained its functions as a sort of kingdom within the empire, its ruler being the only one allowed to bear the title ''[malik](/source/malik)'' and "who is like a deputy unto him."<ref name="corpus262">al-'Umari in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. ''Corpus'', p. 262.</ref>

Koumbi Saleh was abandoned sometime in the 15th century.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=41}}

==Economy and Trade==
Since the 6th{{En dash}}7th centuries CE, the Ghana Empire was in charge of trade in central West Africa. They had their own precious resources such as gold, copper, ivory, and salt. Their control of regional trade led to West African trading with North African merchants that brought camel caravans across the Sahara. This established Trans-Saharan trade. Important gold trade routes passed through the capital of Ancient Ghana, [Koumbi Saleh](/source/Koumbi_Saleh). Trade extended throughout the Sahara to kingdoms in southern Europe, which had a very high demand for the precious metal. Demand was also high because Muslim states used gold coins ([dinar](/source/dinar)) as currency. This is what linked Ghana to the Middle East and Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Narain |first=Jayendra |date=July 6, 2022 |title=The Two Trading Ancient Cities of Different Regions- the Sahel of West Africa and the Taxila of Indian Sub-Continent |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365892403 |journal=International Journal of Social Science & Management Studies (I.J.S.S.M.S.) |volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=2–3 |via=ResearchGate}}</ref>

Most of the information about the economy of Ghana comes from [al-Bakri](/source/al-Bakri). He noted that merchants had to pay a tax of one gold [dinar](/source/dinar) on imports of salt, and two on exports of salt.<ref name="Chu1965">Chu, Daniel and Skinner, Elliot. A Glorious Age in Africa, 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965, p. 38.</ref> Other products had fixed dues; al-Bakri mentioned both copper and other goods.<ref name="Chu1965" /> However, there is no evidence to suggest that the trade of gold was taxed.<ref>Cartwright, Mark. [https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1383/the-goldtrade-of-ancient--medieval-west-africa "The Gold Trade of Ancient & Medieval West Africa"], ''[World History Encyclopedia](/source/World_History_Encyclopedia)'' (13 May 2019).</ref> Exports probably included products such as textiles, ornaments, and other materials.{{r|"Chu1965"|page=27}} Many of the hand-crafted leather goods found in present-day Morocco also had their origins in the empire.{{r|"Chu1965"|page=27}} al-Bakri also mentioned that Muslims played a central role in commerce and held court appointments.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meredith |first=Martin |url=http://archive.org/details/fortunesofafrica0000mere_b3d2 |title=The fortunes of Africa : a 5000-year history of wealth, greed, and endeavour |publisher=Public Affairs |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-61039-459-8 |location=United States |pages=73 |language=en}}</ref>

[Ibn Hawqal](/source/Ibn_Hawqal) quotes the use of a [cheque](/source/cheque) worth 42,000 dinars.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lhyX6Dp8pnMC&q=Ibn+Hawqal+cheques+at+Ghana+Empire&pg=PA14 |last1= Krätli |first1= Graziano |first2= Ghislaine |last2= Lydon |year=2011 |title= The Trans-Saharan Book Trade: Manuscript Culture, Arabic Literacy and Intellectual History in Muslim Africa |publisher=[Brill Publishers](/source/Brill_Publishers) |isbn= 978-90-04-18742-9 }}</ref> The main centre of trade was Koumbi Saleh. The king claimed as his own all nuggets of gold, and allowed other people to have only 'gold dust'.<ref>al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. ''Corpus'', p. 81.</ref> In addition to the influence exerted by the king in local regions, tribute was received from various tributary states and [chiefdoms](/source/chiefdoms) on the empire's periphery.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/4chapter1.shtml|title=The Story of Africa – BBC World Service|website=www.bbc.co.uk|access-date=13 September 2018}}</ref> The introduction of the [camel](/source/Dromedary) played a key role in Soninke success as well, allowing products and goods to be transported much more efficiently across the Sahara. These contributing factors all helped the empire remain powerful for some time, providing a rich and stable economy based on trading gold, iron, salt and slaves.{{citation needed|date=December 2025}}

