Ghana Empire

E67506

The Ghana Empire was a powerful and wealthy medieval West African kingdom known for its control of trans-Saharan gold and salt trade routes between the 6th and 13th centuries.

Aliases (1)

Statements (50)
Predicate Object
instanceOf historical empire
medieval West African state
precolonial African polity
alsoKnownAs Ancient Ghana
Wagadou
associatedPeople Soninke
capital Koumbi Saleh
commonerReligion traditional African religions
continent Africa
controlledTradeRoute trans-Saharan caravan routes
coreRegion Sahel
upper Niger River region
upper Senegal River region
currencyForm gold dust
declineCause external attacks
internal fragmentation
shifts in trade routes
eliteReligion Islam
endTime 13th century
exportedCommodity gold
floruit 10th century
11th century
9th century
governmentType centralized kingdom
importedCommodity horses
salt
textiles
knownFromSource Al-Bakri
Al-Idrisi
Arabic geographers
Ibn Khaldun
languageFamily Niger-Congo languages
locatedIn West Africa
mainEconomicActivity gold trade
salt trade
trans-Saharan trade
militaryFeature cavalry
use of iron weapons
neighbor Almoravid dynasty
Sosso state
Takrur
notSameAs modern state of Ghana
politicalSystem monarchy
religion Islam
traditional African religions
rulerTitle Ghana
startTime 6th century
successor Mali Empire
wealthSource control of goldfields
taxation of trade

Referenced by (4)

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