1996. The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review. Journal of World Prehistory 10:...

Joumal of World Prehistory Vol. 10, No. 4, 1996

The Archaeolory of IslamAfrica: A Review

Timothy Insolll

in Sub-Saharan

The impact of Islam within sub-Saharan Africa has been profound.Archaeological evidence for contact with, and acceptance of, Islam is presentin most of the continent south of the Sahara, and ranges chronologically fromthe eighth to the tvventieth centuries A.D. Enormous diversity is apparent inthe archaeological remains encountered, direct evidence for Islam, mosques,insciptions, burials and funerary monuments, and complete settlements, andindirect evidence for contacts with the Islamic World, such as imported goodsof many kinds, and this illustrates the diversity which characterizessub-Saharan African Islam. Yet uniformity is often apparent in the Islamizationprocesses themselves: trade, proselytization, and to a lesser ertent, Jihad, orholy-wa4 information which can be gained from archaeolog and histoicalsources, and which is discussed in detail.

KEY WORDS: Islam; sub-Saharan Africa; archaeology; trade; social process.

INTRODUCTION :

Sub-Saharan Africa is a vast region, and,the archaeology of Islam anequally large subject.. The impact of this religion has been of fundamentalimportance in mucti of the continent, and has been felt on many fronts,not only ideologically, but economically and socially. There was often ashift from a pantheon of deities to a single God, local economies becametied into the Islamic World economy, and changes can be seen in housetypes, settlement patterns, diet, and funerary customs. With the adoptionof Arabic, literacy and new forms of administration resulted in politicalchange. Islam must be seen as more than a religion, it is a way of life,

1St John's College, Cambridge, CB2 1TB U.K.

439

0892-1 53'1 19611200-0439$09.50/0 o 1996 Plenum Publishing Corporation

with a complex set of rules structuring many aspects of life. Historicalsources provide us with the basic chronological framework of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa, yet we must turn to archaeolory to examine the diversesocial, political, and economic effects of conversion to Islam. At present,numerous historical syntheses and surveys exist (see, e.g., Tlimingham,1949, 1952, 1959, 1962, 1964, 1968; Hiskett 1994), brt a convenient sum-mary of the archaeological evidence has not yet been compiled. This paperhopes to redress the balance, in advance of a larger monographic synthesis(Insoll,1997).

However, it would be restrictive to concentrate only upon archaeologi-cal evidence in the strictest sense of the term. For this reason, architecturaland ethnographic data and sources are also drawn upon, and the historicalsurveys are used to provide contextual data where necessary. The archae-ological data itself varies, and includes both direct evidence for the pres-ence of Islam, for example, mosques and inscriptions, as well as indirectevidence, such as trade goods known to have originated in the IslamicWorld (glass, beads, glazed pottery, etc.). The adoption of a multidiscipli-nary approach is made more essential as the processes we are observingin the archaeological record, the spread and acceptance of Islam, are verymuch alive and ongoing today in many areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

The quantity o1reievant archaeological reseirch which has been con-ducted varies across the continent. Some areas can be said to have beenmore privileged than others, the East African Coast, for example, whileother equally important regions have been almost wholly neglected, largeareas of the Central Sudan, for example (Fig. t). The reasons for this im-balance in archaeological research are many and, from an overseas per-spective, include the perceived importance of the region, the visibility ofthe archaeological remains, the ease of working in the region, and the pres-ence of research institutes, which can facilitate archaeological fieidwork inmany ways. For this reason, the apparent lack of archaeological remainsin one region need not necessarily mean it was not subject to Islamic in-fluences but, rather, may be a reflection of the lack of archaeological re-search.

For the purposes of discussion the continent south of the Sahara hasbeen divided into seven regions: Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, the east-ern or Nilotic Sudan (the modern republic of this name), the East AfricanCoast, the Western Sahel, the Central Sudan (Sudan here refers to thevegetation belt), the West African Sudan (as before) and Forest, and finally,east-central and southern Africa (Fig. 1). Undeniably, any such division isin certain respects unsuitable, and its use does not mean that each regionwas a self-contained and isolated entity for the archaeology testifies to thelong-distanc-e trade and contacts which took place over vast distances. The

Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa

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geographical progression chosen in approaching the material broadly fol-iows the chronological pattern in the initial spread and acceptance of Islam;

starting with the Red Sea Coast and Nubia, the earliest zone of contact in

the seventh century (Ethiopia and the Horn and the Nilotic Sudan), to the

East African coast in the late eighth to ninth centuries (all dates are A.D.),and almost contemporaneously to the Western Sahel in the tenth century,

KEY

East African /nterior,Centra/ and Southern Africa

Ethiopia and the Horn

Eastprn or Milotic Sudanand Nubia

East African Coastand offshore /s/ands

The Centra/ Sudan

West African Sudanand Forest

Western Sahel

44t

Insoll.

then in the eleventh century to the Central Sudan, to the West AfricanSudan and Forest beginning in the twelfth century, and finally, on the otherside of the continent, to east-central and southern Africa in the nineteenthcentury.

t Islam

Having introduced sub-Saharan Africa, it is also necessary to brieflyoutline the central obligations of Islam by way of introduction. These arecontained in the Koran, and include the credo or Shahada, "There is noGod but God and Muhammed is the Prophet of God", the expression ofabsolute monotheism;. ritual prayer five times a day in the direction ofMecca (Salat); the fast (Saum) in the tenth month of the lunar year,Ramadan; giving between 2.5 and 10% of one's wealth to the needy, Zakat;and Hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca. Of especial importance to the archaeologistis the obligation of prayer. Although a mosque is not strictly necessary forprayer, it is considered meritorious to go to the mosque, especially for theFriday prayers, hence the existence in most Muslim settlements of one ormore congregational mosques, sometimes misnamed Friday mosques, .as

Besides the prohibitions and recommendations for everyday life con-tained in the Koran, more detailed instructions are provided by Shai'a,Islamic law, which draws upon as sources the Korqn and the Hadith, thesayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammed. Different approaches indrawing up the law led to the emergence of four legal schools-the Hanafi,Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali, all of which are Sunni, the adherents of Sunna(the way of the prophet). The other major group is the Shiites, followersof Ali, the assassinated fourth Caliph, and his descendants, who arose inthe mid-seventh century, out of conflicts over the nature and the legitimateidentity of the Caliphate, the highest political authority in Islam and theProphet's successor as leader of the Muslims.

The Spread and Impact of Islam?

What, then, are the issues examined in this paper? One of the mostimportant is the relationship between trade and Islam. To what degree didtrade act as the stimulus for, and agent of, the spread of Islam throughoutmuch of the continent, and how did Islam in turn affect the developmentof trading patterns? This trade took many forms; local, interregional andlong distance, traders ruthlessly seeking slaves, gold, and ivory for interna-

Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa 443

tional markets, or peacefully acquiring commodities such as kola nuts forlocal ones, and it was conducted by many different people, foreign mer-chants, and indigenous merchant groups. The sociopolitical impact of trademust also be considered, for it may be accompanied by proselytization orfollowed by holy wat, jihad.

A second major issue is the appeal of Islam itself. Can apparent simi-larities be seen in the spread and acceptance of Islam in many areas ofthe continent and among different socioeconomic groups? Initial convertsto Islam were often among the nomadic populations, for the ease of wor-ship which Islam enjoys (no formal clergy, etc.), and through their exposureto trade (as guides, for example). Local merchants were also primary con-verts to Islam often for trade-related reasons; being a Muslim could conferadvantages in trade (lesser taxes in the Dar al-Islam, for example), andbonds of trust with one's coreligionists could be built up. Town-dwellerswere also keen converts to Islam, as the religion appeals to the urban mindbeing universalistic in outlook and, thus, having the power to bring togetherthe different ethnic groups which often make up the population of the town(Ti'imingham, 1959). Local rulers also converted to Islam for the benefitsbeing a Muslim conferred, in administration (through the use of Arabicscript), in enhancing prestige and increasing magical power, and due togenuine belief in the tenets of Islam.

In contrast, a group can be identified which was frequently slower inconverting to Islam, the sedentary agriculturists who comprise the bulk ofthe population throughout much of the continent. Reasons for this aremany, and include a deliberate policy on the part of the ruling classes tokeep them ignorant of the new religion, until the threats it offered hadbeen assessed (of especial importance where divine kingship was con-cerned, which was in direct conflict with the notion of Allah, the one God).The appeal of Islam to the sedentary agriculturist was also less strong, forit does not sit so easily with the natural cycle of tending crops, livestock,and children-animism and traditional religious cults are ideally suited forfurnishing the means of comprehending and resolving such issues (Tiim-ingham, 1959; Bravmann,1974). While rates of conversion to Islam differedamong different socioeconomic groups, a certain commonalty in the con-version process is apparent.

Having examined the evidence for these similarities, we then seek torecognize and evaluate regional diversity. Islam in sub-Saharan Africa can-not be seen as a monolithic entity. The historical process covers a 1300-yearperiod, and no one area of the Islamic World has held a monopoly overcontacts with sub-Saharan Africa.

Finally, archaeology enables us to move beyond the historical issuesto examine those directly concerned with social process. Can we begin to

i

see not only the impact of Islam upon indigenous architecture, but alsosimilar changes wrought on, for example, diet and dietary habits? Havingrecognized that Islam is more than a religion, to what extent can the ar-chaeological evidence reveal the affect of religious conversion upon dailylife?

ETHIOPIA AND THE HORN OF AFRICA

Contacts across the Red Sea between the heartland of Islam, the Ara-bian Peninsula, and Ethiopia, predated the rise of Islam, as the pre-Axu-mite remains of the fifth-fourth centuries B.C. in the north EthiopianHighlands attest (Anfray, 1968, 1972). Tiade was conducted in variousproducts, slaves, aromatic resins, and ivory, and evidence at Axum indi-cates that trade links (albeit indirect) as far as Malaysia were maintainedbefore the fifth century A.D. (Hiskett, 1994, p. 135). These subsequentlydeclined, but the rise of Islam in the early seventh century injected newvitality. Contacts were continued, and it is recorded by the Prophet's bi-ographers that he sent a group of his followers to Axum in Ethiopia inA.D. 615, following their persecution in Mecca (Ahmed, 7993, p. 207).This event, the first Hijra (emigration), illustrates that connections be-tween the two regions existed from the very beginning of Islam. Evidencepertinent to all the major issues under discussion is found in this region,which sheds much light on the nature of Islam, the affects on social proc-ess, and the role of trade in spreading the religion. It is therefore all themore unfortunate that so little is known of the archaeology of early Islamin this region and that archaeological research has focused largely uponother subjects, the development of Christianity in Ethiopia, for example,to the detriment of research into Islam.

Included within this geographical region are the modern states ofEthiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia (see Fig. 2; the Somali coast southof Mogadishu is included in the next section for reasons described beiow).This is not a naturally homogeneous unit, but is composed of a variety ofdifferent environments, including semidesert and desert, home to nomadicpastoralists such as the Muslim Somali and Afar and, in contrast, the lusherEthiopian highlands, an ancient seat of Christianity (Tiimingham,1952, p.1).

Tlade was the vital factor in the spread of Islam in this region. Thefirst direct archaeological evidence we have for the presence of a Muslimcommunity within the Horn of Africa is a group of over 200 Arabic funeraryinscriptions on basalt, executed in the Kufic script (and later derivations),which date from A.D. 911 to A.D. 1539. These were recovered frorn Dahlak


Fig 2. Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.

el-Kebir, the principal island of the Dahlak Archipelago in the Gulf ofMassawa opposite the Red Sea port of Adulis (Ttimingham, lgsz, p. 170;cerulli, 1992, p.280) (Fig. 2). This arid group of islands, which berweenthe tenth and the midthirteenth centuries was home to an independentMuslim sultanate (Hiskett, 1.994, p.137), was used as a place of political

ETHIOPIAlndia't

Ocean

exile from the early eighth century and was an important center of RedSea trade. They played a specific roie in the slave trade, as indicated bynumerous rock-cut water cisterns, dug to provide water for a transient slavepopulation. Numerous graves, a stone town, two mosques, settlementmounds, and a single Qubba (domed) tomb indicate the former importanceof Dahlak el-Kebir (Bassat, 1893, p. 81; Wiet, L951; Oman,1974, p.256).

The Dahlak Islands were at the beginning of a trade route leadinginto the interior of Eritrea and Ethiopia. Muslim communities grew upalong these interior trade routes, which until the tenth century were tribu-tary to the Christian population (Hiskett, 1994, p. 137). Of interest is thefact that Islam never held the appeal to the predominantly agriculturistsettled population of the highlands, which it did to the nomads of the low-lands, supporting the notion of different rates of conversion, depending onthe degree of upheaval involved. Allied with this is the existence of a deep-seated Orthodox Christian tradition in the Highlands, beginning with theconversion of the Axumite King, Ezana, between A.D. 320 and A.D. 350(Hiskett, 1994, p.135). Archaeological evidence for an inland Muslim pres-ence has been found. In Tigray province (Ethiopia) further basalt stelaebearing inscriptions in Arabic were recorded dating from the eleventh-twelfth centuries (Schneider, 1967; Anfray, L990, p. 156-157), and in theChristian monastery of Dabra Damo (also in Tigray) several Egyptian tex-tile fragments from the ninth-eleventh centuries were discovered (Mordini,1957), providing an instructive example that the presence of goods orig!nating from the Islamic world need not be indicative of the concomitantacceptance of the religion.

To the south a trade route led from the port of Zeila into thenorth/central Horn (Fig. 2). This route was of equal importance in the grad-ual process of disseminating Islam away from the coast, which, Hiskett(1994, pp.137-139) argues, was sufficiently Islamized by the tenth centuryto be considered part of the Dar al-Islam. By the t'welfth century, Islamicconversion among the nomadic population in the hinterland surroundingZeila was well advanced, as in Somalia and on the east African littoral.Archaeology attests to this gradual process of Islamization: substantial set.tlement remains have been recorded at Zeila, and on the neighboring islandof Saad-Din, and Curle (1,937) describes Zeila as covered in the remainsof its former splendor (it was burned by the Portuguese in A.D. 1516),sherds of Chinese Celadon wares and 'Arab" glazed pottery and glass. AtSaad-Din, further sherds of Chinese porcelain (twemth-fifteenth centuries),the remains of houses, and an associated cistern were recorded in thesouthwestern corner of the island (Curle, 1937, pp.316,325; Mathew, 1956,p. s1).


From Zeila and other Red Sea ports, camel caravans traversed thedesert to the highlands, traveling between a chain of permanent settle-ments, situated on the hills which studded the desert plains and along theArusi and Harar highlands (Kidane and Wilding, 1976, p. 16). WithinEthiopia, several of these fortified but largely abandoned trading settle-ments have recently been investigated; in the southern Danakil and Ogadenstone-built hilltop settlements attributed to a "settled Islamic community"were recorded (providing a contrast to the nomadic Muslim population)and tentatively dated to the fourteenth-fifteenth centuries by the presenceof sherds of Chinese celadon and Indian glass (Wilding, 1980, p. 379). Simi-lar sites on the Harar/Chercher ridge were also examined, where mosqueswere recorded (number and date unspecified), and other settlements werenoted in the Haud and central Ogaden (Wilding, n.d., pp. 1-2). Some ofthese settlements were perhaps linked with the Sultanate of Adal, whichdeveloped in the late fourteenth century and was centered on the city ofHarar (Mathew, 1956, p. 51; Chittick, 1976, pp. 128-129).

