Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
October 2000
Ghana (Wagadu), the earliest known empire of the western Sudan, first entered the historical consciousness of North Africa near the end of the eighth century but probably originated long before. The empire’s legacy is still celebrated in the name of the Republic of Ghana; apart from this, however, modern-day and ancient Ghana share no direct historical connections. Despite early texts that discuss ancient Ghana, such as The Book of Routes and Kingdoms by the eleventh-century Andalusian geographer Abu ‘Ubayd al-Bakri, it remains very much an enigma. Famous to North Africans as the “Land of Gold,” Ghana was said to possess sophisticated methods of administration and taxation, large armies, and a monopoly over notoriously well-concealed gold mines. The king of the Soninke people who founded Ghana never fully embraced Islam, but good relations with Muslim traders were fostered. Ghana’s preeminence faded toward the end of the eleventh century, when its power was broken by a long struggle with the Almoravids led by ‘Abdullah ibn Yasin. Ghana subsequently fell to the expanding Soso kingdom.
Citation
Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. “The Empires of the Western Sudan: Ghana Empire.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ghan/hd_ghan.htm (October 2000)
Further Reading
Prussin, Labelle. Hatumere: Islamic Design in West Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
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Related Essays
- The Empires of the Western Sudan
- The Empires of the Western Sudan: Mali Empire
- The Empires of the Western Sudan: Songhai Empire
- Trade and the Spread of Islam in Africa
- The Trans-Saharan Gold Trade (7th–14th Century)
- The Art of the Almoravid and Almohad Periods (ca. 1062–1269)
- Ways of Recording African History