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The Ghana Empire (existed c. 900-1240) was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania and part of Mali. Their empire grew rich from its great trade of gold and salt.
Relatively little is known about the kingdom, with most information coming from the Andalusian traders who frequently traveled to the country and the Almoravids, who invaded the kingdom in the late 11th century.
It is believed to be the first of many empires that would rise in that part of Africa. It first began in the eighth century when a dramatic change in the economy of the Sahel area south of the Sahara allowed more centralized states to form. The introduction of the camel and other forms of livestock by Arabs brought about a revolution in trade and for the first time the extensive, gold, ivory, and salt resources of the region could be sent north and east to the population centers of North Africa and the Middle East in exchange for manufactured goods.
This trade produced an increasing surplus, allowing larger urban centres; it also encouraged territorial expansion to gain control of the lucrative trade routes. Ghana, believed to have originally been a small Berber principality, had existed since at least the fourth century, but during this period it began to expand greatly, annexing a number of neighbouring cities and peoples. The empire eventually came to be dominated by the Soninke people, who built the empire's capital of Kumbi Saleh, which would grow to a size of 30,000 on the edge of the Sahara.
The first written mention of the kingdom comes soon after it was contacted by Arab traders in the eighth century. In the late ninth and early tenth centuries there are more detailed accounts of a centralized monarchy that dominated the states in the region. The Cordoban scholar al-Bakri collected stories from a number of travelers to the region and gave a detailed description of the kingdom in 1067. At that time the King of Ghana fielded an army of some 200,000 soldiers.
The Kingdom was ruled by a king known as the Ghana, from which we derive the name of the state. Upon the Ghana's death he was succeeded by the son of his sister. The deceased Ghana would be buried in large dome roofed tombs. The religion of the kingdom involved emperor worship of the Ghana.
The capital city was a large metropolis divided between Africans and Arabs. The African half consisted of mud brick structures while the Arab half consisted of stone houses which were home to the traders and merchants. The literate and educated Arabs were also used by the Ghana as bureaucrats and administrators.
As Islam grew throughout the region, the kings of Ghana permitted the religion but did not convert to it. The growing power of the Almoravids to the northwest soon lead them to launch a jihad against the kingdom. The empire had long been struggling. The rise of the Almoravids had disrupted the Saharan trade and pushed in to the west. The population density around the empire's leading cities had also overtaxed the region, and the Sahara desert was spreading further south. While imported food was sufficient to support the population when the income for trade was high, when the trade faltered this system also broke down. The weakening of the centre sparked a revolt of the empire's vassal states destroying the Ghana Empire in the thirteenth century and seeing the area annexed by the Almoravids. They collapsed quickly and a new state, the Mali Empire, rose to dominate the region.
The modern country of Ghana is named after the ancient empire, but there is no territory shared between the two states. There are traditional stories that the survivors of the Ghana Empire migrated to the region of modern Ghana, but there is no evidence that this is a true tale.
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