WHI-Chap19-Obj2
The Kingdom of Ghana was located between the Senegal and Niger rivers in the West Africa region. It developed as a state during the fourth or fifth centuries C.E., when settled agricultural people wanted to protect their society from camel-rider raids that came out of the Sahara. As trade and travel increased across the Sahara, Ghana became an important center for trade in gold, not actually producing gold but managing the trade in gold as a "middle-man" between the South, where gold was a major product, and merchants who had traveled across the Sahara. Gold was in particular high demand because of economic development and surging trade throughout the eastern hemisphere, so the Kingdom of Ghana became increasingly wealthy because of its location, and this "enriched and strengthened" the realm of the kings of the Kingdom of Ghana. In exchange for the gold, the Kingdom of Ghana imported horses, cloth, small manufactured wares, and salt. (Traditions and Encounters, page 488)
Koumbi-Saleh was the capital of the Kingdom of Ghana and it also served as the principal trading site and was particularly wealthy and thriving during the Kingdom's height from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. The city was described by Al-Bakri, 'a site with buildings of stone and more than a dozen mosques'. The enormous wealth supported a large number of qadis and Muslim scholars and a large army, which according to Al-Bakri could field two hundred thousand warriors. (Traditions and Encounters, page 489)
By the tenth century the Kings of Ghana had converted to Islam and this improved the relations of trade between Ghana and Muslim merchants and nomads, and Kingdom of Ghana also won recognition and support from Muslim states in north Africa. The kings did not force Islam on their subjects, and they didn't accept Islam exclusively, and continued to observe the traditional religious customs. Still, Islam attracted many converts.
Expansion of the kingdom to the north also brought attacks from nomadic peoples of the Sahara and in the early 13th century the raids weakened the kingdom and it collapsed. (Traditions and encounters, page 490)
