Sudanese Kingdoms

Question 1

Describe the major routes of the trans-Saharan gold trade.

Answer 1

North to Morocco and Libya and Eastwards towards the Bornu region near Lake Chad and on to Egypt

Question 2

What were the keys to the rise of the western Sudanic powers?

Answer 2

Taxing/controlling the gold trade
Using military/financial power to demand tributes from smaller kingdoms.
Controlling salt mines: especially those of Awdoghust (present-day Mauretania)
Centralization of political power
Unification of ruling groups along religious lines-i.e.-Islam; nominal.

Question 3

What years was the Kindom of Ghana active roughly

Answer 3

300-1240

Question 4

At her height, how thicc was she?

Answer 4

250,000 square miles

Question 5

What was the capital of Ghana? What was its striking characteristic?

Answer 5

Kumbi-Saleh. It tow sections divided “subjects” and “foreigners”

Question 6

Who was Ghana’s famed king? Describe his army and who he fought off.

Answer 6

“Tunka Manin: controlled an army of 200,000 men with 40,000 archers, He held back the Almoravid invasion.

Question 7

How were Ghana’s relations with Muslims early in her history?

Answer 7

good

Question 8

What was Mali an extension of?

Answer 8

An earlier Ghanaian state

Question 9

What groups made up the Kingdom of Mali

Answer 9

Soninke and Mande?Malinke people

Question 10

Who was the first emperor of Mali? What were the years of his reign? What did he do to establish the empire?

Answer 10

Sunjiata (1230-1255). He took control of trans-Saharan trade routes.

Question 11

What traditional title di Sundiata take? What was the title’s meaning?

Answer 11

“Mansa” village chief

Question 12

What did Sundiata set up at the capital and key financial center of Mali?

Answer 12

Ninani

Question 13

In the absence of war what were Mali’s soldiers used for?

Answer 13

Agricultural projects

Question 14

Describe Musa’s Hajj

Answer 14

Musa led an entourage of 60,000 courtiers, soldiers, servants, doctors etc, to Mecca on his Hajj. He left nearly 100 camel loads of gold during his trip, much of it as gifts to the poor. Egypt’s economy was disrupted for some 12 years.

Question 15

What was the name of the University at Timbuctoo? What subjects were taught there?

Answer 15

the University of Sankore
Subjects: philosophy, medicine, law, government, astronomy, mathematics, literature, ethnography, logic, rhetoric, geography, music composition.

Question 16

Who founded the University?

Answer 16

The Granda-born Moor As-Saheli, a master architect and poet.

Question 17

What King commissioned a map depicting Rex Mali

Answer 17

Charles V

Question 18

When di Mali decline

Answer 18

1494

Question 19

Why did Mali establish diplomatic relations with Portugal

Answer 19

because of Malian naval and military strength

Question 20

How di Ibn Batuta characterize the Malians?

Answer 20

“seldom unjust and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people. . . neither traveler nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence,

Question 21

What was Mali known for

Answer 21

Muslim trade and scholarship among African Muslims-

Scientists doctors religious scholars-safety, hospitality, and a strong sense of justice.

Question 22

From where did Mali heavily import books?

Answer 22

Barbary (Moorish controlled North Africa)

Question 23

What years was the Songhai Empire active?

Answer 23

1340-1591

Question 24

Who was the founder of the Kindom? What years did he rule? How devout of a Muslim was he regarded as?

Answer 24

Sonni Ali (1468-1492)
Nominal Muslim

Question 25

WHat was he remembered for?

Answer 25

Relentlessly pursuing Tuareg Muslim raiders after taking Timbuctoo from the in 1468

Question 26

How large did the Songhai Empire become>

Answer 26

As large as western Europe (over half a million square miles..)

Question 27

Name for Muslim institutions of higher learning

Answer 27

Madrassas

Question 28

Other cities whose Madrassas taught these subjects.

Answer 28

Gao (Kawkaw) and Jenne

Question 29

Askiya Muhammad Ture.

Answer 29

(1493-1528) a devout Muslim who used Islam to unite and consolidate Sonni Ali’s conquests. Founder of Askiya dynasty. Partly as a result of his promotion of Islam, his reign saw a revival of the Trans-Saharan gold trade

Question 30

diodorus siculus

Answer 30

50. Ethiopians were related to Egyptians “the oldest of all men” they were not immigrants to that land but were native to it.

Question 31

What yearss did Mansa Musa rule

Answer 31

1312-1332