Draft:Postclassical Africa

Postclassical Africa covers African history from the 7th century to around 1250.

North Africa

Northern Africa

The turn of the 7th century saw much of North Africa controlled by the Byzantine Empire. Christianity was the state religion of the empire, and Semitic and Coptic subjects in Roman Egypt faced persecution due to their 'heretical' Miaphysite churches, paying a heavy tax. The Exarchate of Africa covered much of Ifriqiya and the eastern Maghreb, surrounded by numerous Berber kingdoms that followed Christianity heavily syncretised with traditional Berber religion. The interior was dominated by various groupings of tribal confederations, namely the nomadic Zenata, the Masmuda of Sanhaja in modern-day Morocco, and the other two Sanhaja in the Sahara in modern-day Algeria, who all mainly followed traditional Berber religion. In 618 the Sassanids conquered Egypt during the Byzantine-Sasanian War, however the province was reconquered three years later.

The Umayyad Caliphate at its greatest extent, under Caliph Umar II, c. 720

The early 7th century saw the inception of Islam and the beginning of the Arab conquests intent on converting peoples to Islam and monotheism. The nascent Rashidun Caliphate won a series of crucial victories and expanded rapidly, forcing the Byzantines to evacuate Syria. With Byzantine regional presence shattered, Egypt was quickly conquered by 642, with the Egyptian Copts odious of Byzantine rule generally putting up little resistance. The Muslims' attention then turned west to the Maghreb where the Exarchate of Africa had declared independence from Constantinople under Gregory the Patrician. The Muslims conquered Ifriqiya and in 647 defeated and killed Gregory and his army decisively in battle. The Berbers of the Maghreb proposed payment of annual tribute, which the Muslims, not wishing to annex the territory, accepted. After a brief civil war in the Muslim empire, the Rashidun were supplanted by the Umayyad dynasty in 661 and the capital moved from Medina to Damascus. With intentions to expand further in all directions, the Muslims returned to the Maghreb to find the Byzantines had reinforced the Exarchate and allied with the Berber Kingdom of Altava under Kusaila, who was approached prior to battle and convinced to convert to Islam. Initially having become neutral, Kusaila objected to integration into the empire and in 683 destroyed the poorly supplied Arab army and conquered the newly-found Kairouan, causing an epiphany among the Berber that this conflict was not just against the Byzantines. The Arabs returned and defeated Kusaila and Altava in 690, and, after a set-back, expelled the Byzantines from North Africa. To the west, Kahina of the Kingdom of the Aurès declared opposition to the Arab invasion and repelled their armies, securing her position as the uncontested ruler of the Maghreb for five years. The Arabs received reinforcements and in 701 Kahina was killed and the kingdom defeated. They completed their conquest of the rest of the Maghreb, with large swathes of Berbers embracing Islam, and the combined Arab and Berber armies would use this territory as a springboard into Iberia to expand the Muslim empire further.

Large numbers of Berber and Coptic people willingly converted to Islam, and followers of Abrahamic religions (“People of the Book”) constituting the Dhimmi class were permitted to practice their religion and exempted from military service in exchange for a tax, which was improperly extended to include converts. Followers of traditional Berber religion, which were mostly those of tribal confederations in the interior, were violently oppressed and often given the ultimatum to convert to Islam or face death or enslavement. Converted natives were permitted to participate in the governing of the Muslim empire in order to quell the enormous administrative problems owing to the Arabs' lack of experience governing and rapid expansion. Unorthodox sects such as the Kharijite, Ibadi, Isma'ili, Nukkarite and Sufrite found fertile soil among many Berbers dissatisfied with the oppressive Umayyad regime, with religion being utilised as a political tool to foster organisation. In the 740s the Berber Revolt rocked the caliphate and the Berbers took control over the Maghreb, whilst revolts in Ifriqiya were suppressed. The Abbasid dynasty came to power via revolution in 750 and attempted to reconfigure the caliphate to be multi-ethnic rather than Arab exclusive, however this wasn't enough to prevent gradual disintegration on its peripheries. Various short-lived native dynasties would form states such as the Barghawata of Masmuda, the Ifranid dynasty, and the Midrarid dynasty, both from the Zenata. The Idrisid dynasty would come to rule most of modern-day Morocco with the support of the Masmuda, whilst the growing Ibadi movement among the Zenata culminated in the Rustamid Imamate, centred on Tahert, modern-day Algeria. At the turn of the 9th century the Abbasids' sphere of influence would degrade further with the Aghlabids controlling Ifriqiya under only nominal Abbasid rule and in 868 when the Tulunids wrestled the independence of Egypt for four decades before again coming under Abbasid control. Late in the 9th century, a revolt by East African slaves in the Abbasid's homeland of Iraq diverted its resources away from its other territories, devastating important ports in the Persian Gulf, and was eventually put down after decades of violence, resulting in between 300,000 and 2,500,000 dead.