In its last centuries, Ghana increasingly lost control of the gold trade to the [Mali Empire](/source/Mali_Empire) and relied on slave raiding and trading as a principal economic activity.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=44}}

==Government==
Kingship was based on [matrilineal descent](/source/matrilineal_descent), and traditionally passed to the son of the king's sister.{{sfn|Umair Mirza|2005|p=85}} Testimony about ancient Ghana depended on how well disposed the king was to foreign travelers, from whom the majority of information on the empire comes. Islamic writers often commented on the social-political stability of the empire based on the seemingly just actions and grandeur of the king. [Al-Bakri](/source/Al-Bakri), a [Moorish](/source/Moors) nobleman living in Spain questioned merchants who visited the empire in the 11th century and wrote of the king:

{{Blockquote|He sits in audience or to hear grievances against officials in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with gold-embroidered materials. Behind the king stand ten pages holding shields and swords decorated with gold, and on his right are the sons of the kings of his country wearing splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold. The governor of the city sits on the ground before the king and around him are ministers seated likewise. At the door of the pavilion are dogs of excellent pedigree that hardly ever leave the place where the king is, guarding him. Around their necks they wear collars of gold and silver studded with a number of balls of the same metals.<ref name=corpus80/>}}

Ghana appears to have had a central core region and was surrounded by [vassal state](/source/vassal_state)s. One of the earliest sources to describe Ghana, al-Ya'qubi, writing in 889/90 (276&nbsp;AH) says that "under his authority are a number of kings" which included Sama and 'Am (?) and so extended at least to the Niger River valley.<ref>al-Ya'qubi in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. ''Corpus'', p. 21.</ref> These "kings" were presumably the rulers of the territorial units often called ''kafu'' in [Mandinka](/source/Mandinka_language).

The Arabic sources are vague as to how the country was governed. Al-Bakri, far and away the most detailed one, mentions that the king had officials (''[mazalim](/source/mazalim)'') who surrounded his throne when he gave justice, and these included the sons of the "kings of his country" which we must assume are the same kings that al-Ya'qubi mentioned in his account of nearly 200 years earlier. Al-Bakri's detailed geography of the region shows that in his day, or 1067/1068, Ghana was surrounded by independent kingdoms, and Sila, one of them located on the [Senegal River](/source/Senegal_River), was "almost a match for the king of Ghana."  Sama is the only such entity mentioned as a province, as it was in al-Ya'qubi's day.<ref>al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans., ''Corpus'', pp. 77–83.</ref>

In al-Bakri's time, the rulers of Ghana had begun to incorporate more Muslims into government, including the treasurer, his interpreter, and "the majority of his officials."<ref name="corpus80">al-Bakri (1067) in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', p. 80.</ref> Rulers were buried in [tumuli](/source/Tumulus) after having [lay in state](/source/Lying_in_state) for several days, and accompanied by home comforts and all the eating and drinking utensils he had used, filled with offerings.{{sfn|Umair Mirza|2005|p=85}}

== Military ==
Little is known about the military structure of the Ghana Empire, but contemporary sources indicate that it was very infantry reliant due to the various references to swords, spears, archers, and shields.{{sfn|Levtzion|Spaulding|2003|p=18, 24}} Cavalry before the 13th century would've been used mostly for raids and skirmishes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McIntosh |first=Susan Keech |date=2008 |title=Reconceptualizing Early Ghana |journal=Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines |volume=42 |issue=2/3 |pages=358 |doi=10.1080/00083968.2008.10751387 |jstor=40380172 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Law |first=Robin |title=The horse in West African history: the role of the horse in the societies of pre-colonial West Africa |date=2018 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=978-1-138-59185-1 |series=African ethnographic studies of the 20th century |location=London New York}}</ref> [Al-Dimashqi](/source/Al-Dimashqi_(geographer)), recorded a shipyard in Ghana's capital that built warships.{{sfn|Hopkins|Levtzion|1981|p=207}}

