The Gao Empire was a kingdom that ruled the Niger bend from approximately the 7th century CE until their fall to the Mali Empire in the late 14th century. Ruled by the Za dynasty from the capital of Gao , the empire was an important predecessor of the Songhai Empire .
39-485: Apart from some Arabic epitaphs on tombstones discovered in 1939 at the cemetery of Gao-Saney (6 km to the east of the city) there are no surviving indigenous written records that date from before the middle of the 17th century. Our knowledge of the early history of the town relies on the writings of Arab geographers living in Morocco, Egypt and Andalusia, most of whom never visited the region. These authors referred to
78-583: A cave covered with sand, several finely carved marble stelae produced in Almeria in Southern Spain. Their inscriptions attest to three kings of a Muslim dynasty bearing as loan names the names of Muhammad and his two successors. From the dates of their deaths it appears that these kings of Gao ruled at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries CE, and represent a transition in leadership. Historian Dierk Lange has argued that
117-487: A combination of white, black, and red paint. There were also small simple-rim bowls decorated with impressed comb in linear or geometric patterns. The presence of very similar pottery assemblages near places like Timbuktu , Gourma Rharous , and Bentia indicate river-based cultural interaction along the Middle Niger. Gao-Saney became well known among African historians when French administrators in 1939 discovered, in
156-472: A list of place names mostly within the Arabian peninsula with an introduction giving the geographical background. His most important work is his Kitāb al-Masālik wa-al-Mamālik (" Book of Highways and of Kingdoms ") (كتاب المساليك والمماليك). This was composed in 1068, based on literature and the reports of merchants and travellers, including Muhammad ibn Yūsuf al-Warrāq (904–973) and Abraham ben Jacob . It
195-526: A lost work quoted in the biographical dictionary compiled by Yaqut that Their king pretends before his subject to be a Muslim and most of them pretend to be Muslims too. He has a town on the Nile [Niger], on the eastern bank, which is called Sarnāh, where there are markets and trading houses and to which there is continuous traffic from all parts. He has another town to the west of the Nile [Niger] where he and his men and those who have his confidence live. There
234-507: A plain" and that "One of these towns, which is inhabited by Muslims, is large and possesses twelve mosques in one of which they assemble for the Friday prayer. There are salaried imams and muezzins , as well as jurists and scholars." His works are noted for the relative objectivity with which they present information. For each area, he describes the people, their customs, as well as the geography, climate and main cities. Similar information
273-593: A second town, and archaeological excavations in Gao-Saney indicate the site may have beena abandoned by this time. Gao Saney had a mixed millet, caprine, and cattle based subsitence economy. Goats and sheep were very populous, significantly outnumbering cattle, while camels appear only sometimes in the faunal assemblage, and were likely consumed and used for transport. 809 copper-based artifacts have been found, with almost half of them shaped as copper crescents. Given their consistent shape, it has been hypothesized that
312-455: A shift from ‘Ibāḍism to Sunni orthodoxy) in 1083. This period also roughly coincides with the appearance of funeral epitaphs in Gao-Saney. These chronicle three Muslim rulers belonging to the Zaghe dynasty who died successively in 1100, 1110 and 1120. This dynasty's role in the history of Gao is a topic of debate among scholars. Dierk Lange has argued that, although these Zaghe monarchs appear in
351-716: A slightly later date for the introduction of Islam. He lists 32 rulers of the Zuwa dynasty and states that in 1009-1010 A.D. the 15th ruler, Zuwa Kusoy, was the first to convert to Islam. The 11th century was an important inflection point in the history of the Gao Empire. By the middle decades of the century, the Almoravids had become a significant power in West Africa, spreading their interpretation of Sunni Islam . Al-Zuhrī then has Gao converting to Islam (perhaps meaning
390-446: Is a mosque there where he prays but the communal prayer ground is between the two towns. In Gomez's opinion, this suggests "a ruler who was only nominally Muslim (or may have embraced ‘Ibāḍism )". The Ta’rīkh as-sūdān 's ruler-list has the ruler Kusuy-Muslim converting to Islam in 1009–10, and a 1068 report by al-Bakrī that Gao's kings were Muslim but most of their subjects at that time were not. Al-Sadi in his Tarikh al-Sudan gives
