Lesson 17: The Influence of Islam on West Africa

• West Africans who became Muslims began


  praying to God in Arabic and building mosques as places of worship while continuing the tradition of praying to their ancestors
• West Africans learned Arabic to study the


  Qu'ran
• 639-708 C.E.


  Arab Muslims conquered North Africa
• Islam reached Ghana through


  Muslim traders and missonaries
• The king of Ghana allowed Muslim merchants and traders to settle in


  Kumbi
• The Muslims in Kumbi had


  12 mosques and their own Imam (spiritual leader)
• Under the rule of the Almorvaids,


  Islam became more widespread
• Islam first cam to West Africa through the


  trans-Saharan trade
• Mansa Musa


  the first West African ruler to practice Islam devoutly
• Mansa Musa made a haji (pilgrimage) to


  Mecca
• Mali


  a West African empire ruled by the Mande that became a major crossroads of the Islamic world
• Because of Musa's haji, Mali became an


  important kingdom
• Songhai


  a people who broke away from the empire of Mali and eventually built their own vast empire in West Africa
• In the 1460s, Sunni Ali became the new ruler of Songhai. He created a powerful army that enabled the Songhai to


  break away from Mali and eventually conquer it
• When Muslims in the Songhai empire rebelled in the 1490s, they placed Askia Mohammed Toure on the throne who


  ensured that people practiced Islam as he felt was proper
• How Toure ensured Islam was practiced the way he wanted:


  • enforced rigid controls
  • led a series of wars to convert non-Muslims
• West Africans adopted new religious Islamic practices:


  • prayed in Arabic
  • fasted
  • worshipped in mosques
  • made pilgrimages
  • gave alms
  • regarding themselves and other Muslims as part of a single community
• Eid al-Fitr


  marks the end of the holy month (Ramadan)
• Eid al-Adha


  commemorates a significant event in the story of the prophet Abraham
• Muslim leaders allowed West Africans to continue their religious traditions as long as they did not contradict the


  Five Pillars of Islam
• Shari'ah law


  • enforced by judges
  • believed to have come from God
  • written law
• Customary law


  • enforced by chiefs or kings
  • requires the guilty party to give gifts or services to the injured party
  • law comes from the people
• Islam changed the line of succession by making it so the


  son of the king took the crown instead of the sister (patrilineal)
• Sultan/amir/emir


  the head of a region
• Amir al-Muminin


  an Arabic expression meaning "Commander of the Faithful"
• After West African kings converted to Islam, they started to


  exercise more control over local rulers (increased power) and adopt titles used in Muslim lands
• Shari'ah replaced


  customary law
• Qadis (judges):


  • hear cases in court
  • listen to witnesses
  • ruled on the basis of the law and evidence
• Students would study a particular field after completing basic requirements which were the studies of...


  Qur'an, Islam, law, and literature
• Trade associations had their own


  colleges
• Muslims did not have a printing press and with their love for books, all were 


  handwritten
• Sankore was the most famous of


  Timbuktu's various educational centers
• The highest degree a student could earn at Sankore required

  ten years of study
• Turban


  a symbol of divine light
• Imam


  religious leader
• Students at Sankore studied under only 


  one imam
• There were ___ Qur'anic schools in Timbuktu


  150
• Mosques and universities in West Africa constructed large libraries of volumes.
• Islam is rooted in Arab culture, so as Islam spread throughout West Africa, Arabic did too.
• In West Africa, Arabic became the language of


  religion, learning, trade, and government