Significant conversions to Islam in the Ethiopian interior had evidentlybegun, and a historical source records that the Argobba people of theHarar region converted in A.D. 1108 (Hiskett,1994, pp. 138-139). Unfor-tunately Harar today is of no great antiquity (Wilding, 1976), although Hor-ton (1994a, p. 197) suggests that through their name or association, thefoundation date of five of the mosques in Harar (there were originally 86)can be placed in the thirteenth century, and at least two in the sixteenthcentury. By the first half of the fourteenth century, Al-Umari recorded thatthere were seven Muslim Sultanates in Ethiopia. The growth in Muslimpower led to frictions and the relations between the Christian and Muslimcommunities were not always cordial. Conflict occurred, as with the Sul-tanate of Ifat over the control of long distance trade routes, and is exem-plified by the Jihad led by Ahmad Gran against the Christian highlands inthe first quarter of the sixteenth century (Hiskett, 1994, p. 1.41).

In Somalia, where large numbers of people had converted to Islam byA.D. 1300 (Hiskett, 1994, p. 139), further of these inland Muslim tradingsettlements are reported by Curle (1937) and Chittick (1976, pp. 128-129),and three were trial-excavated by Mathew (1956). They contained between20 and 200 houses of roughly dressed stone bonded with termite earth,with tkre mosques unique in being built with lime mortar. Several cemeter-ies, none yielding inscriptions, were found. Quantities of Chinese Porcelain(t'welfth-early sixteenth centuries), along with numerous glass trade beadsand several coins (late fourteenth-fifteenth centuries), were also recovered(Curle, 1937, pp. 31.6-322; Mathew, 1,956, p. 51). Tiade was again the agentof Islamization, and this archaeological evidence indicates the extent of thecommerce which existed between the interior and the coast. At present

similar information on settlements within Djibouti is lacking, and furtherinvestigation of the protohistorical and historical archaeology is needed [seeFerry et al., (1981) for a brief summary of existing research].

It was on the coast that Muslim power in the Horn of Africa wasconcentrated, and indeed this presence spread both up the Red Sea Coastand down the East African Coast. Thus on the coast of Somalia furtherevidence for the presence of Muslim trading communities is found. Thesecommunities were split into two nominal zones, with the area north ofMogadishu known to the Arabic geographers as "Barbar" or "Berbera,"which possibly equates with the land then inhabited by the Somali (Lewis,1966), while south of Mogadishu was the land of "Zanj" (Chittick, 1971,p. 1.12), a distinction which is followed here, the description of the Islamicarchaeology on the southern Somali coast being included in the East Af-rican Coast section (Figs. 2 and 4).

Our knowledge of the Islamic archaeology of the coast north ofMogadishu is imprecise. Material originating from Indian Ocean trade hasbeen found, as at Ras Hafun, the easternmost point in Africa, where sherdsoriginally interpreted by Chittick (1976) as Sasanian-Islamic ware were sub-sequently correctly identified by Smith and Wright (1988) as earlierParthian and Sasanian wares. Otherwise, the Islamie archaeological remainswhich have been recorded are late in date, with the mosque at Warsheikh,for example, dating from the nineteenth century (Chittick, 1.976, p. 122).

Mogadishu was visited by the famous Moroccan traveler Ibn Battutain A.D. 1331, who described it as "a fully Islamic state": previously, in A.D.1269 it was mentioned as an Islamic Sultanate (Hiskett, 1994,p.139). Ofimportance is the apparatus of state described by Battuta: the Muslim ruler,Islamic court, and Muslim functionaries. Previous systems had disappeared,to be replaced by effective Muslim administration, a direct example of thesocial impact of Islam within sub-Saharan Africa. The origins and devel-opment of Mogadishu have been investigated in some detail by Chittick(1977,1976,1982), who surveyed the town and the region along the coastbetween Mogadishu and Zeila. Mogadishu appears to have been foundedin the late twelfth century and peaked in the thirteenth-fourteenth centu-ries. Test excavation in Hamar Weyne, part of the old town, provided Sgraf-fiato ware of twelfth-century date. A number of dated tombs(thirteenth-fourteenth centuries) were also recorded, as were three mosqueinscriptions, including one of A.D. lZ38 on the Jami, or congregationalmosque (Chittick, 7982, pp.54-60). Several thousand coins have also been"collected" from this area of the Somali coast, the majority from the vicinityof Mogadishu (Freeman-Grenville, 1963). These date predominantly fromca. A.D. 1300 to A.D. 1700 and though they largely lack contextual data,

449Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa

they provide information on the local dynasties, and on interregional and

Indian Ocean trade.

SummarY

Islam within the Horn of Africa has the earliest time depth, almost

synonymous with the development of the religion itself. Pre-Islamic trade

u..o$ the Red Sea facilitated contacts, and hence this narrow body of water

snouta not be perceived, as is sometimes the case, as a physical barrier.

Equally importantly, the existence of another great "religion of the book,"

tfre anlieni Christianity of Ethiopia, has contributed to the unique charac-

ter of Islam in this ."gion, where, in contrast to the Nilotic Sudan, it con-

tinues to thrive today. Tfre Islamic archaeological remains found in the

Horn of Africa ar", iik" those of the Nilotic Sudan, diverse in character,

comprising coastal and highland, nomadic and sedentary remains. However,

alttrougtr 'diversity

can be recognized, the greater appe,ll of Islam to the

no*u{ is evideni: in the interircr, distant from the trading centers of the

coast, Islam has always been largely represented by the nomadic popula-

tions, the Beja, Somali, and Afar (Hiskett, 1994, p' 1'42)'

THE NILOTIC SUDAN AND NUBIA

The modern Republic of the sudan is the largest country in Africa,

covering over 2,500,d00 km2. The size of the country is reflected in the

mosaic of ethnic and cultural groups found; from nomadic Arab pastoralists

in the deserts of the north, through the extensive sahelian and savannah

zonss, and into the predominantly animist and black south, a region of

swamps and equatorial forest. Many cultures have been shoe-horned into

inappiopriate colonial boundaries. Yet, as with the Horn of Africa, it is

also'u rlgion of early Islamic contacts: in Nubia, where initial conflict be-

trveen Muslims and Christians in the seventh century eventually gave way

to several centuries of uneasy truce, before the disappearance of Christi-

anity altogether, and on the Red Sea coast, where Muslim trading com-

*uniti", -upp"u. to have been resident from as early as the mideighth

century.Tirroughout this vast country flow the tributaries of the Nile. It would

be reassuring to say that this lends an essential unity to the archaeology

of Islam within the region, but it does not. Many forms of Islam are evident,

from the deeply animist-influenced Islam of Darfur, central Sudanic in

character, to ifr" puritanical Islam of the Mahdist state in the nineteenth

century. The geographical and ethnic diversity is thus reflected in the ar-chaeology of Islam, and discussion can be conveniently divided into threesections: in the east, the Red Sea coast and Beja country; in the center,Nubia and the Nile region, stretching from Egyptian Nubia south to theUgandan border and encompassing southern Sudan; and finally, Darfur inthe west (Fig. 3).

The Red Sea Coast and Beja Country

The earliest lslamic archaeological remains in the Nilotic Sudan arefound on the Red Sea Coast (Fig. 3). Ttade is again fundamental and theprimary reason for the presence of Muslims, but it is also correct to say

that in their initial phases of occupation, the trade centers and ports whichwere established on the coast were divorced from the interior. These cen-ters served as feeder stations for Red Sea trade, transshipping productsfrom the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf on their way to Egypt, and viceversa. Little direct influence was exerted on the interior. Only later, withthe growth in the Muslim community in the interior of the Nilotic Sudan,and with the expansion in east-west connections acioss the Sudanic belt,did they become more closely connected with the interior through the slavetrade and pilgrim traffic, across the Red Sea, via Jeddah, to Mecca.

The most northerly of these centers was Aidhab, which is situated closeto the modern Egyptian border. It prospered through general Red Seatrade, through proximity to the Wadi Allaqi gold mines, and owing to itsposition opposite Jeddah, through the aforementioned pilgrim traffic.Three distinct settlement zones have been identified archaeologically; theport itself, an area of coral houses linked with the port, and an area coveredwith ceramic scatters which was interpreted as the former site of noma.dencampments. Possibly the most exciting fact is that Aidhab provides physi-cal testamentfor Hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca, and one of the five pillars ofIslam; specific evidence attesting to this included numerous cisterns andwells, and extensive cemeteries, way beyond the needs of the local com-munity (see Paul, 1955; Elisseeff and El Hakim, 1981).

Suakin, also an important Red Sea port, is recorded historically as be-ing on the route the family of the murdered Caliph, Marwan, took on theirflight south from Egypt to Axum in A.D. 750 (Bloss, 1936, p.279). Thiswould suggest the presence of either a Muslim community or a populationamenable to Muslims at an early date. It was subsequently to become animportant Ottoman settlement, rendered redundant in 1902 by Port Sudan,but still partially standing (Matthews, 1953; Chittick, 1981; Greenlaw, 1995).

lslam in Sulr-Saharan Africd 45L

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Further ports are to be found south of Suakin on the Red Sea Coast.

These include Badi-Airi on Er-Rih Island, which appears to have been used

between the seventh and the eleventh centuries, and Old Akik on BahdurIsland, where ruined houses and a fort, cistern, and mosque were recorded(undated). Er-Rih flourished through the export of commodities obtainedboth from the interior, such as ivory, and from the Red Sea, pearls andtortoiseshell, for example. Various remains testiS to its former prosperity,including houses built of coral blocks set with mortar, numerous cisternsused to collect rainwater and, north of the town, cemeteries where inscrip-tions of tenth- and eleventh-century dates were found (Crowfoot, 1911, pp.543-455; Herbert, 1935; Paul, 1952, p. 56).

In direct contrast to the cosmopolitan inhabitants of the coastal tradecenters are the Beja: Hamitic-speaking, nomadic pastoralists who occupiedthe country between the Nile and the Red Sea, from Aswan almost as faras Massawa in Eritrea. These people traded with Nubia, Axum, and thecoast but were not under their cultural and political influence. Gradually,through a combination of contact with Muslim traders and with migratingArab tribes moving south from Egypt in search of new grazing lands, theBeja were Islamized between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries (Hasan,1966, pp. 1.17-119; Hiskett, 1994, p. 67). Thus, the dual connection of tradeand Islam, and nomads and Islamic acceptance is again apparent. Archae-ological evidence for the presence of Muslims within Beja country is foundat Knor Nubt, 90 km inland from Suakin, where several early Islamic graveswere reported with an Arabic inscription dated to A.D. 861 (Bloss, 1936,p. 279; Horton, 1994a, p. 195). Perhaps of greater interest is a variety ofother types of Islamic funerary monuments: undated single storey "tower"tombs at Jebel Maman, north of Kassala, and near Khor Garrar Iswid,north of Port Sudan (Crowfoot, 1922; Madigan, 1,922), and triple storeytower tombs at Assarema Derheib (Crowfoot, 1911; Paul, 1952). Thesemonuments, which remain little understood, offer an opportunity of exam-ining local adaptation of Islamic burial rites and the direct influence ofIslam upon local material culture and, thus, deserve, as yet unforthcoming,detailed study.

Nubia, the Nile, and Southern Sudan

Again different in character from the Red Sea Coast and Beja countryis Nubia, where contacts with Muslim Arabs, both peaceful and aggressive,began almost immediately after the conquest of Egypt by Arab armies inA.D. 641. In Nubia statehood was well advanced long before the appear-ance of Islam. The Kingdom of Nubia was Christian by the sixth century,and stretched from Aswan to Khartoum, the name of its central province,Makuria, being applied by the Arabs to the whole of Nubia, al-Maqurra


(Hiskett, 1994, p.67)' This region offers an unparalleled opportunity for

ihe archaeological study of the material effects of the imposition of Islam

"fo" u culturJsubject to a pre-existing World religion, and the implications

for the archaeology of Islam are of great importance, not merely with direct

regard to the arclaeological study of religion, but economically, militarily,

an? po[tically. While tf,is has not yet been attempted, the region, being

the best archaeologically documented areas of sub-Saharan Africa, provides

sufficient data to enable such a study to be undertaken in the future.

Essentially, christianity acted as a block to Islamic penetration for sev-

eral centuries, with the firit "substantial Islamic political entity" (Hiskett,

1994, p.68), the Banu Kanz, not established south of Aswan until the elev-

enth'century. This act, it can be suggested, allied with the increasing mi-

gration of nomadic Arab tribes into the region, provided the impetus for

istam to spread at the expense of Christianity. The Islamic.archaeology of

Nubiahasbeenreviewedbyw.Y.Adams(1987),whodividedtheregioninto three Islamic cultural ,or"t, each exhibiting their own character: the

now flooded Kenzi or Kenzu region in northern Nubia, an area of orthodox

deeply rooted Islam; south oi this, between Kenzi and the Abri-Delgo

R"u.t , a zone with iittle archaeological evidence for Islam in an area in

which the penetration of Islam was late in date; and finally, south of Abri,,,the realm of traditional Sudanese Islam" (w Y.Adams, 1987, p' 343)

after A.D. 1300.

All categories of site are represented, and within the stretch of the

Nile above the Batn el-Hajjar in Lower Nubia, the three main Ottoman

f-titi"a urban centers of Firas, Jebel Adda, and Qasr Ibrim were located

(Fig. 3). Qasr Ibrim, which is situated in Egyptian Nubia, was occupied for

u titui of nearly 3000 years, and served in its Muslim incarnation as an

ottoman frontier post betrrueen ca. A.D.1560 and A.D. 1811. Exceptional

preservation of oiganics, including numerous Turkish and Arabic docu-

ments, has allowed detailed reconstruction of the life of the Ottoman "Bos-

nian,,garrison(seeN.Adams,1990;Alexander,t994).Houseswererebuiltaccordlng to Islamic tradition, focusing attention on the interior to preserve

privacy, "and

the christian cathedral was converted into a mosque (Alex-

una"t,1988,p.86;Horton,1994a,p.198)'Thissiteprovidesanexcellentcase-study of^the imposition of Islam upon preexisting christian tradition,

with many interesting implications for the study of changes in social proc-

ess, though the final report is still awaited'

South of Qasr Ibrim in the second-third cataract area (Batn el-Hajjar,

Abri-Delgo), further fortified sites have been reported. At Kulubnarti, a

fortified Lorrr" o, "castle" (Kourfa) was recorded, and a sister garrison to

Qasr Ibrim existed on Say'Island (Vercoutter, 1958; W Y' Adams' 1987'

pp. ::+_::s). Further *oi4a are found in the Dongola reach south of the

454 Insoll

third cataract, a region beyond Ottoman control (Crawford, 1951) and anarea of robber barons (Iliffe, 1995, p. 56). Christian Nubia suffered a majorsetback following the defeat of its army by the Mamluks in A.D. 1276, andby ca. A.D.1500 it had completely disappeared (Hiskett, \994, p. 69). AtOld Dongola, the former capital of the Nubian kingdom, a Muslim NubianKing was installed in A.D. L316, though the town had been unsuccessfullybesieged by an Arab force as early as A.D. 651-652 (Hasan, 1966, p. 774).