==Koumbi Saleh==
{{Main|Koumbi Saleh}}

<gallery>
File:Central Mausoleum.jpg|Central mausoleum in 1951 (left) and 2007 (right)
File:Central Mausoleum of the Column Tomb.jpg|Column Tomb with remains of the corner columns still intact
File:Individual Burial from the Column Tomb.jpg|Individual burial from the Column Tomb with isolated stele placed at the head
File:Satellite view of part of the western necropolis of Koumbi Saleh showing the density of funerary structures.jpg|Western necropolis of Koumbi Saleh showing the density of funerary structures 
File:Plan of the entire funerary complex of the Column Tomb.jpg|Funerary complex of the Column Tomb<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://0-journals-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/remmm/16109? |journal=REMMM |date=2021 |title=Le Tombeau à Colonnes de Koumbi Saleh (Mauritanie – xie-xiie siècle) |last1=Capel |first1=Chloe |volume=149 |issue=149 |pages=237–262|doi=10.4000/remmm.16109 }}</ref>
File:Schematic plan of the central mausoleum.jpg|Central mausoleum (the qubba) of the Column Tomb
File:Structural diagram of burial.jpg|Burial excavation showing the over-pit system and surface arrangements
</gallery>

A 17th-century chronicle written in [Timbuktu](/source/Timbuktu), the ''[Tarikh al-fattash](/source/Tarikh_al-fattash)'', gave the name of the empire's capital as "Koumbi".{{sfn|Houdas|Delafosse|1913|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5439466q/f103.image 76]}} According to the description of the town left by [Al-Bakri](/source/Al-Bakri) in 1067/1068, the capital actually consisted of two cities {{convert|6|mi|km|0|order=flip}} apart but "between these two towns are continuous habitations", so that they might be said to have merged into one.<ref name="corpus80" /> The most common identification for this capital is the site of [Koumbi Saleh](/source/Koumbi_Saleh) on the rim of the Sahara desert.{{sfn|Levtzion|1973|pp=22–26}}

===El-Ghaba===
According to al-Bakri, the major part of the city was called El-Ghaba and was the residence of the king. It was protected by a stone wall and functioned as the royal and spiritual capital of the Empire. It contained a sacred grove of trees in which priests lived. It also contained the king's palace, the grandest structure in the city, surrounded by other "domed buildings". There was also one mosque for visiting Muslim officials.<ref name="corpus80" /> (El-Ghaba, coincidentally or not, means "The Forest" in Arabic.)

===Muslim district===
The name of the other section of the city is not recorded. In the vicinity were wells with fresh water, used to grow vegetables. It was inhabited almost entirely by Muslims, who had with twelve [mosques](/source/mosques), one of which was designated for Friday prayers, and had a full group of scholars, scribes and Islamic jurists. Because the majority of these Muslims were merchants, this part of the city was probably its primary business district.<ref>al-Bakri, 1067 in Levtzion and Hopkins, ''Corpus'', pp. 79–80.</ref> It is likely that these inhabitants were largely black Muslims known as the [Wangara](/source/Soninke_Wangara) and are today known as [Jakhanke](/source/Jakhanke_people) or [Mandinka](/source/Mandinka_people). The separate and autonomous towns outside of the main governmental center is a well-known practice used by the Jakhanke tribe of the  Mandinka people throughout history.

===Archaeology===
[[File:Senegal River according to al-Bakri.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Western Nile according to [al-Bakri](/source/al-Bakri) (1068)]]

Beginning in the 1920s, French archaeologists excavated the site of [Koumbi Saleh](/source/Koumbi_Saleh), although there have always been controversies about the location of Ghana's capital and whether Koumbi Saleh is the same town as the one described by al-Bakri. The site was excavated in 1949–50 by Paul Thomassey and Raymond Mauny{{sfn|Thomassey|Mauny|1951}} and by another French team in 1975–81.{{sfn|Berthier|1997}} The remains of Koumbi Saleh are impressive, even if the remains of the royal town, with its large palace and burial mounds, have not been located.