429-694: Is archaeologically invisible. The number of imports exploded with the penetration of Islam into West Africa. During the late eight century CE, Ibadi merchants established the earliest recorded contact with Gao, corresponding to the same time that dry-stone architecture, wheat, and glass appear in the area. According to McIntosh, "throughout this period, the spread of Islam, literacy, a common language, and Sharia law contributed to increased efficiency, trust, financing, and security within more expansive trade networks." The earliest material culture at Gao-Saney, including its pottery, suggest Songhai - Berber presence rather than Arabic. Historical evidence indicates that
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#1732772754470468-554: Is one of the most important sources for the history of West Africa and gives crucial information on the Ghana Empire , the Almoravid dynasty and the trans-Saharan trade . Although the material borrowed from al-Warraq dated from the 10th century, he also included information on events that occurred close to the time that he wrote. Al-Bakri mentions the earliest urban centres in the trans-Saharan trade to embrace Islam, late in
507-500: Is the kingdom of the Kawkaw, which is the greatest of the realms of the Sūdān, the most important and most powerful. All the kingdoms obey its king. Al-Kawkaw is the name of the town. Besides this there are a number of kingdoms of which the rulers pay allegiance to him and acknowledge his sovereignty, although they are kings in their own lands. The kings of the area belonged to a dynasty called
546-684: The Za dynasty kinglists of the Tarikh , they were in fact a new royal clan either descended from resident Berbers influenced by the Almoravids or the royal family of Wagadu , taking refuge from their own conflict with the Almoravids. John Hunwick has argued that the Zaghe were Sanhaja immigrants, and that their short-lived dynasty was soon absorbed by the Za. The Zaghe married women from the previous royal line, and
585-833: The Zaghe kings commemorated by the stelae, so-called because of multiple references to an ancestor of that name, are identical with some of the kings of the Za dynasty listed by the chroniclers of Timbuktu in the Ta'rikh al-Sudan and Ta'rikh al-Fattash . Their Islamic loan names are in one instance complemented by a local name, which has allowed the identification. Historians such as John Hunwick, however, have rejected this interpretation. 16°15′03″N 0°00′11″W / 16.25083°N 0.00306°W / 16.25083; -0.00306 Al-Bakri Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī ( Arabic : أبو عبيد عبد الله بن عبد العزيز بن محمد بن أيوب بن عمرو البكري ), or simply al-Bakrī (c. 1040–1094)
624-640: The 10th century, Gao was one of the very few along the Niger River to have native Muslim inhabitants. Other centres along the serpentine bends of the great river eventually followed: Takrur ( Mauritania , Senegal ); Songhay ( Mali ); Kanem-Bornu ( Chad ); and Hausa territories ( Nigeria ). By the 11th century, reports on these and other flourishing Islamic cities made their way north to Al-Andalus in southern Iberia , enabling Al-Bakri to write in his Kitab al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik (Book of Highways and Kingdoms): "The city of Ghana consists of two towns situated on
663-689: The 2018 study African Dominion argued that that Gao was West Africa's first city-state, providing a key model for the Ghana Empire and subsequently the Mali and Songhay empires, and that the Middle Niger region that it dominated was economically and politically interconnected with the Sahel, the Savannah, and the Middle East in ways that made it an important part of the world system . Gao-Saney
702-572: The Egyptian ruler Ibn Tulun (ruled 868-884) as some of the caravans were attacked by bandits while others were overwhelmed by the wind-blown sand. The more direct route was replaced by one that went to Sijilmasa before heading south across the Sahara. In the ninth century, al-Yaʿqūbī does not mention Islam in Gao, implying that the religion was not prominent there. Al-Muhallabī, who died in 990, wrote in
741-563: The Qanda, and used the title ' Za '. They were likely originally based downstream in Kukiya before moving to Gao by the early 10th century. Their power was based in cavalry and camelry . Ibn al-Faqih (writing c. 903) mentions a caravan route from Egypt to ancient Ghana via Kawkaw. but Ibn Hawqal (writing c. 988) states that the old route from Egypt to the Sudan was abandoned in the reign of
