(TGT) African Civilizations and the Arrival of Islam Lesson

African Civilizations and the Arrival of Islam

Africa below the Sahara for long periods had only limited contact with the civilizations of the Mediterranean and Asia. Between 800 and 1500 C.E., the frequency and intensity of contacts increased. Social, religious, and technological changes influenced African life. The spread of Islam in Africa linked its regions to the outside world through trade, religion, and politics. State building in Africa was influenced both by indigenous and Islamic inspiration. States like Mali and Songhay built on military power and dynastic alliances. City-states in western and eastern Africa were tied to larger trading networks. African civilizations built less clearly on prior precedent than did other postclassical societies. Older themes, such as Bantu migration, persisted. Parts of Africa south of the Sahara entered into the expanding world network; many others remained in isolation.

 

Islam and Post-Classical African Societies

Islam initially spread into North Africa under the first caliphs (bypassing the already Christian Ethiopia), spread south across the
Sahara into West Africa by Berber tribes. The first West African converts were rulers of kingdoms (including Mali) which saw Islam as a valuable tool with which to increase their authority. It was also useful to impose monotheistic belief on a diverse, polytheistic population.
Conversion by the masses was more gradual and rarely eliminated all Animist rituals/beliefs. West African kingdoms were increasingly connected to the outside world through trade and the Hajj.

 

African Societies: Diversity and Similarities

Although Africans shared aspects of language and belief, their continent's vast size and number of cultures made diversity inevitable. Political forms varied from hierarchical states to "stateless" societies organized on kinship principles and lacking concentration of power and authority. Both centralized and decentralized forms existed side by side, and both were of varying size. Christianity and Islam sometimes influenced political and cultural development.

 

Stateless Societies

Stateless peoples were controlled by lineages or age sets. They lacked concentrated authority structures but at times incorporated more peoples than their more organized neighbors did. In the West African forest, secret societies were important in social life and could limit rulers' authority. The main weakness of stateless societies was their delayed ability to respond to outside pressures, mobilize for war, undertake large building projects, or create stability for long-distance trade.

 

Common Elements in African Societies

There were many similarities throughout African diversity. The migration of Bantu speakers provided a common linguistic base for much of Africa. Animistic religion, a belief in natural forces personified as gods, was common, with well-developed concepts of good and evil. Priests guided religious practices for community benefit. African religions provided a cosmology and a guide to ethical behavior. Many Africans believed in a creator deity whose power was expressed through lesser spirits and ancestors. Families, lineages, and clans had an important role in dealing with gods. Deceased ancestors were a link to the spiritual world; they retained importance after world religions appeared. African economies were extremely diversified. North Africa was integrated into the world economy, but sub-Saharan regions had varying structures. Settled agriculture and ironworking were present in many areas before postclassical times, with specialization encouraging regional trade and urbanization. International trade increased in some regions, mainly toward the Islamic world. Both women and men were important in market life. In general, Africans exchanged raw materials for manufactured goods. Finally, little is known of the size of Africa's population before the twentieth century.

 

The Arrival of Islam in North Africa

North Africa was an integral part of the classical Mediterranean civilization. From the mid-seventh century, Muslim armies pushed westward from Egypt across the regions called Ifriqiya by the Romans and the Maghrib (the West) by the Arabs. By 711 they crossed into Spain. Conversion was rapid, but initial unity soon divided North Africa into competing Muslim states. The indigenous Berbers were an integral part of the process. In the eleventh century, reforming Muslim Berbers, the Almoravids of the western Sahara, controlled lands extending from the southern savanna and into Spain. In the twelfth century another group, the Almohadis, succeeded them. Islam, with its principle of the equality of believers, won African followers. The unity of the political and religious worlds appealed to many rulers. Social disparities continued, between ethnicities and men and women, the former stimulating later reform movements.

 

The Christian Kingdoms: Nubia and Ethiopia

Christian states were present in North Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia before the arrival of Islam. Egyptian Christians, Copts, had a rich and independent tradition. Oppression by Byzantine Christians caused them to welcome Muslim invaders. Coptic influence spread into Nubia (Kush). The Nubians resisted Muslim incursions until the thirteenth century. The Ethiopian successors to Christian Axum formed their state during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. King Lalibela in the thirteenth century built great rock churches. Ethiopia retained Christianity despite increasing pressure from Muslim neighbors.

 

Kingdoms of the Grasslands

Islam spread peacefully into sub-Saharan Africa. Merchants followed caravan routes across the Sahara to the regions where Sudanic states, such as Ghana, had flourished by the eighth century. By the thirteenth century, new states, Mali, Songhay, and the Hausa, were becoming important.

 

Sudanic States

The states often were led by a patriarch or council of elders from a family or lineage. They were based on an ethnic core and conquered neighboring peoples. The rulers were sacred individuals separated from their subjects by rituals. Even though most of their population did not convert, the arrival of Islam after the tenth century reinforced ruling power. Two of the most important states were Mali and Songhay.

 

City Folk and Villagers

Distinctive regional towns, such as Jenne and Timbuktu, whose residents included scholars, craft specialists, and foreign merchants, developed in the western Sudan. Timbuktu was famous for its library and university. The military expansion of Mali and Songhay contributed to their strength. Mandinka juula traders ranged across the Sudan. Most of Mali's population lived in villages and were agriculturists. Despite poor soils, primitive technology, droughts, insect pests, and storage problems, the farmers, working small family holdings, supported themselves and their imperial states.

 

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