Evolution of the Fatimid Caliphate

The Almoravid empire in the 12th century.

This gradual bubbling of disintegration of the caliphate boiled over when the Fatimid dynasty rose out of the Bavares tribal confederation and in 909 conquered the Aghlabids to gain control over all of Ifriqiya. Proclaiming Isma'ilism, they established a caliphate rivalling the Abbasids, who followed Sunni Islam. The nascent caliphate quickly conquered the ailing Rustamid Imamate and fought a proxy war against the remnants of the Umayyad dynasty centred in Cordoba, resulting the eastern Maghreb coming under the control of the vassalized Zirid dynasty, who hailed from the Sanhaja. In 969 the Fatimids finally conquered Egypt against a weakened Abbasid Caliphate after decades of attempts, moving their capital to Cairo and deferring Ifriqiya to the Zirids. From there they conquered up to modern-day Syria and Hejaz, securing the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Fatimids became absorbed by the eastern realms of their empire, and in 972, after encouragement from faqirs, the Zirids changed their allegiance to recognise the Abbasid Caliphate. In retaliation the Fatimids commissioned an invasion by nomadic Arab tribes to punish them, leading to their disintegration with the Khurasanid dynasty and Arab tribes ruling Ifriqiya, to be later displaced by the Norman Kingdom of Africa. In the late 10th and early 11th centuries the Fatimids would lose the Maghreb to the Hammadids in modern-day Algeria and the Maghrawa in modern-day Morocco, both from Zenata. In 1053 the Saharan Sanhaja, spurred on by puritanical Sunni Islam, conquered Sijilmasa and captured Aoudaghost from the Ghana Empire to control the affluent trans-Saharan trade routes in the Western Sahara, forming the Almoravid empire before conquering Maghrawa and intervening in the reconquest of Iberia by the Christian powers on the side of the endangered Muslim taifas, which were produced from the fall of the remnant Umayyad Caliphate in Cordoba. The Almoravids incorporated the taifas into their empire, enjoying initial success, until a devastating ambush crippled their military leadership, and throughout the 12th century they gradually lost territory to the Christians. To the east, the Fatimids saw their empire start to collapse in 1061, beginning with the loss of the holy cities to the Sharifate of Mecca and exacerbated by rebellion in Cairo. The Seljuk Turks, who saw themselves as the guardian of the Abbasid Caliphate, capitalised and conquered much of their territories in the east, however the Fatimids repelled them from encroaching on Egypt. Amid the Christians' First Crusade against the Seljuks, the Fatimids opportunistically took back Jerusalem, but then lost it again to the Christians in decisive defeat. The Fatimids' authority collapsed due to intense internal struggle in political rivalries and religious divisions, amid Christian invasions of Egypt, creating a power vacuum in North Africa. The Zengid dynasty, nominally under Seljuk suzerainty, invaded on the pretext of defending Egypt from the Christians, and usurped the position of vizier in the caliphate.