780-571: The archaeological site of Gao-Saney (Sané in French) situated around 4 kilometres to the east. The bed of the Wadi Gangaber passes to the south of the Gao-Saney occupation mound ( tell ) but to the north of Gao Ancien. The imported pottery and glass recovered from Gao-Saney suggest that the site was occupied between the 8th and 12th centuries. It is likely that Gao-Saney corresponds to Sarnāh of al-Muhallabi. Al-Bakri writing in 1068 also records
819-575: The beads changed sometime during the end of the tenth century. Earlier glasses were probably produced in Iraq and Baghdad, and later glasses were produced in Egypt. Gao Saney participated in regional and long-distance trade, indicated by extensive glass compositions sourced in the Middle East, and non-local items such as carnelian, flint, and granite grinding stones. Understanding how trade networks developed over time will require further research. However, at
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#1732772754470858-410: The composition of the beads can indicate their origins; several compositional groupings have been recognized, included plant-ash soda-lime-silica glass, mineral soda-lime-silica glass, high-lime high-alumina glass, mineral soda-high alumina glass, plant ash soda-high alumina glass and a high lead composition glass. The dating of these different composites indicates that the source of the glass used to make
897-476: The copper crescents were used as currency, however, most of the copper artifacts found have been fragments, making it difficult to test this hypothesis. Glass processing was among the earliest activities that took place. Thousands of glass beads have been found in and around Gao, dating from the eighth to the fourteenth century CE. Their shapes include cylinder, oblate, sphere, tube, ellipsoid, bicone, and disc, and colors range from red to blue to yellow. Analyzing
936-437: The earlier periods are almost certainly based on oral tradition, and they sometimes provide conflicting information. Using the epitaphs as a primary source, modern scholars increasingly question whether the chronicles, as biased political documents, are useful at all for describing the period of the Gao Empire. Twentieth-century historians saw Gao as relatively unimportant compared with the roughly contemporary Ghana Empire , but
975-426: The edge of the dune at a site 4 km north of Gao, surface deposits indicate a pre 9th century settlement. This could be the west bank Gao mentioned by 10th and 11th century authors, as the site has not been excavated. The chroniclers may also have been mistaken, and Wadi Gangaber could be the river they said divided the two towns. Archaeological digs have determined that Gao Ancien was the political center, containing
1014-519: The existence of two towns, but al-Idrisi writing in around 1154 does not. Both al-Muhallabi (see quote above) and al-Bakri situate Gao on the west (or right bank) of the Niger. The 17th century Tarikh al-Fattash also states that in the 10th century Gao was situated on the Gourma side (i.e. the west bank) of the river. A large sand dune, La Dune Rose , lies on the west bank opposite Gao, but at Koima, on
1053-680: The geographer al-Udri and the historian Ibn Hayyan . He spent his entire life in Al-Andalus, most of it in Seville and Almeria . While in Seville, he was there when El Cid arrived to collect tributes from Alfonso VI . He died in Córdoba without ever having travelled to the locations of which he wrote. Al-Bakri wrote about Europe, North Africa, and the Arabian peninsula. Only two of his works have survived. His Mu'jam mā ista'jam contains
1092-406: The king of Gao converted to Islam during the 10th century. Archaeologically, the cemetery stelae are the main evidence for Islam at Gao. An excavation of 5700 rim and body sherds showed Gao Saney's ceramic assemblage to be largely homogeneous throughout all the deposits. Most of the vessels were organic-tempered jars with long funnel-like rims decorated with broad channels, typically painted with
1131-617: The late 1200s continued to be used in Kukiya until the time of Sonni Ali (1464–1492). He greatly expanded the territory under Songhay control and established the Songhay Empire . Gao was one of the earliest sites of significant trans-Saharan trade in the 8th century, much earlier than scholars used to believe. The most important trade items were gold, copper, slaves, and salt. Gao was also a major manufacturing center. Craftspeople fashioned carnelian into beads, which are dated as early as