===Contested identification===
[[File:Senegal River according to al-Idrisi.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Western Nile according to [Muhammad al-Idrisi](/source/Muhammad_al-Idrisi) (1154)]]

In recent years, the identification of Koumbi Saleh with the 'city of Ghana' described in the sources has been increasingly disputed by scholars.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=33}} [al-Idrisi](/source/Muhammad_al-Idrisi), a twelfth-century writer, described Ghana's royal city as lying on a riverbank, a river he called the "Nile." This followed the geographic custom of his day, which confused the Niger and Senegal Rivers and believed that they formed a single river often called the "Nile of the Blacks". Whether al-Idrisi was referring to a new and later capital located elsewhere, or whether there was confusion or corruption in his text is unclear. However, he does state that the royal palace he knew was built in 510&nbsp;AH (1116–1117&nbsp;CE), suggesting that it was a newer town, rebuilt closer to the river than Koumbi Saleh.<ref name="autogenerated109" />

==Society==
The empire was populated by ancient Mande tribes and would come under unity through the [Soninke](/source/Soninke_people) tribe of the greater [Mande](/source/Mand%C3%A9_peoples) ethnic group, with its citizens living in deeply established [patrilineal](/source/Patrilineality)/paternal [clan](/source/clan)s and family structures.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mande {{!}} West African, Mali, Griot {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mande |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The clothing of the people consisted of panther skins,{{sfn|Hopkins|Levtzion|1981|p=28}} robes of cotton, silk, and brocade,{{sfn|Hopkins|Levtzion|1981|p=16}} waist wrappers, loincloths, mantles,{{sfn|Hopkins|Levtzion|1981|p=33}} and fire proof clothing made from a special plant.{{sfn|Hopkins|Levtzion|1981|pp=83–84}}

Ghana had developed higher learning institutions by the 11th century, with the first reference coming from [Al-Bakri](/source/Al-Bakri) who mentioned the empire's scholars and jurists.{{sfn|Hopkins|Levtzion|1981|p=15}} [Al-Zuhri](/source/Muhammad_ibn_Abi_Bakr_al-Zuhri) stated that some of their scholars and lawyers had come to [Al-Andalus](/source/Al-Andalus) and highly regarded them as being "preeminent."{{sfn|Hopkins|Levtzion|1981|p=98}} The most well known of these was the West African poet and grammarian [Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Kanemi](/source/Abu_Ishaq_Ibrahim_al-Kanemi), who is recorded as having received his education in the Ghana Empire.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hunwick |first1=John O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nKXOThUEpcC |title=Arabic Literature of Africa: The writings of central Sudanic Africa Vol.2. Volume 13 |last2=O'Fahey |first2=Rex Séan |date=1994 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-10494-5 |pages=17–19 |language=en}}</ref> Further mentions of their schools were made during the later part of the 12th century.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=40}}

==List of rulers==

===Soninke rulers ("Ghanas") of the Cisse dynasty===
* [Kaya Magan Cissé](/source/Kaya_Magan_Ciss%C3%A9) (also known as Dinga Cisse)
* Dyabe Cisse: circa 790s
* [Bassi](/source/Ghana_Bassi): 1040–1063
* [Tunka Manin](/source/Tunka_Manin): 1063–1076

===Sosso rulers===
* Kambine Diaresso (sometimes also written as Jarisso): 1087–1090
* Suleiman: 1090–1100
* Bannu Bubu: 1100–1120
* Magan Wagadou: 1120–1130
* Gane: 1130–1140
* Musa: 1140–1160
* Birama: 1160–1180

===Rulers during Kaniaga occupation===
* Diara Kante: 1180–1202 
* Soumaba Cisse as vassal of [Soumaoro Kanté](/source/Soumaoro_Kant%C3%A9): 1203–1235