The Marinids, Zayyanids, and Hafsids c. 1360

Following the assassination of the previous holder, the position of vizier passed onto Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (commonly referred to as Saladin). After a joint Zengid-Fatimid effort repelled the Christians and after he had put down a revolt from the Fatimid army, Saladin eventually deposed the Fatimid caliph in 1171 and established the Ayyubid dynasty in its place, choosing to recognise the Abbasid Caliphate. From there the Ayyubids captured Cyrenaica, and went on a prolific campaign to conquer Arabia from the Zengids and the Yemeni Hamdanids, Palestine from the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, and Syria and Upper Mesopotamia from other Seljuk successor states. To the west, there was a new domestic threat to Almoravid rule; a religious movement headed by Ibn Tumart from the Masmuda tribal grouping, who was considered by his followers to be the true Mahdi. Initially fighting a guerilla war from the Atlas Mountains, they descended from the mountains in 1130 but were crushed in battle, with Ibn Tumart dying shortly after. The movement consolidated under the leadership of self-proclaimed caliph Abd al-Mu'min and, after gaining the support of the Zenata, swept through the Maghreb, conquering the Hammadids, the Hilalian Arab tribes, and the Norman Kingdom of Africa, before gradually conquering the Almoravid remnant in Al-Andalus, proclaiming the Almohad Caliphate and extending their rule from the western Sahara and Iberia to Ifriqiya by the turn of the 13th century. Later, the Christians capitalised on internal conflict within the Almohads in 1225 and conquered Iberia by 1228, with the Emirate of Granada assuming control in the south. Following this, the embattled Almohads faced invasions from an Almoravid remnant in the Balearics and gradually lost territory to the Marinids in modern-day Morocco, the Zayyanids in modern-day Algeria, both of Zenata, and the Hafsids of Masmuda in modern-day Tunisia, before finally being extinguished in 1269. Meanwhile, after defeating the Christians' Fifth Crusade in 1221, internal divisions involving Saladin's descendants appeared within the Ayyubid dynasty, crippling the empire's unity.

East Africa

Horn of Africa

At the end of the 6th century, the Kingdom of Aksum ruled over much of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, with the Harla Kingdom to its east, while ancient Somali city-states such as Mosylon, Opone, Sarapion, Avalites, and Aromata on the Somali Peninsula continued to thrive off of the lucrative Indian Ocean trade and their preferential relations with India.

Following the birth of Islam in the early 7th century, the north-central Harar Plateau was settled by early Muslims fleeing persecution, intermingling with the Somali who became some of the first non-Arabs to convert to Islam. Muslim-Aksumite relations were initially positive with Aksum giving refuge to early Muslims in 613, however relations soured after Aksum made incursions along the Arab coast and Muslims settled the Dahlak archipelago. Despite having ancient roots, the Red Sea slave trade expanded and flourished following the Muslim conquests with Bejas, Nubians, and Ethiopians exported to Hejaz. Aksum gradually lost their control of the Red Sea, and the expulsion of the Byzantines from the region isolated them, causing their society to become introspective, drawing inspiration from biblical traditions of the Old Testament. Meanwhile during the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries Islam spread through the Somali Peninsula, largely via da'wah. The Harla Kingdom of Hubat also converted to Islam circa 700. The Somalis were organised into various clans, and relations with Arabs led tradition to hold their lineages to Samaale, Daarood or Sheikh Ishaaq, traditionally descendants of Muhammad's cousins. To the west from the 7th to 15th century, Arab tribes migrated into the Sudan, during which time the Beja Islamised and adopted Arab customs. In the 8th century, Beja nomads invaded Aksum's northern territories and occupied the Eritrean Highlands, leading punitive raids into Aksum, with the Beja establishing various kingdoms. The Aksumite population migrated further inland into the Ethiopian Highlands, moving their capital from Aksum to Kubar, and later in the 9th century expanded southwards. The history becomes murky, however tradition holds that Aksum's expansion brought it into conflict in 960 with the Jewish Kingdom of Beta Israel, led by queen Gudit and located in the Simien Mountains. Accordingly, Gudit defeated and killed Aksum's king, and burnt their churches. It's possible that Gudit was a pagan queen who led resistance to Aksum's southward expansion. To the east in the 9th and 10th centuries, the Somali clans such as the Dir and other groups formed states in the Harar Plateau, including Fatagar, Dawaro, Bale, Hadiya, Hargaya, Mora, Kwelgora, and Adal, with the latter centred on the port city of Zeila (previously Avalites). They neighboured the Sultanate of Shewa to their south, who's dynasty hailed from the Meccan Banu Makhzum. On the Horn's southeast coast the Tunni clan established the Tunni Sultanate, and the clans of Sarapion formed the Sultanate of Mogadishu.