Further opportunities for research into the Islamic period remains exist inOld Dongola, as they also do at Soba, the capital of the Christian kingdornof Alwa, where the existence of a Muslim quarter was recorded as earlyas the tenth century. However, another example of the conversion of a

Christian church into a mosque, at Old Dongola, has been investigated,producing an interesting plan with an unusual mihrab, or prayer niche(Godlewski and Medeksza, 1987; Horton 1994a, p. 198).

A further dimension to the archaeology of Islam within Nubia and theNile is provided by the Funj, who controlled an area stretching from theRed Sea Coast to Kordofan, and from Sennar to Dongola, between thesixteenth and the eighteenth centuries (Hiskett, 1994, pp. 69-70). The Funjare of particular interest, as they were only nominally Islamized yet influ-enced non-Muslim areas, such as the Shilluk territo.ry (with all the resultantmaterial culture implications), and were African rather than Arab. Theirpermanent capital, established after their conversion to Islam in the earlyseventeenth century, was at Sennar, where an unusual five-storey fired-brickpalace has been recorded. Here, Islamization was via proselytization by na-tive Holy-men, working individually, who spread out through the country-side (Horton, 1994a, pp. 198-199). Thus we see an instance of what appearsto be a wholly indigenous process, with the adaptation of Islam to suit thelocal situation.

Again in complete contrast, the Mahdist state of the late nineteenthcentury must also be mentioned, as representative of yet another variantof Islam, described as a "stark Islamic theocracy, modeled on early Pro-phetic precedents" (Hiskett, 1994, p. 72). Jihad was preached and Islamicrevival was initiated, as had occurred in west Africa (discussed below) ear-lier in the century. This, one of the final shows of Islamic opposition toEuropean (and Egyptian) rule, was abruptly terminated at the battle ofOmdurman in A.D. 1898. Of the Mahdist capital, Holt (1979, pp.249-250)mentions that one of the gateways of the wall surrounding Omdurman sur-vives.

Finally, in this geographical section, the southern Sudan presents an-other dimension in the relationship between Islam and the African conti-nent and, therefore, has implications for the archaeological record. Theborder between the Muslim and animist peoples in the southern Sudan is


placed by Tiimingham (1949) at Banjang, near Renk, on the White Nile(Fig. 3). But such a defined boundary is perhaps too constricting, and Is-lamization today is certainly an ongoing process, with a virtual lihad taktngplace in the form of the long-running conflict led by the northern Islamicgovernment forces against the south. Although it might seem that an evalu-ation of Islamization in the southern Sudan is the realm of the anthropolo-gist, or at best the ethnoarchaeologist, the reverse is true, as Islam has aconsiderable time depth in many areas of the region. Among the Nuba,for example, usually cited as strictly animist, Islamic influence has beenpresent for several centuries. Tiade meant that Muslim merchants traveledsouth from towns such as Dongola, and even established settlements in theNuba mountains, as at Sheibun in the late eighteenth century (Stevenson,1963, p. 10). Hence even here the impact of Islam was felt, albeit to a

limited degree.

Darfur

Our third geographical unit, Darfur, presents yet another dimensionto the archaeology of Islam in the Nilotic Sudan. Ethnically divorced fromNubians, Arabs, Beja, and the Southern Nilotes, it forms part of the greatsweep of savannah stretching westward as far as Mali (Fig. 3), a fact illus-trated not only environmentally but also demographically, as some of theethnic groups in Darfur (e.9., Zaghawa, Masalit) extend into neighboringChad. Thus it is difficult to divorce the archaeolory of Islam in Darfurfrom that of the Central Sudan, and it can in many respects be consideredas a continuation of the same. However, we are fortunate in that the ar-chaeology of Islam in Darfur is rather better known than that of adjacentcountries and, indeed, of many neighboring regions of the Nilotic Sudan(e.g., Kordofan to the east).

When exactly the beginnings of Islamic influence in Darfur can besaid to start is not certain. Hiskett (1994, p.70) describes the area as an"indeterminate frontier," only faintly Islamized until the early nineteenthcentury. Mohammed (1986) is more exact, he places the beginning of Is-lamic influence at Darfur in ca. A.D. 1000, with three phases of Islamiza-tion being apparent. The first, between A.D. 1100 and A.D. 1.600, was aperiod when Darfur was ruled by two dynasties, the Daju (tenth-latetwelfth centuries) and the Tirnjur (ca. A.D.1200-1590), a period when Is-lam was of little importance. Archaeological evidence suppbrts this, non-existent for the presence of Islam under the Daju, but slightly moreinformative for the Tirnjur. At Uri, the first Tirnjur capital, a stone mosque,possibly dating from ca. A.D. 1200, was recorded which, it has been sug-

gested, may be an indicator of the adoption of Islam as the court religion(Balfour Paul, 1955, p. 18; see Arkell, 1946; Balfour-Paul, 1954a). At AinFarah, the capital of the last Tunjur ruler, Shau Dorshid, a red-brick "pal-ace-citadel" and mosque were recorded (Arkell, 1936; De Neuville andHoughton, 1965).

In the second phase of Islamization, from A.D. 1600 to A.D. 1800,Darfur was ruled by the Keira (Fur) dynasty, which was certainly Muslim,and Islam appears to have spread beyond the court circle (Mohammed1986, p. 224). Trade flourished at this time, via the Darb el-Arbein to Egypt,and across the savannahs of the Central Sudan to west Africa, follo*ingthe pilgrim route. Various Keira sultans' palaces, or fashe4 have been re-corded. These vary in size but follow a common form: a cluster or row offlat-roofed round stone huts surrounded by a wall containing two opposingentrances (Arkell, 1937, pp. 96-97; Balfour-Paul, 1955, p. 21).The peripa-tetic nature of palace construction ceased in the late seventeenth centurywhen El-Fasher on Lake Tenderti was chosen as the political capital bySultan Rashid (Arkell; 1966, pp. 213-214), which also suggests changes inpolitical structure, perhaps under the increasing influence of Islam. An-other indicator of Islamic influence appears to be the use of fired-brick ina rash of construction across the Central Sudan in the eighteenth-nine-teenth centuries, Darfur included, as in the mos{ue and palace at Shoba(Balfour-Paul, 1954b; Reed, 1994).

Finally, in the nineteenth century Darfur assumed the character of apowerful and prosperous Islamic sultanate (Hiskett, 1994, p. 70). It wasalso at this point in time, almost 600 years after the first contacts withIslam, that the animist tint to Fur Islam was eradicated to be replaced bymore orthodox Islam, in a process replicated across the Sudanic zone dur-ing this century, from, as discussed later, Futa Toro on the River Senegalin the west, and through the Central Sudan.

Summary

Islam within the Sudan is extremely diverse in character, as is the ar-chaeology of Islam within the region. A mosaic of cultures.and ethnicgroups is represented, and Islamization processes have taken many formsand spanned many centuries-ranging from Christian Nubian skirmisheswith the first Arab armies to conquer Egypt in the midseventh century tothe Mahdist state of the late nineteenth century. Here, trade, jihad andconquest, and peaceful proselytization have all contributed to the spreadof Islam. This is also a region where a preexisting World religion, Christi-anity, has disappeared altogether, never having had the geographical de-


fenses offered by the Ethiopian Highlands, where, as we have seen, chris-tianity continues to thrive. Furthermore, many variants of Islam are, or havebeen evident. In Darfur Islam was animist influenced and central sudanicin character, in the vast tracts of land bordering the Nile it was austere,nomadic, Arab, and Beja, along the coast it was cosmopolitan, while in thearea formerly covered by christian Nubia it developed its own unique char-acter. The diversity is rich and, in many areas, awaits detailed study.

THE EAST AFRICAN COAST AND OFFSHORE ISLANDS

Below the Horn of Africa lies the East African coast, a region ofsub-Saharan Africa from which we have one of the best bodies of archae-ological evidence for the arrival, spread, and acceptance of Islam from asearly as the mideighth century. As a result of the relatively large quantitiesof archaeological data we possess, only the most significant sites are con-sidered here. To give an idea of the amount of data involved, Horton (1987,p. 290) states that 400 Islamic archaeological sites have been recorded inthis geographical region (for more detailed breakdown, see AIen, 1980, p.361; Wilson,l9B2; Horton and Clark, 1985). The East African Coast isalso a region where new research is leading to much questioning of oldermodels. The origins of the Swahili, the impact of Islam away from the coastbefore the nineteenth century, and pre-Islamic trade are all being reevalu-ated, with profound implications for the study of the archaeology of Islamin the area. In approaching the material the region is divided into foursections: firstly, a discussion of the archaeologl of Islam within the wholeregion prior to A.D. 1000 and, secondly, three geographical reviews-thedrier north coast, the lusher south coast, with the border placed approxi-mately on the modern Kenyan/fanzanian frontier, and finany, the far is-lands of the comoros and Madagascar (Fig. a). Excepting the offshoreislands, the coastal division is in broad agreement with the geographicaldescription of the East African coast provided by al-Idrisi, ca. A-D.-1154,"Barbar" north of Mogadishu, and already described, ,,Zanji, south ofMogadishu to Pemba Island, and "Sofala," the source of gold, south of this(Hiskett, 1994, p. 1.53).

contacts with the wider world predated the rise of Isram, and tradingvoyages along the East African coast were made, but these remain, as yet,little understood. with the rise of Islam, trade contacts from the Red Sea,India, Arabia, china, and the Persian Gulf increased significantry, as com-modities such as gold from southern Africa, ivory, timber, and siuu"s *"r"sought, and in return finished goods such as metalwork, glassware, beads,glazed ceramics, and cloth were imported. It was also within this region

458 Insoll

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COMORO ISLANDS

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Fig. 7.1; Dewar and Wright, 1993, Fig. 8).


that Swahili civilization developed, the origins of which are the subject ofmuch debate. A cultural complex possibly developed in some areas as earlyas the eighth century (Juma, 1996), though other observers place the fulldevelopment of the Swahili much later, in the thirteenth century (Hiskett,1994, p. 161).

Pre A.D. 1000

The impact of Islam within this period was not immense. Muslims ap-pear to have been small in number and confined to a few trading centers,some of which they may also have had a hand in establishing. The delayin Islam reaching the East African Coast, compared to the Horn of Africa,has been explained by the fact that land routes were not operating, and itwas more problematical to go around the Horn and down the coast thanacross the Red Sea (Hiskett,1994, p. 151). Although this would appear tobe partly correct, late Roman pottery has recently been recovered fromthe site of Unguja Ukuu on Zanzibar island (Juma,1996), which appearsto indicate that such trading voyages were not always so problematical.However, geographical distances from the central lands of Islam weregreater than those from the Nilotic Sudan and the Horn of Africa, andthus contacts with Islam were initially intermittent. However, by A.D. 750,al-Masudi records that Muslims (Arabs or Persians) were living at Qanbalu(Hiskett, 1994, p. 1.52), a site which has yet to be located, but which couldbe any one of a number of contenders.

The earliest archaeological evidence for Islam on the East AfricanCoast comes from Shanga in the Lamu archipelago in northern Kenya (Fig.4), where Muslim burials dated to ca. A.D.800, and a sequence of seventimber and one stone mosques was found, with the earliest mosque datedto ca. A.D. 750-780. This small rectangular timber structure could holdonly 25 or so worshippers, and illustrates that a small Muslim communitywas living in a predominantly non-Muslim society (Horton, 1987,1991,, p.105). Over the following 150 years the Muslim congregation grew in size,

and eventually a stone (porites coral) mosque was built, which in turn was

superseded by a larger congregational mosque still in use when the townwas abandoned ca. A.D.1425 (Horton,199L, p. 108). The early occupationlevels also contained evidence for timber structures, which the excavatorhas argued were the predecessors of over 200 stone houses which werealso recorded (Horton, 1987, p.300), thereby illustrating the essentially in-digenous development both of the Swahili stone house and of Swahili so-ciety in general (for an alternative interpretation, see Donley-Reid, 1990).A variety of archaeological evidence indicated participation in long-distance

KENYA

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commerce. Besides imported ceramics, these included locally minted silver

coins, several dating from pre A.D. 1000, and a bronze lion of possible

Indian, or "Indian Ocean," origin (Horton 7987; Horton and Blurton, 1988,

p.22; Brown, L992).The aforementioned site of Unguja Ukuu is also of importance, and

perhaps the mythical Qanbalu. Here, occupation spanned the period be-

tween the fifth and the late tenth centuries (Juma, 1996, p. 148). Farther

south, on the Tanzanian coast, the settlement at Kilwa, a major Swahili

trade center, was occupied at an early, but somewhat later date, beginning

in the ninth century (Chittick, 1974; Sutton, 1990). Even farther south, at

Chibuene in southern Mozambique, four burials, also of ninth-century date,

were found, one of which appeared to have been oriented according toIslamic rites, which led the excavator to state that "if so it could be theearliest known Islamic burial on the East African Coast" (Sinclair, 1983,

1987, p. 87). Nearby, at Ponta Dundo, three fragments of ninth-century

Sasanian Islamic ware were collected from the surface.

Offshore on the Comoros, the inhabitants of the four major islands

of Ngazidja (Grand Comoro), Mwali (Moheli), Ndzuwani (Anjouan), and

Maore (Mayotte) were certainly involved in long-distance Indian Ocean

trade during the ninth-tenth centuries, and were linked commercially withthe East African Coast and indirectly with the Persian Gulf (Fig. 4). The

recovery of imported ceramics, including Sasanian Islamic wares (ninth cen-

tury) and splashed tin glaze, attests to this (Wright, 1984; Allibert et al.,

1990; Chanudet, 1991). However, it would appear that the majority of Co-morians, if Muslims, were not strict Muslims at this time (Wright, L984, p.

57); analysis of the faunal assemblage from ninth-century levels at Dembenishowed that lemurs and tortoise, animals which are taboo to a Muslim,were being consumed (Allibert et al., 1990, p. 66), and non-Muslim burialswere found at the site of M'Beni (Ngazidja) (Wright, 1984, p. 23). However,general factors of nonobservance should always be considered when lookingat such evidence.

These examples, though not exhaustive, are the most important, as

they provide evidence both for participation in long-distance trade and

for the presence of Muslims on the East African Coast before A.D.1000. They support the historical sources, such as al-Masudi's mentionthat gold was being obtained from the Zanj by the mid-tenth century(Hiskett, 1.994, p. 752). Trade was again acting as the agent of Islami-zalion, "maritime trade favored by the seasonal monsoons" (Horton,7994a, p. 199), and Islam was gradually making inroads into the region,with undoubtedly small numbers of local conversions to the Muslimfaith also taking place.


Post A.D. 1000

The Nonh Coast

Tiade increased in importance after A.D. 1000, and Islamization ofthe coast proceeded rapidly, with Islam becoming the majority religion ca.A.D. 1100 among the Swahili (Horton, 1994a, p. 199). Numerous settlementsites are found along the Somali, Kenyan, and Thnzanian coastal strip andon the offshore islands. Commonly, evidence for long-distance trade is pre-sent, ceramics from China, Arabia, and the Persian Gulf and glass beadsof Indian Origin, all evidently accompanied by increasing prosperity. Thisis reflected in the use of elaborate cut coral, stone architecture, with thestone towns at their most prosperous in the fourteenth-fifteenth centuries.Muslim congregations had increased in size, and each settlement had acongregational mosque and, often, several smaller ward mosques. A localSwahili mosque style evolved, utilizing a rectangular prayer hall, with eitheran even number of columns and a central aisle giving a view of the mihrabor an odd number of rows and no central aisle. These varied greatly indecoration, but the basic plan was derived from small mosques dating fromthe ninth-tenth centuries which have been found in the Persian Gulf, as

at the site of Siraf (Horton, 1994a, pp. 199-200). Stone houses, palaces,and various other structures were also built (Garlake, 1966; Chittick,1971).