1170-492: The moment, data indicates that the region surrounding Gao was involved in trade networks that moved imported glass and copper from distant sources, beginning by 400 CE. Excavations at Gao Saney show its involvement in the trade networks in the eighth through tenth centuries on a scale only exceeded by Igbo Ukwu among known sub-Saharan sites. Additionally, salt was noted as a large part of the king's treasure at Gao. Supposedly, Gao controlled an underground salt mine, however, salt
1209-544: The oldest royal palace discovered in the region. The people of the Gao Empire spoke Songay, a language belonging of the Saharo-Sahelian branch of the Nile-Saharan Family. The language was originally brought into the region along the great Bend of the Niger as early as the sixth millennium BCE. Gao-Saney Gao-Saney , also spelled Gao-Sane , is an archaeological site near Gao in Mali . It
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1248-486: The queens of the time held significant political power and may have even been the head of matrilineal kin groups. Towards the end of the 13th century Gao lost its independence and became part of the expanding Mali Empire . What happened to the Zuwa rulers is not recorded. Archaeological evidence, however, shows that they likely took refuge downstream, as the architectural and epigraphic styles common in independent Gao up until
1287-586: The third century, and which were greatly valued in the Sudan and West African rainforest. Relative to its peers in Kanem and Wagadu , Gao was not a major center of the slave trade, although slavery was widely practiced domestically. The archaeological evidence suggests that there were two settlements on the eastern bank of the Niger: Old Gao situated within the modern town, to the east of the Tomb of Askia, and
1326-428: The time of Gao's first millennium occupation. Gao-Saney excavations demonstrate involvement of the site in glass and copper trade networks during the eighth to tenth centuries on a scale only exceeded by Igbo-Ukwu among known sub-Saharan sites. Archaeological digs show that Gao-Saney was occupied by roughly 700CE, and was a center of manufacturing, iron smelting, and trade with areas as far away as Mesopotamia . It
1365-559: The town as Kawkaw or Kuku. The earliest mention of Gao is by al-Khwārizmī who wrote in the first half of the 9th century. The two 17th century Songhai chronicles, the Tarikh al-Sudan and the Tarikh al-Fattash , provide information on the town at the time of the Songhai Empire but they contain only vague indications on the time prior to its writing. The chronicles do not, in general, acknowledge their sources. Their accounts for
1404-560: Was almost certainly the town known in historical accounts as Sarneh . Gao-Saney is a large settlement mound seven km distant from the royal town of Gao, and is thought to be the site of the ancient trading center. The site has produced extensive archaeological evidence from its first millennium occupation, with proposed chronology between 700 and 1100 CE. In modern day, the Gao region is too dry to sustain year-round habitation without digging deep wells, leading to speculation about different climate conditions, perhaps with increased rainfall, at
1443-657: Was an Arab Andalusian historian and a geographer of the Muslim West . Al-Bakri was born in Huelva , the son of the sovereign of a short-lived principality established there by his family when the Caliphate of Cordoba fell in 1031. Al-Bakri belonged to the Arab tribe of Bakr . When his father was deposed by al-Mu'tadid (1042–1069) of the ruler of Taifa of Seville , he then moved to Córdoba , where he studied with
1482-416: Was founded in the 7th century at the southern terminus of a trans-Saharan trade route powered by chariots. The route was dominated by Ibadi Berber merchants, who settled there. The area was also an important center for the local fishing communities. Gao grew between the eighth and tenth centuries, becoming a regional power surpassing even Wagadu . Al-Yaʿqūbī wrote in his Tarikh in around 872: There
1521-685: Was the southern terminus of a trade route powered by chariots that linked it to the Mediterranean. At some point no later than the early 10th century the Songhay king moved to the site of Gao Ancien, just north of the modern city on the bank of the Niger river and a few kilometers from Gao Saney. The kings of this period were of a lineage known as Qanda. Arabic sources from the 9th to 11th centuries frequently describe Gao as consisting of two towns. al-Idrisi , writing in around 1154, does not mention
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