Traditionally, Gudit's dynasty reigned until 1137 when they were overthrown or conquered by Mara Takla Haymanot, with traditions differing on whether he was an Aksumite general or relative of Gudit, who established the Zagwe dynasty. In Ethiopia tradition holds that prior to his accession to the throne, Gebre Meskel Lalibela was guided by Christ on a tour of Jerusalem, and instructed to build a second Jerusalem in Ethiopia. Accordingly this led to the commissioning of eleven rock-hewn churches outside the capital in Roha, which was renamed Lalibela in his honour, and quickly became a holy city in Ethiopian Christianity. According to oral traditions, Motolomi Sato of the Wolaita-Mala dynasty established the Kingdom of Damot in the 13th century, locally known as the Kingdom of Wolaita, which followed a traditional religion. The history continues to be murky, however regional hegemony was contested between the Kingdom of Damot, the Zagwe, and the Sultanate of Shewa. Damot likely drew its economic power from gold production, which was exported to Zeila. The Zagwe and Shewa were forced into a conditional alliance to counter Damot, with Shewa at times forced to pay tribute to the pagans. In the 13th century the Ajuran clan established the Ajuran Sultanate on the eastern coast of the Horn and expanded, conquering the Tunni and vassalising Mogadishu, coming to dominate the Indian Ocean trade, while the Warsangali clan formed the Warsangali Sultanate on the Horn's north-eastern coast.

Swahili coast, Madagsacar, and the Comoro Islands

The turn of the 7th century saw the Swahili coast continue to be inhabited by the Swahili civilisation, whose economies were primarily based on agriculture, however they traded via the Indian Ocean trade and later developed local industries, with their iconic stone architecture. Forested river estuaries created natural harbours whilst the yearly monsoon winds assisted trade, and the Swahili civilisation consisted of hundreds of settlements and linked the societies and kingdoms of the interior, such as those of the Zambezi basin and the Great Lakes, to the wider Indian Ocean trade. There is much debate around the chronology of the settlement of Madagascar, although most scholars agree that the island was further settled by Austronesian peoples from the 5th or 7th centuries AD who had proceeded through or around the Indian Ocean by outrigger boats, to also settle the Comoros. This second wave possibly found the island of Madagascar sparsely populated by descendants of the first wave a few centuries earlier, with the Vazimba of the interior's highlands being revered and featuring prominently in Malagasy oral traditions.

The Kilwa Sultanate in 1310

The wider region underwent a trade expansion from the 7th century, as the Swahili engaged in the flourishing Indian Ocean trade following the early Muslim conquests. Settlements further centralised and some major states included Gedi, Ungwana [de], Pate, Malindi, Mombasa, and Tanga in the north, Unguja Ukuu on Zanzibar, Kaole, Dar es Salaam, Kilwa, Kiswere, Monapo, Mozambique, and Angoche in the middle, and Quelimane, Sofala, Chibuene, and Inhambane in the south. Via mtumbwi, mtepe and later ngalawa they exported gold, iron, copper, ivory, slaves, pottery, cotton cloth, wood, grain, and rice, and imported silk, glassware, jewellery, Islamic pottery, and Chinese porcelain. Relations between the states fluctuated and varied, with Mombasa, Pate, and Kilwa emerging as the strongest. This prosperity led some Arab and Persian merchants to settle and assimilate into the various societies, and from the 8th to the 14th century the region gradually Islamised due to the increased trading opportunities it brought, with some oral traditions having rulers of Arab or Persian descent. The Kilwa Chronicle, supposedly based on oral tradition, holds that a Persian prince from Shiraz arrived and acquired the island of Kilwa from the local inhabitants, before quarrel with the Bantu king led to the severing Kilwa's land bridge to the mainland. Settlements in northern Madagascar such as Mahilaka, Irodo, and Iharana also engaged in the trade, attracting Arab immigration. Bantu migrated to Madagascar and the Comoros from the 9th century, when zebu were first brought. From the 10th century Kilwa expanded its influence, coming to challenge the dominance of Somalian Mogadishu located to its north, however details of Kilwa's rise remain scarce. In the late 12th century Kilwa wrestled control of Sofala in the south, a key trading city linking to Great Zimbabwe in the interior and famous for its Zimbabwean gold, which was substantial in the usurpation of Mogadishu's hegemony, while also conquering Pemba and Zanzibar. Kilwa's administration consisted of representatives who ranged from governing their assigned cities to fulfilling the role of ambassador in the more powerful ones. Meanwhile the Pate Chronicle has Pate conquering Shanga, Faza, and prosperous Manda, and was at one time led by the popular Fumo Liyongo. The islands of Pemba, Zanzibar, Lamu, Mafia and the Comoros were further settled by Shirazi and grew in importance due to their geographical positions for trade.