Examples of these stone towns on the northern part of the coast in-clude Shanga, already mentioned, and which continued to be occupied,other important Swahili sites in the Lamu Archipelago include Manda,Pate, Lamu, and nearby, Ungwana (Kirkman, 1966; Ghaidan, t976; Chit-tick, 1984; Horton, 1987). Farther to the north, into southern Somalia, acontinuation of the stone architectural tradition occurs: a mosque atMunghia, various monuments on the Bajun Islands, and several Muslimtombs at Bur Gao, dating from the t\4/elfth to the nineteenth centuries(Chittick, 1969; Sanseverino, 1983). This, the upper end of the north coast,is a very important region as regards Swahili origins, as it was from theLamu Archipelago and the modern Somali/Kenyan border that the Swahiliianguage may have first spread in the ninth century (see Sutton, 1991).Farther south is Gedi (Kirkman,1.963,1964), one of the best known of allthe stone towns, which represent the florescence of the Swahili civilization,completely Islamized yet, at the same time, exhibiting their own distinctivecharacter. However, it should also be borne in mind that not all Muslimslived in stone houses, and thus the archaeology of Islam on the East AfricanCoast is not only represented by stone architecture, though at times it mightappear as such.

The indigenization of Islam, as we saw with the evolution of the Swa-hili mosque style, was a major factor on the East African Coast. Swahilisociety is a mix of Muslim and indigenous elements, and this is reflectedin its material culture, which over the course of the centuries has developeda unique character. Various examples could be cited to illustrate this, forexample, parallels have been drawn between the central communal enclcj-sures of the non-Muslim Mdikenda, the Kaya, and those found in archae-ological sites on the coast, indicating a mix of non-Islamic and Islamicelements in Swahili architecture (Horton, 1994b). In Lamu, an ethnoar-chaeological study of the stone houses found that similarly complex ritualand ideological beliefs underlay their development (Donley-Reid, 1987,1990). Yet perhaps the most striking example of the syncretic mix of Islamicand indigenous features in Swahili society is provided by the so-called pillartombs of the East African Coast. These unique monuments, the majorityof which date from between the fourteenth and the seventeenth centuries,draw their name from the fact that the deceased is commemorated by a

large coral stela, the "pillar," often inset with imported porcelain bowls,and a variety of types are found from southern Somalia down into Tanzania(see Wilson,1979). This is not a mainstream Muslim practice but couldrepresent a development within local Islamic traditions.

The South Coast

On the south coast similar processes are apparent, and similar archae-ological remains encountered. The site of Kilwa (Fig. a) has been men-tioned as an early trade center, yet this site also represents the process ofIslamic state development described by Hiskett (1994, p. 154), which oc-curred on the coast in the twelfth century and which contrasted with theprevious situation whereby Muslim merchant communities depended on thehospitality of non-Muslim local rulers. The existence of Muslim states rep-resents a different phenomenon, and testifies to the degree of Islamizationon the coast. Tladitions record the arrival of the Shirazi at this time, a

people perhaps of Persian origin, who through slave-concubinage gave riseto the Afro-Shirazi. Kilwa was ruled firstly by a Shirazi dynasty, which inturn was replaced by the Mahdali dynasty at the end of the thirteenth cen-tury, who still ruled when Ibn Battuta visited Kilwa in A.D. 1330 (Hiskett,1ee4).

Tiade in gold, copper, and ivory from southern Africa generated greatriches, and Kilwa testifies to this. It was the most important of the southernSwahili trade centers between the twelfth and the fourteenth centuries, atwhich point its fortunes declined in favor of Pemba, Mogadishu, and Mom-


basa. Tvo important Islamic architectural monuments, the great mosqueand the Husuni Kubwa palace complex, still exist at the site. The greatmosque founded in the twelfth century was subsequently added to over thecenturies, with even a new mihrab being added in the eighteenth century(Horton, 1994a, p.206), and nearby was Husuni Kubwa, built ca. A.D. 1300,

and the ostentatious palace of a rich ruler. Its complex of audience courts,apartments, and a small bathing pool was built in a Near Eastern archi-tectural style, unique to the region, and further illustrates Islamic tradingconnections (Chittick, 1974; Horton, 1994a, p.205; Sutton, 1995, p. 10).

Not surprisingly, extensive evidence for both interregional and long-distance trade was found at Kilwa. This included Islamic and Far-Easternceramics, glass vessels, and beads, chlorite schist vessels from Madagascar,and both imported and locally minted gold and copper coins (Chittick,1974; Brown, 1991). The locally minted coins provide information on thegenealogy of the sultans of Kilwa between ca. A.D. 1200 and A.D. L374and, thus, add to the historical sources, providing a snapshot view of thedevelopment of an Islamic state on the East African Coast. This is furthersupplemented by inscribed Muslim tombstones and carved coral inscrip-tions extolling the virtues of the Kilwa sultans. (Freeman-Grenville andMartin, 1973).

Much of the gold obtained from the East African Coast came fromthe Zambezi (discussed below), and although Kilwa was a trade centerwhose prosperity depended upon trade in southern African commodities,further Islamized Swahili settlements existed closer to the gold sources. IJn-fortunately, the long-running civil war in Mozambique has precluded theirserious investigation, however, additional Swahili type stone ruins arefound; at Tirngi on Cape Delgado, in the Kerimba Islands, and farther southat Somana (Duarte, 1993) (Fig. 4). The important site of Chibuene hasalso been mentioned, and it is possible that it might have served as theentry point for Indian Ocean trade goods in the far south of the Sofalacoast, which were then traded onward into the interior in exchange forcommodities such as gold and ivory (Sinclair, 1982). Fragments of elev-enth-century Islamic glass and sherds of splashed tin-glazed ware of PersianGulf origin were recovered here, which when considered with the earlyIslamic burials, make such an interpretation all the more feasible.

Offshore, on the islands of Pemba, Zanzibar, and Mafia, Islam hadfirmly taken hold, and many Muslim settlements developed. At MtambweMkuu, on the lush west coast of Pemba, one of these trading centers wassituated on a small islet. Mosques and houses were built out of coral, mir-roring the settlements on the mainland. Extensive evidence for participationin Indian Ocean trade was again found; Chinese porcelains and PersianGulf wares indicating a boom in commerce in the tvrelfth-thirteenth cen-

turies (Horton, personal communication; Insoll, 1996b). A merchant,shoard of 2060 locally minted silver coins was also found. These coins borethe name of various early Swahili rulers and were discovered in associationwith eight Fatimid gold dinars of mid-eleventh-century date (Horton et al.,1986, p. 117). Unfortunately, little is yet known about the political systemsin place in these trade centers; though Islamized, as we saw with Kilwaand Mogadishu, how they interacted with each other and the degrees ofautonomy they displayed remain little understood.

Excavations on zanzibaL however, have shed some right on this issueby suggesting that the island was connected in the late eleventh centuryA.D. with Siraf and Shiraz in the Persian Gulf. A porites coral inscriptionwas discovered at Tirmbatu, a small islet off the northwest coast, datingfrom ca. A.D. 1100 and executed in Kufic script of the Siraf-Shirazi school(Sutton, 1990, p.79). A similar inscription (A.D. 1107) in Floreate Kuficwas also recorded in the mihrab of the extant Kizimkazi mosque onZanzibar (Horton, 1994a). South of Zanzibar on Mafia Island litricttyspeaking a group of islands, but commonly known as just Mafia), a placewhich was closely connected with Kilwa, further evidence for shirazi con-nections was found. At the site of Kisimani Mafia a hoard of over 600copper coins of Ali bin al-Hasan (ca. A.D.1070), the founder of the leg-endary shirazi dynasty, was discovered in an impofted Sgraffiato pot ofPersian Gulf origin (Sutton, 1990, p. 79), associated with remnants of ournow familiar stone towns, which were also recorded at Kua, and Jibondoon Mafia (Baumann, 1957; Chittick,1961,, 1964)_

This evidence is more than coincidental, and would appear to lendsupport to the shirazi tradition referred to earlier; it certainly attests tostrong Persian Gulf contacts with the southern part of the coast. It thusillustrates, once again, that Islam in sub-Saharin Africa cannot be per-ceived as a monolithic entity; different areas of the Islamic world exeitedinfluences on the continent at different times, molding and adding to thenature of Islam which developed in each region.

The Far OffShore Islands

The comoros. Evidence for early Islam in the comoros has alreadybeen described, and it was in the eleventh-twelfth centuries that the firslmosques were built. The central mosques in Sima and Domoni (Ndzuwani)were founded at this date, and were subsequently reconstructed in the thir-teenth century and, again, rnore elaborately in the fourteenth-fifteenth cen-turies, the "classic period" of Comorian culture (Wright, 1992, p. 126).Tiade-related evidence is again found, including an unuiual type of sgrai-


fiato ware dated to the eleventh-thirteenth centuries. This was recoveredfrom the Islamic cemetery at Domoni, and is of interest as it was deliber-ately selected for funerary use, employing incised designs derived from Ara-bic calligraphy (Wright, 1992, p. 105). This provides a further instance oflocal adaptation of Islamic material culture to suit a specific cultural con-text, which is similarly evident in the "magicoreligious" inscriptions dis-cussed by Blanchy and Said (1990) encountered on standing monuments,such as.the congregational mosque in the capital, Moroni, which was origi-nally founded in the fifteenth century.

Madagascar Also of great interest is the archaeology of Islam onMadagascar, whose inhabitants were involved in Indian Ocean tradefrom a comparatively early date and, therefore, in contact with Muslimtraders and exposed to their religion. Essentially, the patterns of Islami-zation appear to be similar to those on the Comoros; direct evidencefor the presence of Muslims before the eleventh century has not yetbeen reported, but imported ceramics have been found, including NearEastern white glazed wares at Nosy Mangabe, a small island off thenortheastern coast of Madagascar. Larger quantities of archaeologicalevidence, attesting to participation in Indian Ocean trade and the ac-ceptance of Islam, are found at sites dating from between the eleventhand the midfourteenth centuries. In the northwest of the island, at theIslamized port of Mahilaka, 80 ha of settled area was enclosed withina stone wall, including at least one mosque, a masonry palace, and vari-ous craft production areas. This vast territory attests to the significanceof trade, both long-distance and within Madagascar itself. Song white-wares and Sgraffiato were widely traded throughout the island, and haveeven been recovered from the far south (Dewar and Wright, 1993, pp.433-43e).

This first generation of entrep6ts was largely abandoned by the mid-fourteenth century, to be replaced by another set also clustered on thenorthwestern coast, as at Kingany. Muslim communities were not, however,confined only to the northwest. In the northeast, the area in which chlo-rite-schist vessels were produced (Verin, 1976,1986), Muslims were also tobe found. At the important site of Vohemar, over 600 tombs have beeninvestigated, which were found to contain a variety of grave goods of bothMadagascan and foreign origin. These items were accompanying corpsesoriented in the Muslim fashion (Dewar and Wright, 1993, pp. 443-445),providing a further instance of the adaptation of Muslim practices withinthe sub-Saharan African environment, in this case, to the extent that Mus-lim dogma regarding the prohibition on placing grave goods with a corpsewas being actively flouted.

Summary

Islam on the East African coast does not exhibit the diversity seen inthe Nilotic Sudan or the great time depth of Ethiopia and the Horn ofAfrica. However, it should not be thought of as somehow less interestingfor these reasons. Starting in the eighth century an urban-based Muslimcivilization was to develop, which from the beginning was intimately con-nected with trade. Eventually a vast area of the coast and offshore islandswas to be scattered with very uniform Islamized settlement sites. yet thisis not to say that they were all in continual harmony; polities came andwent, and competition must have been rife, as changing fortunes in thewider Islamic world exerted their influence upon thebait African coast.It should also be noted that the evident unity in much of the archaeologyof Islam on the East African coast does not correlate with a blandness ofmaterial culture, or in some form of mimicry of the Islam of Arabia or thePersian Gulf. Local adaptation of Islam occurred, as we saw on the co-moros and Madagascar, and swahili Islam exhibits its own distinctive char-acter today.

The point was also made that the archaeolory of the coast is currentlyundergoing something of a reappraisal. This can only be for the good, asolder models too often saw swahili civilization as'purely outward lookingand coastal based. Although it is undeniable that little evidence has yeibeen found for connections between the interior and the coast before thenineteenth century, archaeological research has, until recently, negrectedsuch issues. A new generation of largely indigenous scholars ir'"*u*irrlrgthis question, and extensive revision regardinglhe impact of coastal traderson the interior throughout the second millennium A.D. will undoubtedlysoon need to be done.

THE WESTERN SAHEL

on the opposite side of the continent a similar group of entrep6ts waslocated in the sahel, the coast of the great saharan-sand'sea, andin marryways analogous to the swahili coast (Fig. 5). There are also parallels be-tween the trade patterns operating broadly contemporaneously in both ar-eas, raw materials sourced from many areas of west Africa, collected inthe Sahelian trade centers, and sent north across the Sahara, with finishedgoods coming south in return. Most important among the exports was gold,obtained from a variety of workings: the Sirba vailey in Niger, Bure onthe Upper Niger, and Bambuk at the confluence of thesenega'i and FalemeRivers, for example. slaves and ivory were also shipped nort( and in return


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467

goods, by now familiar from the previous discussion, came south: cloth,copper and brass ingots, paper, glazed pottery, glass, and beads. Tlade wasonce again the agent of Islamization.

Ttade contacts across the Sahara predated the rise of Islam, but weresmall-scale and indirect, traveling via various stages. With the rise of Islam,as in many other areas of the continent, demand for the products of sub-Saharan Africa increased; and Islam provided a degree of unity among thedesert dwellers, previously lacking, which allowed passage of the Sahara tobecome properly organized [amply attested by the spectacular "lost cara-van" site in the Ijafen dunes in Mauritania, where a large consignment ofseveral thousand cowry shells and copper rods was discovered dating fromthe twelfth century (Monod, 1969)]. After crossing the Sahara the first areaentered was the Western Sahel, thus making it the first zone of Islamicpenetration in west Africa. Also of importance in the study of Islamizationprocesses in this region is the fact that the Western Sahel is inhabited bya variety of ethnic groups, nomadic pastoralists and sedentary agriculturists,white Tirareg and black Songhai. This ethnic and economic mosaic has con-tributed to the development of Islam in the region and to its diversity ofcharacter, both factors reflected in the archaeological record.

