Ghana Empire
The Ghana Empire (Arabic: غانا), also known as simply Ghana, Ghanata, or Wagadou, was a West African classical to post-classical era western-Sahelian empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali.
Ghana Empire غانا Wagadou واغادو | |||||||||||
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| c. 100–300–c. mid-1200s | |||||||||||
The Ghana Empire at its greatest extent | |||||||||||
| Capital | Koumbi Saleh | ||||||||||
| Common languages | Soninke, Malinke, Mande | ||||||||||
| Religion | African traditional religion Later Islam | ||||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||
| Ghana | |||||||||||
• 700 | Kaya Magan Cissé | ||||||||||
• 790s | Dyabe Cisse | ||||||||||
• 1040–1062 | Ghana Bassi | ||||||||||
• 1203–1235 | Soumaba Cisse | ||||||||||
| Historical era | 1st–3rd century–13th century | ||||||||||
• Established | c. 100–300 | ||||||||||
• Conversion to Islam | 1076 | ||||||||||
• Conquered by Sosso/Submitted to the Mali Empire | c. 15th century c. mid-1200s | ||||||||||
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| Today part of |
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It is uncertain when Ghana's ruling dynasty began among historians. The first identifiable mention of the imperial dynasty in written records was made by Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī in 830. Further information about the empire was provided by the accounts of Cordoban scholar al-Bakri when he wrote about the region in the 11th century.
After centuries of prosperity, the empire began its decline in the second millennium, and would finally become a vassal state of the rising Mali Empire at some point in the 13th century. Despite its collapse, the empire's influence can be felt in the establishment of numerous urban centers throughout its former territory. In 1957, the British colony of the Gold Coast, under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah named itself Ghana upon independence because it was thought that the largest tribe, the Akan, originated in the Ghana Empire.