By 1100, all regions of Madagascar were inhabited, although the total population remained small. Societies organised at the behest of hasina, which later evolved to embody kingship, and competed with one another over the island's estuaries, with oral histories describing bloody clashes and earlier settlers often pushed along the coast or inland. An Arab geographer wrote in 1224 that the island consisted of a great many towns and kingdoms, with kings making war on each other. Assisted by climate change, the peoples gradually transformed the island from dense forest to grassland for cultivation and zebu pastoralism. Oral traditions of the central highlands describe encountering an earlier population called the Vazimba, thought to have been the first settlers of Madagsacar, represented as primitive dwarfs. From the 13th century Muslim settlers arrived, integrating into the respective societies, and held high status owing to Islamic trading networks.

West Africa

The western Sahel and Sudan

There remains ample room for research on Ghana/Wagadu's expansion and reign, including on the vassals under Ghana, and such details evade our view, however the turn of 6th century saw Ghana continue their dominance. To the west, the Takrur kingdom acceded in the 6th century along the Senegal River, dominating the region, however seeing periods under Ghanaian suzerainty. In the 7th century the Gao Empire of the Songhai people rose in the east to rival Ghana, and had at least seven kingdoms accepting their suzerainty. Gao grew rich through the trans-Saharan trade route linking their capital and Tadmekka with Kairouan in North Africa through commanding the trade of salt, which was used as their currency, and controlled a salt mine north in the Sahara via cavalry. An early written record of Ghana came at the end of the 8th century, mentioning "Ghāna, the land of gold". In 826 a Soninke clan conquered Takrur, installing the Manna dynasty. To the east in northern modern-day Nigeria, Hausa tradition holds that Bayajidda came to Daura in the 9th century, and his descendants founded the kingdoms of Daura, Kano, Rano, Katsina, Gobir, Zazzau, and Biram in the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries, with his bastard descendants founding various others.

Map of the western Sahel and Sudan (northern West Africa) c. 1200, including some successor states of Ghana. (Songhai is Gao)
Kingdoms in this era were centred around cities and cores, with variations of influence radiating out from these points, meaning there weren't fixed borders.