First Contacts, Pre A.D. 900

The Arabic historical sources record that north African merchants be-gan to establish a presence within the Western Sahel for the purposes oftrans-Saharan trade in the late eighth-early ninth century (Levtzion andHopkins, 1981). These pioneering merchants were predominantly followersof Ibadi doctrines, a democratic Kharidjite sect who were of some impor-tance in medieval north Africa and the Western Sahel (see Lewicki, 1960,1971). The Ibadis were regarded as heretical by many other Muslim groupsand have since disappeared altogether in the Western Sahel, to be replacedby orthodox Sunni Islam of the Maliki school,

Archaeological evidence for a Muslim presence in the region beforethe tenth century is absent, as is any archaeological evidence for the Ibadis.However, one trace of their former presence does appear to survive: certainfeatures in the so-called Sudanese style of architecture, which have parallelswith the architecture of the Mzab and other Ibadi areas of the Maghreb.Distinct similarities can be seen between the staircase minarets and rec-tangular mihrabs found in the two regions (Schacht, 1954), as in themosque and tomb of Askia Muhammed at Gao (see Mauny, 1950). How-ever, it should also be borne in mind that these similarities may be partially


dictated by the same construction materials being used in both areas, banco(liquid mud) and palmwood, an issue for further investigation.

Tiade goods from the Islamic World and dating from before A.D. 900

are similarly rare. At Tegdaoust, an important caravan town situated insouthern Mauritania, Devisse (7992, p. 197) mentions that glazed potteryfrom Ifriqiya (Tirnisia) was recovered from levels dating "undoubtedly ear-

lier than 900," together with precious and semiprecious stones. At othercenters such as Gao and Koumbi Saleh such evidence is so far lacking. Yetit should be noted that this absence may be due partly to the fact thatattention has been focused in the wrong place; Essukffadmekka in the Ad-rar des Iforas mountains was a very important early Berber or Tirareg-con-

trolled trade center and still awaits detailed archaeological investigation,which may yield evidence for contacts and Islamization before A.D. 900.

Islam, Empires, and Thade Centers Post A.D. 900

Tiaders and Early T?ade Centers

Beginning in the tenth century there is an increase in archaeological

evidence attesting to contacts with the Islamic world, and the first directevidence for the presence of Muslims in the Western Sahel is found. Theinitial converts to Islam appear to have been the north African merchants'

local partners in trade, perhaps facilitated by the better conditions of tradeafforded to co-religionists under Islamic law, a factor of importance in northAfrica. Local rulers might also have converted to Islam at this point in time,but this remains somewhat unclear. What is apparent is that the trade cen-

ters which developed in the Western Sahel were not foreign implants orcolonies, the activities within them were controlled by the local rulers, pos-

sibly for reasons of prestige (and to protect the gold sources). Alongsidethe spatial restriction of export and import trade there are references in theArabic historical sources which imply that the movement of Arab and Berbermerchants was restricted, thus further restricting the spread of Islam.

These restrictions appear to have only been in place in the "first con-

tact" situation, an era when trade centers such as Tegdaoust (Awdaghost)and Essuk/Iadmekka flourished. The interesting point has been made thatthese more northerly trade centers were so placed as they were consideredto be within the Dar al-Islam, the Islamic World, and thus an importantdistinction was being made, with centers farther south such as KoumbiSaleh, the merchants' town attached to the Empire of Ghana, and Gao,later to develop into the capital of the Songhai Empire, patently not con-sidered as such (Levtzion, 1978, p.650).

470 Insoll

At Tegdaoust, as has already been mentioned, the earliest evidencefor trade contacts between the Western Sahel and north Africa dates fromthe ninth century. The main period of occupation was between the lateninth and the early fourteenth centuries, with the site composed of twocomponents: a town and a necropolis (D. Robert, 1970a,b; Yanacker, 1979;Robert-Chaleix, 1989). The orientation of the bodies within the necropolisand the different types of graves found, some with mihrabs, appear to in-dicate different phases of Islamization, yet to be investigated in detail, butof some complexity (S. Robert, 1970, p. 275). A large stone-built mosquewas also uncovered, oriented south-southeast, possibly indicating Maghrebior Andalusian (Spanish) influences (D. Robert, 1.970a, p. 66). Here,drystone was utilized to create multistorey houses of Islamic plan, with anemphasis upon privacy (Polet, 1985). Dry-stone is a material still utilizedtoday in many Mauritanian towns, for both mosque and house building, as

in the towns of Chinguetti, Tichitt, and Ouadane (Jacques-Meunie, 1957;Mauny, 1955, 196t, p. a8a). This provides a further example of the adap-tation of locally available materials within the repertoire of sub-SaharanAfrican Muslim architecture, which ranges from straw to stone, and evenblocks of salt, used to build houses and a mosque at the salt extractioncenter of Teghaza (Monod, 1938, 1940).

Even in this early period differences are appareht between the westerntrade centers, such as Tegdaoust, and those farther east, such as Essuk/fad-mekka, reflecting differences in both their pre-Islamic heritage and the ar-eas of the Islamic World with which they were in contact. Muslim funeraryepigraphy is absent at the western sites but is common in the east, as atEssuk/fadmekka, where the earliest inscription in Arabic yet found in westAfrica was discovered (A.D. 1017 or 1.0L9), associated with the remains ofa town, two undated mosques, and numerous cemeteries (De Gironcourt,1920; Lhote, 1951). The absence of funerary epigraphy in the west is a

reflection of specific Muslim Maliki treatises, which say a tomb should nothave an inscription. In the east this restriction was flouted as the Tuaregtradition of epigraphy in their own script, Tifinagh, had given a precedentfor inscriptions in Arabic (Farias, 1990, p. 69). The adaptation of Islam tosuit the local context, which is so visible elsewhere in the continent, is thusalso apparent in the Western Sahel from an early date.

Rulers, City-Dwellers, Empires, and Kingdoms

lslam was not long confined to the more northerly trade centers.Throughout this early period Muslim merchants must have ventured south,and as mentioned, conversions among their partners in trade would have


occurred. By the late tenth and early eleventh century the historical sourcesrecord a new phenomenon, that conversions, not of traders, but of localrulers, were beginning to take place. At Gao, al-Muhallabi (ca. A.D. 975-985) mentions that the king "pretends" to be a Muslim, a city where acompromise between traditional religion and Islam existed. In contrast, Is-Iamic adherence in Thkrur, in modern Senegal, has been described as morezealous in character, following the king's conversion in A.D. 1040-1041(Levtzion, 1.973, pp. 183-i84; Levtzion and Hopkins, L981, p. 174). Al-though evidence for involvement in trans-Saharan trade is found in bothareas dating from this period (S. K. and R. J. Mclntosh, 1993; S. K. McIn-tosh, 1994, p. 179; Insoll, L996a), direct evidence for Islam itself (mosques,burials) is lacking, providing a far from unique example of the divergenceof the historical and archaeological evidence as it relates to Islamizationand conversion to Islam in sub-Saharan Africa.

The kingdom of Ghana (which flourished between the ninth and theeleventh centuries and is not to be confused with the modern nation) pro-vides a further example of the divergence of archaeological and historicalevidence but, more importantly, of the Islamization of the apparatus ofstate in the region, yet with Muslims living under the control of a paganruler. The capital of Ghana was described in some detail by al-Bakri, andit is apparent from his description that the king was not at this time (mid-eleventh century) a Muslim. Dual towns existed, al-Ghaba, the pagan king'scapital, and a second town, Islamized and inhabited by the Muslim popu-lation. The court ritual is also described in some detail, and though theking was undoubtedly a pagan, many of the court appointments were heldby Muslims: interpreter, treasurer, and ministers (Levtzion and Hopkins,1981, pp. 79*80). Here the local ruler was taking the fringe benefits ofIslam, improved administrative systems, accompanied by Arabic literacy,without accepting the religion himself, in a process of juggling the old andthe new to maintain power (Levtzion, 1973; Insoll, 1996d).

Only one part of the capital of Ghana has so far been located andexcavated, Koumbi Saleh, the supposed merchants'town. Various structureswere recorded, including a large congregational mosque, measuring 46 meast-west x 23 m north-south, which a succession of mihrabs revealed hadbeen rebuilt three times between the tenth and the fifteenth centuries.Koumbi Saleh was, like Tegdaoust, organized on a reasonably regular plan,and was made up of multistorey stone houses. Alongside these lay a suburbof mud houses, two cemeteries containing numerous Muslim burials, anda Qubba tomb (Thomassey and Mauny, 1951,,1956; Berthier, 1.983; Devisse,1975, p.123; Devisse and Diallo, 1993, p.108). A variety of items sourcedfrom trans-Saharan trade was also recovered: Egyptian pottery used to filterwater, luster ceramics, and blue, green, and yellow glass beads. The im-

472

ported material recovered, however, was in smaller ql11l':t?'::n would

perhaps have been expected at so important a trade center' in contrast to

Tegdaoust, where *,":h i;;;; quan!'^ti-T of imported materials were found

(see Thomassey and M;;;; rist, pse; D' Robert' 1970a; Berthier' 1983;

Vanacker, L979; Devisse et a\" 1983)' the king

Previously it was ihoughi that ihe finat act of conversion of

and people of Ghana to tiam had occurred by force' through the agency

of the Almoravids, a fierce Berber movement' who reputedly conquered

Ghana in A.D. 1076-;6;i("", "'g'' Trimingham ' 1962)' Recent'critical re-

evaluation of the u."t u"otIg;al ind histoiical evidence has shown such

ideas to be flawed, *itt'-u -"ot" peaceful and gradual acceptance of Islam

;ilil;" (Coniad arJ firn.r, 1982, 1983). This more gradual process

makes sense, espec'"lly';^;" t"but' ""i'onment'

where its spread and

acceptance ur" tu.liit'ut"J, o*ing, as has been suggested (Tiimingham'

1959),tothepoweroflslamtobringtogethertheethnic.groupswhichoften make up the p"p"r",-i* "i

a to1vi. eJrnaps this is a factor of especial

importance in many ir"as of sub-saharan Afr^ica, where the universalistic

uri"", of Islam may have had particular -appeal'

A third "urty ""ni".-of

Islam in the weitern Sahel, which has already

been mention"a Uri"ny, *ut Cuo, a city where sett]ement has been dated

back to the sixth/sev",if' l"'*ties, and where no connection between Islam

andurbanism"unno*t"posited.AlthoughtheconversionoftherulertoIslam is recorded u, t'upp'L"i'g in the #dtenttr ::nt"ty: -l|?-first

direct

archaeologicalevidenceforthepresenceofaMuslimcommunityconsistsof Arabic inscribed to'nb'tot'"', found in the cemetery at Gao-Saney' the

earliestdatingfromthelateeleventhcentury(Mauny'1951;Flight'1975'1978,1979;Insoll, 1993)' Trade was once again the.agent of Islamic con-

version in Gao, but this was by no means an immediate process' As in the

capitalofGhana,twosettfernentsinitiallyexisted'withtheMuslimmer-chants at Gao-Saney, 6 il ;;Jot ,tt" city, and indigenous royalty within

6"" "(C""-e"cien)'itself'

By the late trrelfth century a separation on re-

ld;;;.."nds had ceased io be of importance' and an Islamized quarter

had developeO in Gao Anci"n, illustrating the increasing acceptance of Is-

lam by the ruling classes (Insoll,- 1996a)'

Extensive evidence for trade connections has been recovered from

Gao,indicatingauoo-p"'iodintheeleventh_twelfthcenturies.Lusterceramicsandengra-vedtombstonesfromlslamicspain'ceramicsandglassfrom Egypt, gtus unJ carnelian beads from perhaps as ii'- ":

India have

been found lSurruug"i, 1950; Vire, 1'959; Insoll' t994' 1995a'b)' Gao was

evidently of great i*a;;;;;;, a fact reflected in its development into the

capital of the So"g-f ii "*piil *hi:h covered a vast territorial extent' and

florrrished U"t'r""i it " miatitieenttr and the late sixteenth centuries' Un-


fortunately, little is yet known about Islamic archaeology in the region dur-ing this period.

South of Gao were other settlements linked into the trade networks,which served to send commodities such as gold and ivory up the RiverNiger to Gao. An example is provided by the sites of Bentiya (Kukiya) andEgef-NTawaqqast, where Arabic funerary inscriptions (thirteenth-fifteenthcenturies) have been recorded (Farias, 1990, pp. 105-i06). This can be re-garded as a further frontier of Islam (Hunwick, 1985), at least until thelate fifteenth century, when Islam began to gradually spread away from thetraders, urban population, and nomads to the bulk of the sedentary agri-culturist population (Insoll 1996d).

Farther to the west, another dimension in the development of Islamin the Western Sahel is represented by Timbuktu, city of mystery in popularimagination, which took over from Gao the role of premier entrep6t. Ac-cording to the Arabic sources Timbuktu was a relatively late foundation(eleventh century), which prospered through the trans-Saharan trade in saltand gold, especially during its "high period" (ca. A.D. 1350-1600). It wasfamous as a major center of Muslim scholarship, and was the center ofMoroccan rule, following their defeat of Songhai forces at the battle ofTondibi in A.D. 1591 (Hunwick, 1985, pp. 17-19). This is of interest as itis a rare (perhaps sole) example of the direct transference of north Africanadministrative systems into the Western Sahel, in this case through the useof a Pasha and Amins as agencies of government (Hiskett, 1994, p. 96).Surprisingly, little archaeological research has been conducted in Timbuktu.The surrounding region has been surveyed (S. K. and R. J. Mclntosh, 1986),and the standing monuments have been recorded (Mauny, 1952b). Threeimportant early mosques are preserved within the city, all of which havebeen rebuilt several times, Djinguereber (possibly thirteenth century in ori-gin), Sankore (ca. fourteenth-fifteenth centuries), and the Sidi Yahya (A.D.1440) (Mauny, 1952b, pp. 901-911).

