Ancient Ghana and Mali 9780841904316, 9780841904323

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Ancient Ghana and Mall

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NEHEMIA LEVTZION

ANCIENT GHANA AND MALI

A division of Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc.

4}: RICANA PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK @ LONDON

First published 1973 by Methuen & Co Ltd Reprinted with additions 1980 by Africana Publishing Company A division of Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc. 30 Irving Place, New York, N.Y. 10003 Great Britain: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Ltd. 131 Trafalgar Road Greenwich, London SE10 9T'X Copyright © 1973, 1980 with additions, by Nehemia Levtzion ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Levtzion, Nehemia. Ancient Ghana and Mali.

Reprint of the 1973 ed. published by Methuen, London, which was issued as no. 7 of Studies in African history; with new bibliography.

Bibliography: p. Includes index.

1. GhanaEmpire. 2. MaliEmpire. I. Title. D'T532.15.L48 1980 966’.101 7179-27281 ISBN 0-8419-0431-6 ISBN 0-8419-0432-4 pbk.

Manufactured in the United States of America

To

TIRTZA

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Contents Preface to the 1980 Reprint page ix

Preface to the First Edition Xl

PART ONE 1 I Antecedents 3

II The Soninke Kingdom 16 I The Almoravids 29 IV The Soninke Successor States 43

V The Emergence of Mali 53

VI The Kings of Mali 63 VII Mali in the Sahel 73

VITI The Weight of Songhay 84

IX Malinke Expansion and Political Fragmentation 94

PART TWO 103 X The Monarch and his Court 105

XI The Economic Basis of Government 115

XII The Gold of the Sudan 124

XIII The Saharan Trade 136 XIV Towns and Traders 153 XV_ The Staple Commodities 171

XVI Islam in the Sudanic Kingdoms 183 XVII Scholars, Pilgrims, Ambassadors 200

Notes 221 Bibliography 255 (a) Primary Sources 255 (b) Modern Works 259 Index 279

XVIII Ancient Kingdoms and New Republics 218

(c) Recent Publications 271

(d) A Topical Survey of Recent Publications 277 Vil

V1ll CONTENTS

1 Ghana and Mali 9

Maps

2 Trade Routes of the Sahara

and the Sudan, ec. 1000-1500 138-39

Preface to the 1980 Reprint Ancient Ghana and Mali was first published in 1973. That edition now being out of print, colleagues and students have suggested that the book be made available once more. I was delighted that Africana readily agreed to undertake a reprinting. Since the book was published, I have continued to study this formative period in West African history, mainly through the reevaluation of Arabic sources. Other commitments, however,

have prevented me from revising the original text. Although such an edition would have incorporated some new factual and interpretative evidence, I feel that the existing text remains historically valid and accurate. Appended to this reprint is a bibliographical list and topical survey of recent publications related to ancient Ghana and Mali. The bibliography bears evidence of ongoing research in this field during the last six or seven years. New writings include doctoral

dissertations, some of them by Malian historians, as well as books, essays, and articles by scholars who have already contributed to the study of this period. Among them I might mention a recent book by M. Ly, L’Empire du Mali. Using Portuguese

sources, she stresses the survival of the western provinces of Mali on the Gambia in the sixteenth century. In view of her

evidence, my treatment of the area, found here on pages 94 to 99, could be amplified. I am grateful to colleagues who have used Ancient Ghana and Mali as a classroom text, and to reviewers of the book for their valuable comments and critiques.

June 1979 N.L. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1X

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Preface to the First Edition This book attempts an analytical presentation of the available evidence — mainly Arabic, but also Portuguese, sources and

oral traditions — on the history of the ancient kingdoms of Ghana and Mali. The monograph is divided into two parts. Part One follows the historical process in the Western Sudan from the eighth to the sixteenth centuries. Part Two is a topical analysis of the principal themes: government, trade, and Islam. Because the same sources were used for both parts, and often

for many chapters, some repetition could not be avoided. Detailed references to the sources allow the reader to put the historical reconstruction to the test.

An introductory chapter on the sources may have been expected. I preferred, however, to evaluate the sources through-

out the text as they bear evidence on the historical account. I am very much concerned with the revaluation of the Muslim

historiography of Africa and there are some references to published and forthcoming papers on this subject. A more systematic introduction to the Arabic sources, and to individual geographers and historians, will appear in a volume I am editing for the University of Ghana Publications Board. The sources in

that volume were translated into English by the late Dr Rajkowski and by Dr J. F. P. Hopkins. These translations and those by J. 8. Trimingham (1962) were consulted when I translated quotations from Arabic texts in the present book. Arabic sources, as the reader may see, form the basis of this study. I have preferred, therefore, to use the Arabic transcription throughout the book, even for African names. A book in English on an area covered mainly by French scholarship can

hardly escape some inconsistencies in the spelling of place names. xi

Xil PREFACE Most references in the notes are to primary sources, and the

few references to works by modern scholars are but a token _ acknowledgement of my debt to those in whose steps I follow.

The responsibility for the writing of the history of ancient Ghana and Mali is now being taken over by young African scholars, who have introduced a new perception of African history. The originality of their contribution has been well manifested in the Conference on Manding Studies, held at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the Summer of 1972. Papers submitted to this conference were consulted for lastminute amendments as this book was going to the printer.

A draft typescript of this book was read by some of the leading authorities on the history of the Western Sudan: J. D. Fage, H. J. Fisher, R. Mauny, D. McCall, C. Meillassoux, and Y. Person. I am grateful to these eminent scholars and good friends for their detailed comments and thoughtful suggestions. They saved me from many errors of fact and interpretation; those left are my own responsibility. Mrs Paula Sonnenschein carefully prepared the typescript, and Mrs Gillian Wright edited it with much skill and sympathy. Grants from the Central Research Fund and the Research

Committee of the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem helped in meeting expenses incurred at different stages of the research and production of this work.

July 1972 N.L. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

PART ONE

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