===Ghanas of Wagadou tributary===
* Soumaba Cisse as ally of [Sundiata Keita](/source/Sundiata_Keita): 1235–1240

==See also==
* [History of the Soninke people](/source/History_of_the_Soninke_people)
* [Islam in Africa](/source/Islam_in_Africa) 
* [Mandé peoples](/source/Mand%C3%A9_peoples)

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{citation | last=Berthier | first=Sophie | title=Recherches archéologiques sur la capitale de l'empire de Ghana: Etude d'un secteur, d'habitat à Koumbi Saleh, Mauritanie: Campagnes II–III–IV–V (1975–1976)–(1980–1981) |series=British Archaeological Reports 680, Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 41 |  year=1997 | place=Oxford | publisher=Archaeopress | isbn=978-0-86054-868-3}}.
* {{citation |last1=Conrad |first1=David C. |last2=Fisher |first2=Humphrey J. |year=1982 |title=The conquest that never was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. I. The external Arabic sources |journal=History in Africa |volume=9 |pages=21–59 |doi=10.2307/3171598 |jstor=3171598 }}
* {{citation |last1=Conrad |first1=David C. |last2=Fisher |first2=Humphrey J. |year=1983 |title=The conquest that never was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The local oral sources |journal=History in Africa |volume=10 |pages=53–78 |doi=10.2307/3171690 |jstor=3171690 }}
* {{citation | last=Delafosse | year=1912 | first=Maurice | author-link=Maurice Delafosse |title=Haut-Sénégal-Niger: Le Pays, les Peuples, les Langues; l'Histoire; les Civilizations. 3 Vols |publisher=Émile Larose |location=Paris | language=fr}}. Gallica: Volume 1, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k103554s Le Pays, les Peuples, les Langues]; Volume 2, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1035644 L'Histoire]; Volume 3, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k103565h Les Civilisations].
* {{citation | last=Ehret | first=Christopher | title=The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800 | publisher=University of Virginia Press | place=Charlottesville | year=2016}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fall |first1=Mamadou |editor1-last=Fall |editor1-first=Mamadou |editor2-last=Fall |editor2-first=Rokhaya |editor3-last=Mane |editor3-first=Mamadou |title=Bipolarisation du Senegal du XVIe–XVIIe siécle |date=2021 |publisher=HGS Editions |location=Dakar |pages=14–39 |language=French |chapter=Les Terroirs Historiques et la Poussée Soninké}}
* {{cite book |last1=Gomez |first1=Michael |title=African dominion : a new history of empire in early and medieval West Africa |date=2018 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=978-0-691-17742-7}}
* {{Cite book |title=Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African history |date=1981 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-22422-2 |editor-last=Hopkins |editor-first=J. F. P. |series=Fontes historiae Africanae |location=Cambridge [Eng.]; New York |editor-last2=Levtzion |editor-first2=Nehemia}}
* {{citation | editor1-last=Houdas | editor1-first= Octave | editor2-last= Delafosse | editor2-first= Maurice | year=1913 | title=Tarikh el-fettach par Mahmoūd Kāti et l'un de ses petit fils (2 Vols.)| publisher=Ernest Leroux | place=Paris | url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5439466q }}. Volume 1 is the Arabic text, Volume 2 is a translation into French. Reprinted by [http://maisonneuve-adrien.com/description/afrique/tarikh_fettach.htm Maisonneuve] in 1964 and 1981. The French text is also [http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.CH.DOCUMENT.nuhmkati1&pgs= available] from Aluka but requires a subscription.
* {{citation | last=Hunwick | first= John O.| author-link=John Hunwick | year=2003 |title= Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents | publisher=Brill| place=Leiden  | isbn=978-90-04-12560-5}}. Reprint of the 1999 edition with corrections.
* {{citation | last=Insoll | first=Timothy | year=2003 | title=Archaeology of Islam in Sub-saharan Africa | publisher=Cambridge University Press | place=Cambridge| isbn=978-0-521-65702-0 }}.
* {{cite journal |last1=Lange |first1=Dierk |title=The Almoravid Expansion and the Downfall of Ghana |journal=Der Islam |date=1996a |volume=73 |issue=2 |doi=10.1515/islm.1996.73.2.313 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Lange |first1=Dierk |date=1996b |title=La Chute de la Dynastie des Sisse: Considérations sur la Dislocation de L'Empire du Ghana à Partir de l'Histoire de Gao |trans-title=The Fall of the Sisse Dynasty: Considerations on the Disintegration of the Ghana Empire Based on the History of Gao |journal=History in Africa |volume=23 |pages=155–178 |doi=10.2307/3171939 |jstor=3171939 |language=fr }}
* {{citation | last=Lange | first=Dierk | year=2004 | title=Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa | publisher=J. H. Röll | place=Dettelbach, Germany | isbn=978-3-89754-115-3 | chapter=The Almoravid expansion and the downfall of Ghana | pages=455–493 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=syATJKcx5A0C&q=%22The+Almoravid+expansion+and+the+downfall+of+Ghana%22+455&pg=PA455 }}.