Nomads, Sedentary Agriculturists, and Sufis

In general, conversion to Islam prior to the lihads of the late eight-eenth-nineteenth centuries was restricted, and confined predominantly tothe townspeople and nomadic population. The possible appeal of Islam tourban dwellers has been touched upon; that of nomads has not. Muslimcemeteries containing dated inscriptions and individual interments arefound clustered along trade routes primarily in areas currently inhabitedby nomads, for example, along the Tilemsi Valley north of Gao, where DeGironcourt (1920, p. 161) recorded numerous cemeteries, the chronolosv

474

ofwhichhaveyettobefullyestablished(seeFarias,1.995).FurtherMuslimcemeteries are found u.,o,. the region, as in the Lake Faguibine area

(Raimbault, 1991, pp.208-209), but funerary inscriptions ut: t1T". or absent

at these ,,,or" *".r"rly-.it"r for reasons aiready described.. Although the

patterning of the ""*ir"ri", remains little understood, the hypothesis can

be advanced that triurr, *u. adopted more rapidly by nomadic groups'

These groups *"r" "fror"J t" itr" religion via irade at an early point in

,i.", "i grid". anO ini"rpr"ters, and it has been suggested.that'Islam par-

ticularly appeals to "o'n'uOt

thiough the ease of worship it enjoys (Trim-

ingham, 1959; Lewis 1980)' In iontrast' conversion to Islam by the

;;il;ry ;gticulturist it'uot*t more of a fundamental wrench away from

olderbeliefs'a,*"nti*edinthelntroduction,animismandtraditionalreligious cults can toiri.t the means by which the pressing problems of

existence can be "";;;;"h;.d"a ana resotued; tending crops' livestock' and

children, and Islam, itt'u' been argued' has no natural substitute for this

integrated structure Gri*ingt'u* , igsg'p' 25; Bravmann' 1974' p' 3L)' (see

Western Sudan, below)'

A final point of interest in the archaeology of Islam.in the Western

sahel is provided uy it " .it* in the north of Niger, specifically the con-

centration in the Air mountains and its margins' AtJn{eduq (pre-sixteenth

century, but otherwit"-'"4^"O, stone-bui'it .t9Tb' "il h:^"::: or shops

were record"O group"O around a mosque' which appea-r to indicate that

thesitewascenteredaroundthemonumentalizationoftheQibla,inter-preted by cressier (idr;;p. 75_76) as indicative of Sufism (mystical Is-

lam). Numerous othercitet u"a monuments have been found' including

ruined town sites ";; G";t mosque" similar to the extant mosque in

Agadez(founded .iOtift"Jntn-early iixteenth century) in the center of the

Air Massif at essodel-ressier und B"rnrr, 1984, p' 39; Cressier' 1989' p'

155). Unfortrnut"ty,-"iiaence for early Islam was not found at Marendet

i*.Lri"J UaranOai; or Azelik (medieval *0"9d-{):,lt^th imlortant coP-

per working ""n,"r.'1t-ton,

o)21, the more surprising considering they

figure in early Arabic historical sources and' hence' must have been ex-

f3."a to Islamic influences from an early date'

SummarY

The archaeology of Islam in the Western Sahel is again trade related

in origins ano o"veiJpment. From the late eighth century intermittent con-

tacts occurr"d, *tic-t'iook a couple of centriries to blossom into anything

sizable.Eventhenconversiontolslamwasinaseriesofstages_traders,nomads,rulers,urban-dwellers,agriculturists-whichitispossibletotrace


through archaeological and historical evidence, sources which are not al-ways in agreement. Finally, Islam was to spread throughout the WesternSahel, and further into west Africa via a network of indigenously operatedtrade routes stretching south from the entrep6ts of the Western Sahelthrough the savanna and into the forest. Comparisons can be drawn withthe East African Coastal trade centers, but differences also exist, both inthe areas of the Islamic world with which they were in contact and in theirrespective political and social development. Aithough the Western Sahelwitnessed the kingdoms and empires of Ghana and Songhai (Mali is dis-cussed later), no comparable phenomenon to the largely culturally unifiedSwahili developed in the west, and the degree of penetration of Islam awayfrom the trade centers in the east was much less than in the Western Sahel.Factors again illustrating that the continent cannot be viewed as a homoge-nous and monolithic entity.

THE CENTRAL SUDAN

The Central Sudan forms the link between the eastern or Nilotic Su-dan and the Western Sahel and Sudan (Fig. 6). It is a continuation of thesame environmental zones, below the Sahara, the Sahel shades into thesavannah, before the forest regions of central Africa are reached. However,unlike the west, there is no defined geographical entity, the "central Sahel";rather it is incorporated within the general term, the Central Sudan, andis treated as such here. An equally diverse ethnic composition is evident;Muslim Arab and Negro pastoralists in the north, mixed Muslim pastoraland sedentary communities in the sahel-savannah borders, the great Is-lamized emirates and city-states slightly farther south (Hausa, Fulani), in-termingled with scattered pockets of animists, before the latter predominatein the forest zone. It is, to paraphrase Cohen (1967, p. 1), a region ofsultanates, kingdoms and empires, with Songhai in the west giving way tothe Hausa kingdoms, Kanem-Bornu, Bagirmi, Wadai, and in the east, Dar-fur in the Nilotic Sudan. These polities were often in conflict with eachother, and this was the region par excellence for cavalry, both utilized inmilitary campaigns and slave raiding.

There is also a considerable time depth to Muslim contacts with theCentral Sudan. Ttans-Saharan trade routes via the Fezzan to the Lake Chadregion predate Islam, and contacts may have resumed shortly after theMuslim conquest of north Africa in the late seventh century, though welack archaeological evidence for this. However, Muslim authors certainlyknew of the region by the ninth century. Later the Central Sudan carried,and to a certain extent still carries, a considerable pilgrim traffic east-west

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to the ports on the Red Sea coast of the Nilotic Sudan, and their ultimatedestination, Mecca. yet the region, for ail its importance, remains tittteresearched archaeologically, and is one of the greai uranr. areas as regardsthe archaeology of Islam in sub_Saharan Africa.

Kanem-Bornu

The initial entify with which we are concerned is the Kanuri Kingdomof Kanem-Bornu, which-.covered a rarge ale_3 and shiftea geographicarybetween Chad, eastern Niger, and northern Nigeria (Fig. 6). The first writ_ten record of Kanem is by al-ya'kubi in g:o. s)z, rrrl, *"r,rons theZaghawa, a term probably. referring to the inaugura inaig"nou, ruring dy-nasty (Lange, 19g2, p. 220). Kaneri was at this time centered east of Lakechad (in modern chad), and the existence of towns i, tt

" ."gion is firstmentioned in the rwerfth..""lrury, though Njimi, the first Ka-riuri capitar,has never been satisfactorily tocaLa (co"nnall 19'g1), a;J onty-ir*i,.a ,rrr_veys of the originar Kanem area in ihad haue u""r'"ona,rciio, wrtn rittreinformative evidence-found: a possible mosque at Tie and undated build_ings and enclosures between NIao, Moussoro, and the chadian Bahr-er-Ghazal (Bivar and shinnie, 1,962; A. Lebeur oa4. rui n[nawa werereplaced by. the sayfawid (Saifawa) dynasty, who seized po*Z, ca. A.D.1075, an action often equated with ihe simurtaneous conversion of Kanem_Bornu to Islam. This would not appear to be correct, and as we have seenelsewhere, conversion to-Isram uzually invorves a more graduar process,here entering the centrar sudan by tire Fezzan r"gion, p?;.Jti Ibadi innature in the first instance, later repiaced by orthodo* srrni Islam (Hiskett,1994, p. 105).Following a combinatron of inadvantageous internal and external cir_cumstances, the Kanuri Ma.is (rulers) of the Saifawa Oyn.asty-aUundoned

the area east of Lake chad in the rate fourteenth century, *;r; to Bornu(Nigeria), west of the lake. various settlements associated witn lhis periodhave been investigated' At Garoumere in eastern Niger, a variety of struc-tures built of welr-fired red brick was recorded, set wihin un "r"ioring

*utt(Bivar and Shinnie, tg6L, p. 4; Zakari, 198i, pp. a6_a7j. Si.itur-rrru.rur",were recorded at Garu Kime and at Birni* Gururgu^o,- it " p"r*u.r"ntcapital established in A.D. 1,470, where the Mais,piu." unJ- u lrr-ue. orsmaller structures still stand (connah, 1gB1). By the end of the fifteenthcentury Islam was firmry established in the iuling circle, ilrustiated by thefact that Mai rdris Al0ma went on p,grimage and initiated a program ofmosque building (which suggests Istam-nao also spread u"y"riirr" rulingclasses). More importantly for the rest of the centrar Sudan, Kanem-Bornu

a{\(J

acted as one of the conduits for the spread of Islam, in this case southwest

into Hausaland (Hiskett, 1994, p. 106).

The Hausa Kingdoms

Allied with Kanem-Bornu Islamic influence on Hausaland from theeast, Muslim Mande and Songhai traders brought Islam to the Hausa Bok-woi, the seven original city states (the formation of the Hausa towns was

not linked with Islam, they predate its arrival) from the west, as they trav-eled in connection with the Volta Region gold trade (Fig. 6). This was a

process which began in the midfourteenth century, with Islam then reachingKano, and Katsina and Zaria in the fifteenth century. Initially, conversionwas on a limited scale, and the influence of Islam was again restricted tothe court circle, with elements of Shai'a (Islamic law), and administrationusing Arabic, being introduced, while the bulk of the population remainedanimist and were thus barely affected (Hiskett, 1994, pp. 108-109).

Little archaeological research has been done in the Hausa Bohuoi, otin the "Bastard Seven," a further group of related non-Hausa states, some

of which were Islamized, as at Nupe, where in A.D. L770, the ruler con-

verted to Islam. Certain standing monuments belong to the initial periodof Islamization in the Boh,voi; these are known as "Habe" and are few innumber. At Katsina, the core of the Gobirau "tower" or minaret is said tobe 300 years old (Dmochowski; 1990a, pp.2.10,5.17), a comparable toweralso survived at Bauchi (Moughtin, 1972, p.155), and as with some of themosques of the Western Sahel, remnant Ibadi influences have been argued

for in this region (Schacht, 1954). Though founded in the late first millen-nium, Kano still awaits archaeological investigation, as nothing standingpredates A.D. 1750 (Logan, 1929; Moody, 1967). The location of the oldtown, Tsofan Birni, at Daura, the "mother-Hausa kingdom," is also knownbut has yet to be investigated archaeologically; this is unfortunate, as itcould provide a wealth of information on early Islam in Hausaland.

The Ftlani Jihad

It should also be noted that much of the early Habe heritage was de-stroyed during, or following, the Fulani lihads of the early nineteenth cen-tury. The "new broom" of Islamic revival, Jihad, was a result of a varietyof factors: endemic competition between the nomadic and the sedentarypopulations over land, the lax Islam of the Hausa rulers, and the generalpolitical state of the region. Good Muslims, largely nomadic Fulani, were


consequently affronted for various reasons. Initially a preaching Jihad wasinitiated, which brought no results and was replaced by a military lihad,under the leadership of Uthman dan Fodio. This reform movementachieved much, organized around a central Caliphate or Sultanate at Sok-oto in northwest Nigeria (never a Hausa kingdom), surrounded by largelyautonomous emirs at Kano, Katsina, etc. (Hiskett, 1994, pp.109-111). Italso marked the turning point in greatly increasing lslamic conversionamong the Hausa, though without ever destroying the African veneer.

Various post-Jihad monuments in the region are described by Dmo-chowski (1990a,1990b), including both Hausa and Fulani ones which differin character, with rectangular architecture being characteristic of the for-mer, and circular of the latter. The nineteenth-century mosque at KafinMadaki is described as "one of the greatest achievements of Hausa archi-tecture" (1990a, pp. 5.3, 5.52), while Sokoto has examples of both stylesof architecture and is the site of Uthman dan Fodio's tomb (Schacht, \957;Johnston, 1967; Dmochowski, 1990a, p. 6.3). Thus the Fulani Jihad addsanother dimension, both to the history of Islam in the Central Sudan andto the material culture record of the religion in sub-Saharan Africa. It isalso interesting to note that this process of Islamic reform was initiated by,and closely associated with, nomads, who we have repeatedly seen are in-timately connected with Islam throughout the continent.

Bagirmi

Numerous smaller states developed in the Central Sudan, which inmany cases have been studied ethnographically or historically, but still awaitdetailed archaeological investigation. One of these is the kingdom ofBagirmi, founded in the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries and situated in centralChad, which can be said to form a link between the Muslim nomads ofthe north and the animist sedentary agriculturists of the south (J. P Lebeuf1962; A- Lebeuf, 7967; Paqtes, 1977). According to historical sources, Is-lamic institutions were introduced to Bagirmi by the ruler, the Mbang, AbdAllah in the late sixteenth century, with the administrative and military sys-tems modeled on those of Bornu, which helped to uniff the state (Ttim-ingham, 1962, p.137). This distinction regarding the introduction of Islamicinstitutions as opposed to Islam itself would appear to be of importance,as the bulk of the population remained untouched by Islam until the reignof Mbang Muhammed al-Amin (A.D. 1751-1785), when they were requiredto make a profession of Islam (Tiimingham,1962).

Even then, the practice of Islam among the bulk of the population inBagirmi was superficial in character. As is found in many areas of the Cen-

tral and Western Sudan, a form of syncretism existed between Islam andtraditional religious practices, and this is reflected in the capital of Bagirmi,Boum Massenia. Elaborate spatial symbolism underlay the plan and con-struction, not only of the city, but also of the ruler's palace. The walledcity was the seat of government and of the mbang, and was divided intoseveral quarters (made up mainly of impermanent structures), with the pal-ace complex, the ger, at its heart. Barma (Bagirmi) cosmolory was reflectedin the town plan, which symbolized the head and four limbs of a sacrificialanimal (Paques, 1977, p. 22), with the ger (which included a mosque) beingequally highly structured spatially (A. Lebeuf, 1967, pp. 224-225), thusblending both Muslim and animist (represented by the sacrificial symbol-ism) elements.

Wadai

To the northeast of Bagirmi was a further small kingdom, Wadai, whichwas ruled by the Tirnjur until driven out in a so-called Jihad by Abd elKarim in the early seventeenth century. As discussed earlier, the Tirnjuralso ruled Darfur, and though the rulers superficially professed Islam andhad Arabic names, no attempt was made to spread Islam, in either Darfuror Wadai. This occurred in Wadai only after the campaigns of Abd el Karim(Tiimingham,1962, p. 139). The capital founded by Karim ca. A.D.1640,has been investigated on a number of occasions and consists of a group offired-brick buildings within an enclosure which was abandoned ca. A"D.1850. These include a large mosque with a hexagonal minaret, a palaceand four "towers," and to the northeast the royal cemetery (see Balfour-Paul, 1954b, p. 15; De Neufuille and Houghton, 1965, p. 202; J. P Lebeufand Kirsch, 1989, p. 23). The links with the Nilotic Sudan eviden-t in theDarfur connection are further reinforced at a later date through the prose-lytizing activities of Funj clerics and teachers in the late seventeenth andearly eighteenth centuries (Tiimingham, 1962), illustrating how the CentralSudan should not be perceived as an obstacle between east and west, buta bridge between the two.

Dar al-Kuti

The Dar al-Kuti sultanate, established south of the Aouk River in thenineteenth century, was truly the frontier between Islam and non-Muslimsin central Africa, and in discussing it the very heart of the continent isreached (Fig. 6). It was to here that Arab slavers, traveling northwest from


Zanzlbar, made inroads into the Uele-Ubangi basin in search of slaves inthe nineteenth century (see below), while slaving missions were also madefrom the west by the Muslim Fulani of Ngaoundere, vassals of the Sultanof Yola, and from Wadai, Bagirmi and the animist Chadian borderlands ofDar Runga in the north (Cordell, 1985; Kalck, 1993). Slavery was endemicin this region and has thus had a great influence upon the nature of Islam.Ttimingham (1962, p.219) describes Dar al-Kuti as a vague religious bor-derland where "chiefs and trading villages received an Islamic orientation,"with a Muslim veneer apparent among certain individuals, outwardly visiblethrough Muslim dress, Arabic names, and the use of appellations such as

sultan or sultanate, though the number of Muslims remained, and remains,small.

The degree of Islamization might have varied, but the material remainsof the capital of Dar al-Kuti, Ndele, founded in A.D. 1891, are evidentlythose of a strong polity. These consist of a central stone-built citadel, po-sitioned for defense on a terrace and comprising a pentagonal structuralcomplex, divided internally into audience areas, women's quarters (harem),etc. Around the citadel the rest of the town spread onto the neighboringplains (Cordell, 1985, pp. 6-9). Islamic archaeological remains elsewherein the region (in the modern Central African Republic) have not been stud-ied, but investigation of the slaver's Zaibas (fortified enclosures) would beof interest in studying the affect of Islam upon surrounding peoples, withthe threat of slavery perhaps acting as a persuasive incentive to conversion,or at least the adoption of a Muslim veneer, the characteristics of whichwere discussed above.

