Chapter IV · West Africa
Sahelian
Empires
Ghana · Mali · Songhai
West Africa
Ghana · Mali · Songhai
Chapter IV
Across the great bend of the Niger river, three empires traded gold for salt and built universities whose manuscripts still survive. The Ghana Empire controlled trans-Saharan trade. Mali's Mansa Musa ruled over half the world's gold supply. Songhai built Timbuktu into one of the medieval world's great centres of learning — home to over 700,000 manuscripts.
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Key dates
300 CE
Ghana Empire established in the western Sahel
1235
Sundiata Keita founds the Mali Empire after Battle of Kirina
1324
Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca reshapes global gold markets
1464
Sunni Ali founds the Songhai Empire
1591
Moroccan invasion ends Songhai at the Battle of Tondibi
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From the archive
Empires and heroes drawn from the Africanpedia catalogue for this region.
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Chapter IV · West Africa
Sahelian Empires
Africanpedia