* {{citation | last=Levtzion | first=Nehemia | title=Ancient Ghana and Mali | publisher=Methuen | place=London | year=1973 | isbn=978-0-8419-0431-6 |url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/file%20uploads%20/nehemia_levtzion_ancient_ghana_and_malibook4you.pdf}}. Reprinted with additions 1980.
* {{citation | last1=Levtzion | first1=Nehemia | last2=Hopkins | first2=John F. P. eds. and trans. |title=Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa | publisher=Marcus Weiner | place=New York, NY | year=2000 | isbn=978-1-55876-241-1}}. First published in 1981 by Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0-521-22422-5}}.
* {{citation | last1=Levtzion | first1=Nehemia | last2=Spaulding | first2=Jay | year=2003 | title=Medieval West Africa: Views from Arab Scholars and Merchants | publisher=Markus Wiener | place=Princeton NJ | isbn=978-1-55876-305-0 }}. Excerpts from Levtzion & Hopkins 1981. Includes an extended introduction.
* {{cite journal |last1=Lewicki |first1=Tadeusz |title=Un État Soudanais Médiéval Inconnu: Le Royaume de Zāfūn(u) |trans-title=An Unknown Medieval Sudanese State: The Kingdom of Zāfūn |language=fr |journal=Cahiers d'Études Africaines |date=1971 |volume=11 |issue=44 |pages=501–525 |doi=10.3406/cea.1971.2781 |jstor=4391129 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Masonen |first1=Pekka |last2=Fisher |first2=Humphrey J. |title=Not Quite Venus from the Waves: The Almoravid Conquest of Ghana in the Modern Historiography of Western Africa |journal=History in Africa |date=1996 |volume=23 |pages=197–232 |doi=10.2307/3171941 |jstor=3171941 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Mauny |first1=R. A. |title=The Question of Ghana |journal=Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |date=1954 |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=200–213 |doi=10.2307/1156424 |jstor=1156424 }}
* {{citation | last=Mauny | first=Raymond | year=1961 | title=Tableau géographique de l'ouest africain au moyen age, d'après les sources écrites, la tradition et l'archéologie | publisher= Institut français d'Afrique Noire | place=Dakar }}.
* {{cite journal |last1=Munson |first1=Patrick J. |title=Archaeology and the prehistoric origins of the Ghana empire |journal=The Journal of African History |date=October 1980 |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=457–466 |doi=10.1017/s0021853700018685 |jstor=182004 }}
* {{citation | last1=Thomassey | first1=Paul | last2=Mauny | first2=Raymond | year=1951 | title=Campagne de fouilles à Koumbi Saleh | journal=Bulletin de l'Institut Français de l'Afrique Noire B | volume=13 | pages=438–462 | url=http://www.mr.refer.org/numweb/spip.php?article20 | language=fr | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726200810/http://www.mr.refer.org/numweb/spip.php?article20 | archive-date=2011-07-26 }}. Includes a plan of the site.
* {{Cite book |last=Trimingham |first=J. Spencer (John Spencer) |url=http://archive.org/details/historyofislamin0000unse |title=A history of Islam in West Africa |date=1962 |location=London; New York  |publisher=Published for the University of Glasgow by the Oxford University Press }}
* {{Cite book |last=Umair Mirza |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopedia-of-african-history-and-culture-volume-2 |title=Encyclopedia of African History And Culture, Volume 2 |date=2005}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{citation |last=Cornevin |first=Robert |title=Encyclopaedia of Islam Volume 2 |edition=2nd |year=1965 |contribution=Ghana |publisher=Brill |place=Leiden |url=https://archive.org/stream/EncyclopaediaDictionaryIslamMuslimWorldEtcGibbKramerScholars.13/02.EncycIslam.NewEdPrepNumLeadOrient.EdEdComCon.LewPelScha.etc.UndPatIUA.v2.C-G.4th.Leid.EJBrill.1965.1991.#page/n1043/mode/1up |isbn=978-90-04-07026-4 |pages=1001–2 |ref=none}}.
* {{citation |editor-last=Cuoq |editor-first=Joseph M. |translator-last=Cuoq |translator-first=Joseph M. |year=1975 |title=Recueil des sources arabes concernant l'Afrique occidentale du VIIIe au XVIe siècle (Bilād al-Sūdān) |publisher=Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique |place=Paris |language=fr |ref=none}}. Reprinted in 1985 with corrections and additional texts, {{ISBN|2-222-01718-1}}. Similar to Levtzion and Hopkins, 1981 & 2000.
* {{citation |last=Masonen |first=Pekka |year=2000 |title=The Negroland revisited: Discovery and invention of the Sudanese middle ages |publisher=Finnish Academy of Science and Letters |place=Helsinki |isbn=978-951-41-0886-0 |pages=519–23 |ref=none}}.
* {{citation |last=Mauny |first=Raymond |year=1971 |contribution=The Western Sudan |editor-last=Shinnie |editor-first=P.L. |title=The African Iron age |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-813158-8 |pages=66–87 |ref=none}}.
* {{citation |last=Monteil |first=Charles |year=1954 |contribution=La légende du Ouagadou et l'origine des Soninke |title=Mélanges Ethnologiques |place=Dakar |publisher=Mémoire de l'Institute Français d'Afrique Noire 23 |pages=359–408 |ref=none}}.
{{refend}}