Miscellany

Various other polities could be discussed, the Fulani principalities ofCameroon and the Kotoko sultanates of the same region, but a lack ofarchaeological and historical evidence largely precludes their inclusion. Oneinteresting exception is a study of the interaction between the nomadicShuwa Arabs and the sedentary Kotoko in the Houlouf area of northernCameroon, where the often uneasy nomad-sedentary relationship is againplayed out. Though both groups are Muslim, ethnoarchaeological studiesfound that the Shuwa, immigrants from the Nile Valley, attempt to maintaina distinctive ethnic identity through the use of material culture (Holl andLevy,1993). In contrast, the syncretism between Islam and animism so evi-dent in the Bagirmi capital and ger is again noticeable in the Logon-Birnipalace, a Kotoko "village state" (A. Lebeuf 1969; A. and J. P Lebeuf, 1973),perhaps reflecting the later acceptance of Islam among the Kotoko (in the

481

south at least), a process which began about A.D. 1800, with the conversionof the Logon ruler (Tiimingham, 1962, p.212).

Summary

The arrival of Islam in the central Sudan would appear to be morerecent in date than in the other regions discussed so far. The first conver-sions to Islam seem to have taken place in Kanem-Bornu in the eleventhcentury. Yet it is probable that this is not correct, hints of Ibadi contactsand of a much greater time depth for Muslim contacts exist, but the lackof archaeological research hinders our understanding of these processes.what is apparent is that the central Sudan is the bridge across ihe conti-nent, from Darfur in the east to songhai in the west, both areas were con-nected with, and sometimes took a direct hand in, the affairs of the centralSudan. But it is also evident that the nature of Islam in the central Sudandiffers, a fact reflected in the archaeological record, from heavily IslamizedKanem-Bornu to the syncretism of Bagirmi. It is also apparent.that theinitial converts to Islam across the central Sudan *"r" ih" rulers of themany different polities which existed. The trade connection so evident else-where is lacking, imported goods from the wider Islamic world, inscribedtombstones and the like, are absent, but could this again be a reflectionof the absence of archaeological research, or is it a true representation ofthe different nature of Islam and conversion processes in ihe central Su-dan? A decade hence, such issues may be cleirer.

THE WEST AFRICAN SUDAN AND FOREST

The second zone of Islamic penetration in west Africa was the westernSudan (Fig. 7), a region made up of grassland and wooded savannah. Far-ther to the south lies the west African forest zone (Fig. 7), which is alsodiscussed here, as it was via traders from the western Sudan that Islamwas transmitted to the Forest zone, hence forming a useful continuum. Is-lam within this region is diverse in character urrd

"rrco*passes many ele-

ments, from one of the great "medieval" empires, Mali, io the numeroussmall trade centers of the Mande and the Islimic revivalist movements ofthe nineteenth century. N-umerous ethnic goups are also represented, per-haps more than in any 9f the other regions discussed hereiexcept centralAfrica. Yet despite this diversity, it is still possible to isolate tne broaa proc-esses of Islamization as represented in the archaeological record and his-torical sources.

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The Empire of Mali

The third great west African empire, successor to Ghana and prede-cessor to Songhai, Mali reached its peak in the early fourteenth centuryand was, unlike Ghana and Songhai, geographically centered in the westernSudan. Although traditions record that the Kings of Mali were early con-verts to Islam in the twelfth century (Levtzion, 1985, p. 162), prior to themidthirteenth century Islam within Mali was weak. The pilgrimage of theMalian ruler, Mansa Ulli, between A.D. 1260 and A.D.1277 changed thissomewhat as in the process he legitimized himself as a Muslim ruler. AsHiskett notes, pilgrimage served as a means of gaining recognition for thestate from external Muslim powers, something exploited not only by Malibut also, as we have seen, by the leaders of songhai and Bornu (1.994, pp.94,99). Certainly by the reign of Mansa Musa, who made an even moregrand pilgrimage in the early fourteenth century, Mali was said to haveresembled a true Muslim empire (Levtzion, 1985).

Unfortunately our main sources of evidence are purery historicar. Ar-chaeological investigations with the aim of locating the capital of the Em-pire of Mali, Niani, were conducted just inside the Republic of Guinea(Filipowiak, 1979, 1981), but the results were far from conclusive, and itappears that this was not in fact the capital of the enipire of Mali (conrad,1994). The remains of earthen round-houses set upon stone foundations,tombs, a mosque, an audience chamber, and part of a .,palace,, were re_corded. An enthusiastic, but not altogether successful, attempt was madeto match the archaeological finds with the historical description of the capi-tal of Mali provided by Ibn Battuta in the midfourteenth century, a sourceto whom we owe a debt of gratitude for the information he provides onmany areas of the continent. what is apparent from Battuta's descriptionis that Islam within Mali, even at this point in time, was syncretic in char-acter and infused with elements of traditional religion and ceremonial(Hiskett, 1994, p. 100).

The Inland Niger Delta and Syncretism

Elsewhere in the region archaeological evidence does provide infor-mation on lslamization which suggests that this was graduil, which is inaccord with the processes apparent in the other regions of sub-saharanAfrica discussed so far. The site of Jenne-jeno, it has been suggested, wasabandoned in favor of Djenne (ca. A.D. 1400), as it was considered tootainted by pagan practices by the newly Islamized population (S. K. andR. J. Mclntosh, 1980; s. K. Mclntosh, 1995). prior to this, and beginning


ca. A.D. 1000, Jenne-jeno had gone through a period of decline, whichcoincided with the appearance of north African influences (rectilinearhouse plans and spindle whorls), suggesting that conversion to Islam wasa gradual process culminating in the "triumph of Islam" (R. J. and S. K.Mclntosh, L988, p. 1.56) ca. A.D. 1400. But even at Djenne we are observingIslamization within an urban context; what of the bulk of the population,the sedentary agriculturists who were touched upon earlier? At the site ofToguere Doupwil near Mopti-Sevare, in the Inland Niger Delta, non-Is-lamic urn burial was found dating from the fifteenth century, which ledthe excavator to conclude, quite correctly, that, "Islamic influence did notpenetrate far beyond the well-known centers" (Bedaux, 1979, p.34). Weknow that Islam was in the wider region, at Djenne for example, but itsuniversal acceptance was far from complete.

Syncretism or "mixing" (Hiskett, 1994, p.101) of beliefs between Islamand traditional religion was a possible solution to the problem of increasinglslamic franchise. Whether this was always a conscious process is difficultto define, but its appearance, as we have seen, is visible in both the his-torical sources and the archaeological record. A further example can beprovided from northeastern Sierra Leone (Fig. 7), today predominantlyMuslim, where, somewhat unusually, mosques are occasionally round inform and found lying adjacent to traditional shrines, thereby "indicatingthe syncretic nature of religious beliefs" (De Corse, 1989, p. 135).

The Mande Thaders

Possibly the most successful agents in spreading Islam away from theurban centers and throughout the West African Sudan and Forest zoneswere the Mande (Dyula, Wangara) traders. They established links betweenthe termini of the trans-Saharan trade routes in the Sahel and the savannahand Forest zones. They also settled in separate merchant quarters alongsidethe peoples of the southern forest and savannah areas in the same waythat the Berber and Arab merchants had settled in centers such as KoumbiSaleh and Gao-Saney 500 years earlier. These traders dealt in a variety ofcommodities, gold and kola nuts being among the most important, exchang-ing, among other things, cloth, metalwork, and horses in return. Tro mainroutes were in operation: from the Niger bend via Begho on the forestfringe in Ghana (see below) to the gold producing regions of Ashanti andfrom Timbuktu along the Niger to the coast at Sierra Leone (Vansina e/al., 1964, p. 92). Unfortunately, the archaeological evidence testifying tothe former presence of these pioneers of Islam varies in quantity and qual-ity, as research itself has varied.


Within modern Ghana a variety of sites with Muslim associations has

been investigated, producing a diverse range of evidence for the Mande,long-distance trade and Islam (Fig. 7). At Begho, where the main periodof occupation was between A.D. 1400 and A.D. 1700, two possible Muslimburials along with Mande-type ceramic roof drainpipes were found, other-wise evidence for a Muslim community was lacking (Posnansky, 1.973; An-quandah, 7993, p. 649). However, indications for participation inlong-distance trade were found, including several sherds of Chinese porce-lain and clay weights of Islamic standard Mithqal and Uqiya made out ofshaped potsherds (Garrard, 1975, p. 66; Stahl, 1994, p.86). These Islamicstandard weights were copied and assimilated by both Muslim and non-Muslim local groups, with even the famous Akan gold weights being influ-enced by Islamic prototypes (see Garrard, 1972a,b, l973a,b). Severaldiscoveries of metalwork from the Islamic World (north Africa, Egypt,Syria) have been reported from Ghana (Posnansky, 1973), further testimonyto Muslim Mande enterprise. For example, six bowls of Syrio-Egyptian ori-gin (midfourteenth-midfifteenth centuries) are still in existence in theBrong Ahafo and Ashanti regions, which were originally used for ritualablution purposes by Muslim traders, but eventually they found their wayinto non-Muslim Akan hands (Silverman, 1.982, pp. 13-15).

Further Muslim settlements have been investigated at Bono-Manso(Effah-Gyamyi, 1985, p. 27) and at Buipe, an important trade center inthe Gonja state, where an undated mosque was recorded (Shinnie, 1980,p. 69). Excavations at New Buipe showed that architectural change accom-panied the introduction of Islam, the use of rectangular flat-roofed architecture utilizing projecting drainpipes, "a concomitant of Islam," anddiffering from preceding architectural styles, was established by the six-teenth century (York, 1973), with a similar change in architecture noted atOld Wiae, with a shift from circular to rectangular house plans occurringin the midsixteenth century (Agorsah, 1986, p. 29). Also of interest is a

structure recorded at Yendi Dabari, which might possibly be the remainsof a caravansary, a hostel for travelers common in the Islamic world but,to the author's knowledge, unique in this region. The building complex was160 m long, divided into a series of sets of rooms, some once two-storied,which led the excavator to conclude that "since buildings other than ofcircular plan are foreign to Dagomba, and houses of more than one storeyrare, it is likely that this was a strangers' complex of warehouses and pad-docks for pack animals" (Ozanne, 1971., pp.55-56).

Mande (Yarse) villages were not confined solely to modern Ghana. Inthe area covered by Burkina Faso, trade centers were established along themajor caravan trails thus further disseminating Islam from the late sixteenthcentury. Settlements included Kaya, Rakaye, Patenga, and later in the

eighteenth century, Ouagadougou, where the Mande had their own quarter.

In-general, the spread of Islam was dependent on the goodwill of the pagan

Molssi Kings, which was not always forthcoming (Audouin and Deniel, 1978;

Skinner, t966; Brarrmann, 1974). Similar settlements were located in the

Ivory coast, with Kong in the north of the country, a particularly important

center (Bernus, 1960).

The Yoruba

Having concentrated primarily upon Muslim influence in the west of

the region, mention should also be made of the archaeology of early Islam

within southern Nigeria, in Yorubaland (Fig. 7). In general, little is known

about the first penetration of Muslims into the area except that they came

from the northwest of Nigeria and were in Yorubaland by the seventeenth

century. By the late eighteenth-early nineteenth centuries Muslim commu-

nities bf varying size were recorded in many of the large towns, including

Badagry und OgUo*oso (Gbadamosi, L978; Parrinder, 1953). The activities

of the initial Muslim missionaries in Yorubaland would appear to have been

reasonably successful, as by the end of the eighteenth century the Yoruba

themselves were propagating Islam in neighboring Togo and Benin (ex-Da-

homey). In both benin and southern Nigeria unique mosques were built in

the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries' These are often mistaken

for churches owing to the use of a front elevation made up of a central

pediment flanked by two towers, in effect a European Baroque design, which

was transmitted through the Portuguese to Bahia in Brazil and then brought

back to west Africa by returning slaves (Khan, 1994, pp. 25a-255)'

Jihad and the Islamic Revivalist Movements

The Fulani Jihad of Uthman dan Fodio in the central Sudan has al-

ready been discussed; similar militant Islamic reform movements were in-

itiated for various reasons, almost contemporaneously, in the Western

Sudan and Forest zones, their characteristic achievement being the creation

of "centralized Islamic polities forged either out of the autonomous prin-

cipalities of half-hearted Muslim chiefs prone to miing or out of the frag-

mented pieces of the medieval empires of the Sahel" (Hiskett, 1994, p'

114). Notable among these was the Masina lihad taised against the pagan

Fulani and Bambara by Sekou Hamadou in the early nineteenth century'

The capital, Hamdallahi, founded in A.D. 1819-1820 by Sekou Hamadou

and situated 21km southeast of Mopti, has been partially excavated (Gallay

et al., 1990; Huysecom, 1991). The plan of the city revealed that it wasfortified with a wall of sun-dried brick and had at its heart the congrega-tional mosque and Hamadou's palace, side by side, illustrating the lack ofdifferentiation between the secular and sacred aspects of lifeln Islam.

In the second half of the 19th century A.D. even larger movementswere initiated, including that of At-Hajj 'IJmar in the Futa Toro region onthe River Senegal and the mountainous Futa Jallon (Guinea, SierraLeone). Islamic expansion at this time was achieved, to quote Tiimingham(1962, p.155), "by means of the alliance of the sword and the book,; andconversions to Islam were on an unprecedented scale. Unfortunately, ar-chaeological sites associated with these movements and with the Jihaii pe-riod, in general, have still largely to be investigated. The Fulani mosquearchitecture is of interest, however, as it too has developed its own uniquecharacter, a dome of thatch over a square sanctuary (Leury, t9lS, p.2il).In the Futa Toro region the initial inspiration was drawn from the ptan orthe earliest mosque, the Prophet's dwelring in Medina (nourdier, i993).

Summary

The penetration of Islam into the western Sudan and Forest zones iscomparatively late in date, starting with the nominal Islamization of therulers of Mali in the twelfth century. Moving south, it gets progressivelylater and can be said to be an ongoing process in some areas. .[ furtherimportant feature of Islam in the region is the unity lent to much of theIslamization process and the resultant material culture legacy through theactions of the Mande, whose energetic and, it must be iemembered, es-sentially peaceful, trading activities served to spread Islam far from theirsavanna homelands to the forest fringe between the fifteenth and the eight-eenth centuries. A less peaceful dimension was added by the Jihads of theeighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which swept through much of the re-gion and served to spread Islam much farther, deep into the forests, in-creasing conversions and, perhaps most importantly, in many areas eitherdrove the syncretic tradition underground o. cuus"d it to disappear alto-gether, to be replaced by a more orthodox brand of Islam.

THE AFRICAN INTERIOR, EAST CENTRAL, ANDSOUTHERN AFRICA

This was the last region of Islamic penetration in sub-Saharan Africa(Fig. B), a vast area whose inhabitants, eicept in a few limited places (zam-

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graphically and temporally from the early Muslim contacts with the Hornof Africa.