By the 10th century, the wet period that birthed Ghana was faltering. With the gradual advance of the Sahel at the expense of the Sudan, desert consumed grassland, and epicentres for trade shifted south towards the Niger river, and east from Aoudaghost to Oualata following the shifting of gold source southeast from Bambouk to Bure, strengthening Ghana's vassals while weakening its core. Gao's king converted to Sunni Islam in the early 10th century, having been nominally Muslim prior. At the turn of the 11th century, Ghana expanded north to encompass the Sanhaja trading city of Aoudaghost. In 1054, after having united the Saharan Sanhaja prior to their conquest of the Maghreb, the Almoravid Sanhaja sacked and captured Aoudaghost, at the time a royal seat for Ghana. During this, some of Ghana's vassals achieved independence such as Mema, Sosso, and Diarra/Diafunu, with the last two being especially powerful. Takrur thrived at this time, controlling the gold of Galam, and had good relations with the Almoravids. During this time, the Wolof and Serer in the west resisted the Almoravids and Islamisation. The Almoravids retained influence over Ghana's court for the next few decades, possibly supporting Muslim candidates for the throne, with Ghana converting to Islam in 1076. Oral sources hold that, intent on invading Ghana, which was elsewhere stated to have had a 200,000-man force, the Almoravid army found the king respectful of Islam, and he willingly adopted Islam with the exchange of gold for an imam relocating to Ghana. Meanwhile in the 11th century, Mossi traditions hold that a princess left Dagbon in the forest region to the south to found Ouagadougou, with her children founding the kingdoms of Tenkodogo, Fada N'Gourma, and Zondoma. Circa 1170, internal conflict within the Ouagadougou dynasty induced the founding of Yatenga to the north, which later conquered Zondoma. After regaining full independence as the Almoravids lost influence in Aoudaghost, Ghana resurged, reasserting suzerainty over their former vassals throughout the 12th century. This was not to reverse the climatic and economic progression however, and at the turn of the 13th century, Sosso, having come under the rule of a general and former slave following dispute within the Diarisso dynasty, united the region and conquered a weakened Ghana from its south, occupying Wagadu and propelling Soninke migration. According to some traditions, Wagadu's fall is caused when a nobleman attempts to save a maiden from sacrifice against her wishes and kills Bida before escaping the population's ire on horseback, annulling Wagadu and Bida's prior assurance and unleashing a curse causing drought and famine, sometimes causing gold to be discovered in Bure. The Soninke generation that survived the drought were called "it has been hard for them" ("a jara nununa").

The Mali Empire in 1337 CE, with major gold fields, of Bambuk, Bure, Lobi (tended by the Gan and later Lobi people), and Akan, and trade routes, outlined. The desert should extend further south to Koumbi. The Mossi Kingdoms are located north of Lobi.

After the death of his father, Sosso's Soumaoro Kante forced Wagadu to accept their suzerainty, and he conquered Diarra, Gajaaga, vassalized Takrur, and subdued the Mandinka clans of Manden, who were early adopters of Islam, to the south where the goldfield of Bure was located. In accordance with the traditional Epic of Sundiata, Sundiata Keita, a prince of local origin but in exile, held a position in the former Ghanaian vassal of Mema and returned to Manden aided by the king of Mema to relieve his people of the tyrannical Sosso king. Sundiata allied and pacified the Madinka clans, and defeated Soumaoro Kante in battle in 1235, and conquered Kante's ally Diarra, proclaiming the Kouroukan Fouga of the nascent Mali Empire. Allied kingdoms, including Mema and Wagadu, retained leadership of their province, while conquered leaders were assigned a farin subordinate to the mansa (emperor), with provinces retaining a great deal of autonomy. At the same time as Sundiata's campaigns in the north subjugating ancient Ghana's former vassals, the Malian military campaigned to the west in Bambouk and against the Fula in the highlands of Fouta Djallon. Sundiata saw to equip the army with horses purchased from the western kingdom of Kita, however the Wolof king arrested Mandinka caravan traders, inflaming conflict which culminated in the conquest of the Wolof and Serer. This extended the empire to the Atlantic coast in modern-day Senegal, with the Malian general continuing to campaign in the west in Casamance and against the Bainuk and Jola kings in the highlands of Kaabu, forming various subordinate kingdoms.

Central Africa

The Congo Basin

Following the Bantu migrations, a period of state and class formation began circa 700 with four centres; one in the west around Pool Malebo, one south around the highlands of Angola, a third north-central around Lake Mai-Ndombe, and a fourth in the far southeast in the Upemba Depression.

Further southeast in the Upemba Depression, social stratification and governance began to form after the 10th century based on villages. Most of those of the southern savanna, such as the Luba-Katanga and Songye, were patrilineal, however the Luba-Kasai were initially matrilineal. "Lords of the land" held priestly roles and due to their special relationship with the spirits of the land and were widely recognised, holding sway over multiple villages and essentially ruling embryonic kingdoms.