A Description of Ghana by Al-Bakri in the 11th Century:
The city of Ghana consists of two towns situated on a plain. One of these towns, which is
inhabited by Muslims, is large and possesses twelve mosques, in which they assemble for the
Friday prayer. There are salaried imams and muezzins, as well as jurists and scholars. In the
environs are wells with sweet water, from which they drink and with which they grow
vegetables. The king’s town is six miles distant from this one…
Between these two towns are continuous habitations. …In the king’s town, and not far from his
court of justice, is a mosque where the Muslims who arrive at his court pray. Around the king’s
town are domed buildings and groves and thickets where the sorcerers of these people, men in
charge of the religious cult, live. In them too are their idols and the tombs of their kings. These
woods are guarded and none may enter them and know what is there…. The king’s interpreters,
the official in charge of his treasury and the majority of his ministers are Muslims. Among the
people who follow the king’s religion only he and his heir apparent (who is the son of his sister)
may wear sewn clothes. All other people wear robes of cotton, silk, or brocade, according o their
means. All of them shave their beards, and women shave their heads. The king adorns himself
like a woman (wearing necklaces) round his neck and (bracelets) on his forearms, and he puts on
a high cap decorated with gold and wrapped in a turban of fine cotton. He sits in audience or to
hear grievances against officials in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with
gold-embroidered materials. Behind the king stand ten pages holding shields and swords
decorated with gold, and on his right are the sons of the (vassel) kings of his country wearing
splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold. The governor of the city sits on the ground
before the king and around him are ministers seated likewise. At the door of the pavilion are
dogs of excellent pedigree who hardly ever leave the place where the king is, guarding him.
Round their necks they wear collars of gold and silver studded with a number of balls of the
same metals. The audience is announced by the beating of a drum which they call duba made
from a long hollow log. When the people who profess the same
religion as the king approach him they fall on their knees and sprinkle dust on their head, for this
is their way of greeting him. As for the Muslims, they greet him only by clapping their hands….
Their religion is paganism and the worship of idols….
On every donkey-load of salt when it is brought into the country their king levies one golden
dinar and two dinars when it is sent out. … The best gold is found in his land comes from the
town of Ghiyaru, which is eighteen days’ traveling distance from the king’s town over a country
inhabited by tribes of the Sudan whose dwellings are continuous…
The king of Ghana when he calls up his army, can put 200,000 men into the field, more than
40,000 of them archers.
Ibn Battuta’s Description of Mali 1354:
This desert is bright, luminous. Traversing it, one breathes deeply; one is in good spirits, and safe
from robbers. The desert here contains many wild cattle. A flock of them might come so near to
a caravan that people can hunt them with dogs and arrows. However, eating their meat creates
thirst and, as such, many people avoid it as a consequence. If killed, water is found in their
Selection of African Kingdom Descriptions
1
stomachs and I have seen the Massûfa squeezing the stomach and drinking the water. There are
also many snakes.
A merchant of Tilimsan known as al-Hajj Zaiyân was in our caravan. He had the habit of
catching these snakes and playing with them. I had asked him not to do this but he would not
desist. He put his hand into a lizard’s hole one day and found a snake there instead. He grasped it
and was about to mount his horse. But the snake bit the finger of his right hand, inflicting severe
pain on him. The wound was cauterized, but in the evening the pain worsened. He cut the throat
of a camel and kept his hand in its stomach all night. The flesh of his finger loosened and then he
sliced off his finger at the base. The Massûfa told me that the snake must have drunk water
before biting him, or the bite would have killed him.
When the people coming to meet us with water had reached us, our mounts were given water.
We entered an extremely hot desert. It was not like the one we had just experienced. We would
leave after the afternoon prayer, travel all night and stop in the morning. Men from the Massûfa
and Badama and other tribes brought us loads of water for sale. We reached the city of Iwalatan
at the beginning of the month of rabi’i after a journey of two months from Sijilmasa. It is the
first district in the country of the Blacks. The Sultan’s deputy here is Farba Husain; farba means
‘deputy’.
On arriving, the merchants deposited their goods in a clearing and the Blacks assumed
responsibility for them. The merchants went to the Farba who was sitting on a mat in a shelter.
His officials were standing in front of him holding spears and bows, and the Massûfa notables
were behind him. The merchants stood in front of him, and he spoke to them through an
interpreter as a sign of his contempt for them even though they were close to him. On observing
their bad manners and contempt for white people, I was sorry I had come to their land. I retired
to the house of ibn Badda’, a kind man of Sala from whom I had let a house by request.
The inspector of Iwalatan, named Mansha Ju, invited those who had come in the caravan to a
reception. I refused to attend. My companions urged me very strongly to accept, and finally I
accompanied the rest. At the reception coarsely ground anli was served mixed with honey and
curdled milk. This was put in a half gourd shaped like a large bowl. Those present drank and
then left. I asked them: ‘Is it for this that the Blacks invited us?’ They replied: ‘Yes. For them it
is the greatest hospitality.’ I became convinced that no good could be expected from these
people, and I wished to join the pilgrims travelling out of Iwalatan. But I decided to go and see
the capital of their king before leaving. I stayed in Iwalatan for about fifty days in all. Its people
treated me with respect and were hospitable… The town of Iwalatan is very hot. There were
some small palms and they had sowed melons in their shade. Water came from underground
sources. Mutton was plentiful. Their clothes were of fine quality and of Egyptian origin. Most of
the inhabitants belong to the Massûfa. The women are of exceptional beauty and are more highly
respected than the men.
Selection of African Kingdom Descriptions
2