Southern Africa

rheexis,ence.::::':::":::'::,::':::,^",owerreachesofthe East African coast has already been discussed, but this was not ac-companied by local conversions to Islam. The first area of southern A1iicaintegrated into the network of Indian ocean trade was Mapungubwe inthe Limpopo basin, where glass trade beads, some of Egyptian orilin, *"r"found dating from berween the ninth and the nvelfth

""iir.i"s (Voigt, 1983;saitow-itz

_et al., 1996).Ivory and animal skins were exported io the coast

until the late trvelfth century, when circumstances upp"ir to have changed,precipitated by the rise in demand for gold which led to a shift in coastal_interior trade northward, centered on ihe Zimbabwe plateau (Hall, 19g7,pp. 89-98). A hoard of trade goods, including sherds of thirteenth-centurychinese celadon, a Persian bowl, and thousinds of. glass beads, was dis-covered at the site of Great zimbabwe, attesting to ihe volume oi the goldtrade

.with_the coast (Garrake, L973; Hail, r9g7, p.99). similar trade goodsof Indian ocean origin, such as glass beads, have been reported from else-where in the region, in Botswana, for example (Sinclair, 1SSZ, pp. 150_151),and at Ingombe Ilede in Southern Zambia, imported Indian iextile rra[-ments and glass beads of fifteenth-century date were found (Fagan, 1969;H_all, 1987, p' 9B). No direct archaeologicar evidence for the piesence ofMuslims has yet been reported for this period, though Swahili N.iuslim com-munities are reported to have settled fbr commercial reasons in the zam-bezi area by A.D. 1500, Muslim communities whose descendants werewiped out in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Hiskett, 1994, pp.157,167).

The Dutch and Islam

- Although perhaps a strange concept, the Dutch settrers who arrivedin A.D. 1652 were directly responsible ior bringing Islam to the far southof the continent, through the importation of ia*r"s" and Malays fromthe Dutch East Indies, people later somewhat offensively termed, ,,capecoloreds" (Hiskett, 1994, p.174). Initially converted houses were used forprayers, with the first purpose built mosque in South Africa, the Auwal


mosque in Cape Town, built by the Muslim community, ca. A.D.1811 (DuPlessis, 1972; Bradlow and Cairns, 1978, pp. 88-90). Subsequently the Mus-lim community in southern Africa was enriched by the arrival of immigrantsfrom the Indian subcontinent (Chidester, 1992), who contributed to thespread and character of Islam throughout the region, with substantial In-dian Muslim communities not only in South Africa, but in interior Kenya,Taruania, Uganda, and Malawi, for example.

Eastern Interior and Central Africa

It was into this region that Muslim Swahili and Arab traders pene-trated in search of slaves and ivory in the nineteenth century. Routesstretched from the Swahili coast, from towns such as Bagamoyo and KilwaKivinje, via inland trade centers, Thbora and Ujiji, for example, and thenaround Lake Victoria to the interlacustrine kingdoms, or west deep intothe heart of Africa. Their religion obviously accompanied the traders, butthe effects of Islam were by no means uniform: in some areas Islam madegreat inroads; in others the effect was negligible. Local circumstances hadmuch of an impact, but it is true to say that had not European involvementin the region severely disrupted most areas of life, the numbers of Muslimstoday would be substantially greater.

Kngs and Soldfurs

Within the region certain astute rulers saw the advantages Islam couldoffer, in access to trade goods or for prestige perhaps. One of the mostinfluential of these was Kabaka Mutesa I (ca. A.D. 1856-1884) of Buganda,who deftly played off the two competing religions on offer, Islam and Chris-tianity; Christianity being represented by both Catholicism and Protestant-ism, which were themselves in conflict. The material results of the Muslimpresence in Buganda (which largely await investigation) included the build-ing of mosques, the adoption of the robe and turban, and the introductionof certain cereals, fruits, and vegetables (Oded, 1974, pp.72-96; Soghay-roun, 1984, pp.145-149; Insoll, 1996c). Islam also had an influence in otherkingdoms, including Bunyoro, in what is today Uganda.

A further dimension to the archaeolory of Islam in interior east-cen-tral Africa is provided by the forts built by Emin Pasha, an Egyptian official,in the southern Sudan and northern Uganda. These, such as the examplesat Wadelai and Dufile, were built in the late nineteenth century when EminPasha's force was cut off from the rest of the Nilotic Sudan by the Mahdist

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rising (Posnansky and De corse, 1986, p. 8). As well as again illustratingthe interconnections between the regions of the continent, they provideanother example of the diversity of Islamic material culture in sub-SaharanAfrica, as the garrisons of these outposts were often made up of Egyptiantroops, predominantly Muslims, occupying this southern and majority ani-mist region.

Tiaders

Although Swahili and Arab traders were again the agents for thespread of Islam, it should be noted that they differed greatly from, forexample, the Mande, who were essentially peaceful in outlook, were moreviolent in nature and linked with slave raiding. Tiade posts were established,as at Nyangwe and Kasongo on the Lualaba River, but unfortunately in-formation on the Arab settlements in both rhnzania and Zaire has not yetbeen obtained from archaeological research, but from the accounts ofEuropean explorers and soldiers. what is known is that the settlementswere often very comfortable, equipped with well-built houses and with ex-tensive plantations worked by slaves (Hinde, 1897, pp.184-185). Eventuallythe coastal raiders and traders came to control a latge area, delimited bythe River Lukuga in the south, the River Lomami to the southwest, theconfluence of the Lopori and Bolombo Rivers in the northwest, and byA.D. 1889, the vicinity of Lake Albert in the north (Ceulemans, 1966, p.1Be) (Fig. B).

Perhaps one of the best known of these Swahili traders was Tippu Tip,whose "sultanate," Utetera, flourished in the late nineteenth century in thevicinity of the Stanley Falls (De Thier, 1963; Hiskett, 1994, p. 173)" Al-though conversion to Islam did take place among the local population, itshould be remembered that the primary reason for the traders' presencefar from their homelands was trade, and not prostelyization (L'evtzion,1985b, p. 190); coastal customs and the Swahili language spread, but large-scale conversion to Islam was not encouraged and did not take place (Is-lamic law is very precise on who could be enslaved, Muslims could not,hence the apparent reticence in encouraging conversions).

However, among the Yao of Malawi, trade was accompanied: by sub-stantial conversions to Islam, albeit slowly. The original homeland of theYao was in northern Mozambique and trade between here and the coastin tobacco and skins, which were exchanged for salt, cloth, and beads, wasestablished by the seventeenth century (Mitchell, 1956, p. 23). prestige wasof importance, and facilitated conversion to Islam, as travel to the coastwas considered prestigious, and thus aspects of Muslim coastal life were


adopted by the Yao. The first Swahili traders actually entered Yao countryin the eighteenth century, accompanied by Islamic teachers (Levtzion,1985b, p. 190) (which may explain why Islamic conversions were on alargerscale). In the nineteenth century the Yao migrated into southern Malawi,and the first conversion to Islam among the ruling class occurred in A.D.1870 (Hiskett, 1994, p. 172). Muslim influence was visible, and Livingstonenoticed the influence of the coast on architecture and dress at the Yaocapital, Mwembe, which was designed to resemble a coastal town, whenhe visited in 1866 (Thorold, 1987, p.22).

Summary

Islam reached the African interior last of all, but as can be seen, inmany areas the effects have been profound. This vast area also abuts manyof the other regions which have already been discussed and, in many cases,

interlinks with events occurring elsewhere; northern Uganda was thus con-nected with the Nilotic Sudan, Dar al-Kuti borders the termini of the eastAfrican Swahili and Arab traders and slavers travels, and the East AfricanCoast was intimately connected with events in much of southern and east-central Africa. It was stated at the beginning of this section that events inthe east, central, and southern African interior were far removed geo-graphically and temporally from the first Muslim contacts across the RedSea; as regards direct parallels this can of course be said to be true, butindirectly we have charted a continuous process around the continent, withthe relationship between Islam and the peoples of Africa at its core.

CONCLUSIONS

The Nature of Islam

The role of Islam in shaping the history and cultural development ofAfrica south of the Sahara is profound. Almost every country within sub-Saharan Africa has some form of archaeological evidence attesting to this(except the west coast from Namibia to Gabon), ranging in scale from theisolated funerary monument to the complete settlement. The nature of Is-lam and Islamization can be seen to vary across the continent both in timedepth and in the material culture remains left behind. The Red Sea Coast,the area of earliest contact, where contacts with Muslims began in the firstcentury of Islam, borders the Christian Ethiopian Highlands, the only re-gion in Africa where three World religions have been in continuous contact:

Christianity, Islam, and Judaism (represented by the Falasha). Elsewherein sub-Saharan Africa, Islam has supplanted Christianity, as in the NiloticSudan, or fused with traditional religions to create a syncretic and uniquelyAfrican Islam, perhaps best represented in the west African Sudan andForest zones.

In the Western Sahel and on the East African Coast, important en-trep6ts were situated, and broad parallels can be drawn. In the WesternSahel local rulers tolerated the foreign Muslim merchants for the benefitsthey brought: literacy and improved administration, law in the form ofShai'a. Eventually these rulers converted, and the progression of Islamthrough the region can be charted archaeologically and historically. On theEast African Coast, the impact of Islam outside the trade centers is lessvisible, with an apparent focus outwards to the Indian Ocean, but hereAfrican, foreign, and Muslim elements fused and the unique Swahili civi-lization was created. Indigenous agents of Islam, Swahili in the east andthe Mande in the west, were to spread Islam far into the interior of, re-spectively, eastern-central and western Africa.

In southern Africa processes again differ; trade goods originating inthe Islamic world are found, while Muslims themselves were largely absentprior to the arrival of Europeans, who brought with them Indonesian Mus-lims, thereby adding to the rich tapestry of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa.In the Central Sudan, the region which perhaps remains one of the leastknown, important empires, kingdoms, and emirates were to flourish anddisappear. Islam gradually spread throughout the Central Sudan, part ofwhich, along with the West African Sudan and Forest zones, was to witnessand be the arena for a wave of Islamic revival and jihad. Jihad, throughconquest, was to spread Islam even farther and, in turn, generated its ownpeculiar material culture legacy.

Uniformity and Diversity

Much uniformity in the processes of Islamic transmission is noticeable.Nomads, merchants, and rulers were commonly primary converts, followedsoon after by town-dwellers and, finally, sedentary agriculturists. But thiswas more often than not a long, drawn-out process over the course of sev-eral centuries, contrary to traditions that try and persuade us that conver-sions of a complete population were simultaneous. In contrast to the largelyuniform processes of Islamic transmission, there is great diversity in thearchaeological remains found (and, in certain cases, in the schools of Islamfollowed). Tivo primary reasons for this can be isolated. Firstly, no one areaof the Islamic world held a monopoly over contacts with sub-saharan Af-


rica; different regions exerted influences on different areas, north Africaupon the Western Sahel and the Persian Gulf upon the East African Coast,for example. Secondly, although common categories of evidence are re-corded, both attesting directly to the acceptance of Islam (mosques andMuslim burials, for example) and indirectly to contacts with the MuslimWorld (trade goods), within each of these categories great variety is mani-fest. Other than trade goods, Islamic material culture was not directly trans-ferred per se, from the Muslim heartland's of Arabia, the Near East, andthe Persian Gulf. Rather, it has been adapted and has evolved within thesub-Saharan African context to suit a variety of lifestyles and environments.Numerous local traditions have developed, with, for example, the Islamicarchitecture of the Horn of Africa differing from that of the Western Sahel,which in turn differs from that found on the East African Coast.

Social Processes

Inevitably, many questions remain to be answered. For example, wemight know something of the architecture of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa,and the impact it had upon indigenous styles and techniques, but we knownext to nothing about the similar changes wrought on diet and dietary hab-its by conversion to Islam, information which can also be provided by ar-chaeology (see Insoll, 1997). Perhaps of greater importance is the need tomove beyond merely cataloguing data and being concerned solely with de-scription (though as with most of this paper, it has to form the startingpoint). We must begin to consider seriously in greater detail the actualimpact of Islam on the way people lived throughout the continent southof the Sahara, and why they converted to Islam. As shown above, theseare questions for which at present we have only the sketchiest of answers,but to achieve an understanding in any depth a conceptual shift is needed,i.e. considering the social aspects of conversion to Islam and Islamizationin sub-Saharan Africa, which after all is concerned primarily with ideologyand religious processes which are firmly within the social domain. In thisrespect, we may learn something from observing current processes behindthe spread and acceptance of Islam, which is still occurring in many areasof the continent, and which might breathe life into our archaeological in-terpretations. Secondly, practical measures also need to be undertaken incorrecting the regional imbalance which is plainly apparent in archaeologi-cal research.

In conclusion, it is hoped that this paper will have succeeded in somesmall way in generating interest in the subject, both in illustrating the many

496 Insoll

gaps in our knowledge and in providing the first tentative stepping-stonefor the way forward.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to John Alexander, David Phillipson, Thurstan Shaw,

and Rachel Maclean for reading and commenting on various sections ofthe manuscript. All omissions and errors, are of course, my own.

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JOURNAL OF WORLD PREHISTORY -Volume 10, 1996

Joumal ofW-orld Prehistory is an international.forum for the publication ofpeer-reviewed original articles that synthesize theprehistory of an area or of a time-horizon within a larger region, or describe technical advances"of wide anJ gene.Jr

"ppfiJf"..Such overuiew^(or.synthetical)_papers, writt€n by exp=erts in each field, provide in-depth thoughtful develoiment ofi"t" "roconc€pts in a fashion accessible to and of interest to all archaeologists. The joumal'focuws 6n prehistory, including the be-

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Prehbtory is a source-for both scholars and teachers-of timely and iuthoritative syntheses of research from all fields ofarchaeologr.

EDITORAngela E. Close, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

ASSOCIATE EDITORFred Wendorf, Southem Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA

EDITORIAL BOARDC.lVlelvin Aikens, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USATakeru Akazawa, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

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Ofer Bar-Yosef, Haruard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USAPeter Bellwood, Australian National university, canberra, Australian capital rerritory, AustraliaJohn Bower, University of Minnesota, Duluth, Minnesota, USARlchard L. Burger, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USARobert W. !!apman, University of Reading, Reading, Berkstrire, United KingdomJ. Desmond Clark, University of California, Berkeley, Califomia, USAJohn M. Coles, Fitailliam College, Cambridge, United KinsdomDonald K. Grayson, University of Washington. Seattle, Waslington, USAJames B. Griffin, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USADonald 0, Henry, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklihoma, USASusan Keech Mclntosh, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USASarunas Milisauskas, State University of New york, Buffalo, New york, USAAndrew M, T. Moore, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USAJohn W. Olsen, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USACatherine Perlis, University of Paris X, Nanterre, FranceT. Douglas Price, University of Wisonsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USAAnthony Ranere, Temple University, Philadelphia, pennsylvania, USAElsa M. Redmond, American Museum of Naiural History, New york, New york, USAJ^ergmy tr"-Sabloff, University of Pemsylvania, Philadelphia, pennsylvania, USAC. Garth Sampson, Southem Methodist University, Dallas, Texas,'USARomuald Schild, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, polandJim G. Shaffer, Case Westem Reserye University, Cleveland, Ohio, USABruce D. Smith, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USAOlga Soffer, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinoi-s, USASander E. van der Leeuw, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United KingdomPaola Villa, University of Bordeaux 1, Talence, FiancePeter S. I{ells, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USAJ_..Peter Wbite, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia\Y. H. Wills, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

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