==External links==
<!--
  This link is reported as an attack site by Google. We probably shouldn't link to it until they clean up their act!
 *[http://www.ghana.co.uk/history/history/ancient_ghana.htm Ancient Ghana]
-->
* [https://www.worldhistory.org/Ghana_Empire/ Ghana Empire – World History Encyclopedia]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190519102901/http://www.africankingdoms.com/ African Kingdoms | Ghana]
* [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ghan/hd_ghan.htm Empires of west Sudan]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081212110749/http://www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/materials/handouts/k_o_ghana.html Kingdom of Ghana, Primary Source Documents]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/4chapter1.shtml Ancient Ghana] — BBC World Service

{{Mali topics}}
{{Sahelian kingdoms}}
{{Empires}}

{{coord|15|40|N|8|00|W|source:kolossus-cawiki|display=title}}

Category:Ghana Empire
Category:States and territories disestablished in 1240
Category:13th-century disestablishments in Africa
Category:8th-century establishments in Africa
Category:Countries in medieval Africa
Category:History of Mauritania
Category:History of Senegal
Category:Political history of Mali
Category:Sahelian kingdoms
Category:Spread of Islam
Category:Soninke Wangara diaspora
Category:States and territories disestablished in the 13th century

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ghana Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_Empire) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_Empire?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.