The Spread of Islam in Africa 900-1500 C.E.

The diffusion of Islam into Africa occurred through several separate phases of development. The initial spread of Islam into Egypt and across North Africa occurred between the late 7th century and early 8th century. Egypt was conquered and converted to Islam between 639 and 642. Fustat or Cairo fell to Muslim pressure by about 641. Muslim armies and merchant based missionaries migrated swiftly across North Africa and captured or gained support for Islam across the entirety of North Africa between 685 to 715.

The spread of Islam across the Sahara to the Sahel, the West African states and to East Africa developed through merchant contacts and long-distance caravan routes of traders with the Arab Muslim cities of northern Africa. By the 11th century the Senegalese coastal region had converted to Islam as had large areas of the Sahel across to the Sudan. By the late 13th and 14th centuries large well established cities in the Sahel and Mali had large Muslim institutions. The building of large prominent mosques at Timbuktu and other cities in Mali reflect this development. These cities flourished as West African cities and kingdoms flourished from the prosperous trade in gold, salt, and various metal wares produced by the region. It also marks the rise of an overland slave trade to northern markets.

Among the most prominent of mosques was the Great Mosque of Timbuktu, also known as Djingarey Ber Mosque and originally built in 1327. This mosque is an example of the Sudano-Sahelian style of building, that is credited to the influence of the Malian king Mansa Musa (r. 1312–37) who upon a return from a pilgrimage to Mecca retained and brought back the architect al-Sahili.

Recommended: Ralph Austen, Trans-Saharan in World History (Cambridge, 2010)

For reports and documents on the history and preservation of this mosque see, http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=4385

Internet Sources:
On the Mali and Songay empires http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/resources/mali/index.htm

Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. "Trade and the Spread of Islam in Africa". InHeilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tsis/hd_tsis.htm (October 2001)

On the gold trade see Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. "The Trans-Saharan Gold Trade (7th–14th century)". InHeilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gold/hd_gold.htm (October 2000)