Propagation of Islam in Africa

Propagation of Islam in Africa

Propagation of Islam in Africa

Introduction

Islam quickly spread from the Arabian Peninsula into Africa, and as this lesson shows, was able to move quickly throughout much of the continent. Read on to learn more about Islam and its spread throughout ancient Africa.

Rise of Islam

Few religions have spread as quickly as Islam. Within the lifetime of Islam's central figure, the Prophet Muhammad, Islam had spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula. And while the Prophet Muhammad died in the year 632, Islam continued to flourish. Many people know about Islam's spread throughout the Middle East and into Asia, but fewer are familiar with Islam's spread southward into and across Africa.

The Prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca, a city in Saudi Arabia. Each year, millions take pilgrimage to this holy city.

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Since Africa sits below the Arabian Peninsula(Jaziratul Arab), Islam expansion from the north downward. And so, while Islam became prominent in the north, west and east, it did not grow larger than a minority religion in South Africa. In this lesson, we're going to look at the spread of Islam throughout North, West and East Africa.

Spread Across North Africa

Islam began its spread into Africa from the north. Within a few years of the prophet's death, Islam had firmly planted itself in Egypt. But this was not the first Islamic community in Africa. In fact, Islam had originally been introduced to what we now call Ethiopia, where about two dozen Muslims first arrived around 614 for protection from religious persecution. Ironically, this is among the few places in Northern Africa where Islam never gained a substantial foothold.

Instead, Egypt served as the starting point for the spread of Islam across all of North Africa in a matter of decades. Islam carried the Arabic language with it, and so Arabic is the main language of North Africans. Islam would even spread into Spain from this North African foothold, although Muslims there were expelled from Spain in 1492.

Info of West Africa

Into West Africa

North Africa has long been a center of trade in the Mediterranean world. Despite the difficult terrain of the Sahara Desert, it maintained trade routes with West African countries, namely Mali. Along these trade routes, Islam spread.

In time, West Africa become home to great wealth--both economically and spiritually. Mali king Mansa Musa, the richest man of the 14th century and arguably in all of history, was a major proponent of Islam. and even took an historic pilgrimage from Mali to Mecca, Islam's holy city. The trade routes also brought learning to West Africa. For instance, one of the great trade hubs of the Sahara, Timbuktu, became famous as a center of Islamic learning.

A depiction of Mansa Musa, king of Mali and a vocal supporter of Islam.

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The religion's spread was not limitless. Islam remained a religion of the merchants. Where the trade routes stopped, so did Islam. As a result, the deeper parts of the jungles of Africa remained largely unaffected by Islamic expansion.

The first converts were the Sudanese merchants, followed by a couple of rulers and courtiers (Ghana within the eleventh century and Mali within the thirteenth century). The masses of rural peasants, however, remained little touched. within the eleventh century, the Almoravid intervention, led by a gaggle of Berber nomads who were strict observers of shariah , gave the conversion process a replacement momentum within the Ghana empire and beyond. The expanse of Islam through out the African continent was neither synchronous nor uniform, but followed a gradual and adaptive path.However, the sole written documents at our adjustment for the amount into account execute from Arab sources (see, as an example , accounts by geographers al-Bakri and Ibn Battuta).

Islamic Influence on African Societies

Islamic political and aesthetic impression on African societies remain difficult to  count. In some capital cities, like Ghana and Gao, the presence of Muslim merchants resulted within the establishment of mosques. The Malian king Mansa Musa (r. 1312–37) brought back from a pilgrimage to Mecca the architect al-Sahili, who is usually credited with the creation of the Sudano-Sahelian building style. Musa’s brother, Mansa Sulaiman, followed his path and encouraged the building of mosques, also because the development of Islamic learning. Islam delivered to Africa the art of writing and new techniques of weighting. the town of Timbuktu, as an example , flourished as a billboard and intellectual center, seemingly undisturbed by various upheavals. Timbuktu began as a Tuareg settlement, was soon integrated into the Mali empire, then was reclaimed by the Tuareg, and eventually incorporated into the Songhai empire. within the sixteenth century, the bulk of Muslim scholars in Timbuktu were of Sudanese origin. On the continent’s eastern coast, Arabic vocabulary was absorbed into the Bantu languages to make the Swahili language. On the opposite hand, in many cases metamorphosis for sub-Saharan Africans was possibly how to patrol themselves against being sold into peonage, a orient trade between Lake Chad and therefore the halibut. for his or her governor, who weren't active proselytizers, variation remained some what formal, a pose perhaps aimed toward gaining political support from the Arabs and facilitating commercial relationships..The strongest resistance to Islam seems to possess emanated from the Mossi and therefore the Bamana, with the event of the Ségou kingdom. Eventually, sub-Saharan Africans developed their own brand of Islam, often mentioned as “African Islam,” with specific brotherhoods and practices.

Local Mixes of Islamic and African Aesthetics

Because of its resistance to the representation of individuals and animals, the character of Islam’s interaction with the visual arts in Africa was one during which Islamic forms were accommodated and adapted. Muslim clerics’ literacy and esoteric powers drew many converts to Islam. Sub-Saharan Muslim clerics referred to as marabouts began fabricating amulets with Qur’anic verses, which came to displace indigenous talismans and medicinal packets. These amulets are featured within the design of the many traditional African artifacts.

Islam also reinforced the African fondness for geometric design and therefore the repetition of patterns in decorating the surface of textiles and made objects. Local weaving may are transformed with the importation of North African weaving techniques.

Islam has also often existed side by side with representational traditions like masquerading. Such practices have often been viewed as supplemental instead of oppositional to Islam, particularly once they are seen as effective or operating outside of the central concerns of the religion . An early example of this was noted by Ibn Battuta, the Maghribi scholar who visited Mali in 1352–53 and witnessed a masquerade performance at the royal court of its Muslim king. In many areas of Africa, the coexistence of Islam with representational art forms continues today. But although Islam has influenced a good