Chapter “The Art of Medieval Africa”. General history of art. Volume II. Art of the Middle Ages. Book II. Asia, Africa, America, Oceania. Author: D.A. Olderogge; under the general editorship of B.V. Weimarn and Yu.D. Kolpinsky (Moscow, State Publishing House "Art", 1961)
One of the centers of medieval culture in Africa arose in the 12th-14th centuries. in southwestern Sudan on the basis of the powerful state formation that has developed among the four million Yoruba people.
Back in the 19th century. European travelers were surprised to “discover” large flourishing cities in this area with a population of several tens of thousands of people (Ibadan, Ilorin, etc.) - The architecture of these cities - houses with courtyards and pools - resembled, according to some travelers, houses Ancient Rome and their characteristic impluvium.
The Yoruba achieved great success in the smelting of metals, the development of crafts, and created a complex pantheon, characteristic of peoples who had entered the class stage of their development. The heyday of the artistic culture of the Yoruba state of Ife dates back to the 12th-14th centuries. A sufficient idea of the level reached by art at this time was given, along with some earlier finds, by excavations begun in 1938 in the sacred Yoruba city of Ife. These finds, in particular, include a series of tarracotta heads that decorated altars for sacrifices and possibly depicted ancestral rulers. These heads amaze with their magnificent mastery of realistic sculpture, close in type to ancient realism. Excellent identification of plastic volumes, a generalized and at the same time rich realistic interpretation of form distinguish the skill of sculptors unknown to us. Some of these heads clearly embody the search for an image that is harmonious in its proportional relationships - a type of perfect and at the same time vitally concrete human beauty. The terracotta heads of Ife represent one of the most striking achievements of world art. No less significant are the bronze monumental heads of the gods and rulers of Ife, which are somewhat different in style from the terracotta heads.
The bronze head, apparently depicting the god of the sea Olokun, found before the First World War by the famous German ethnographer-researcher of African culture Frobenius, or the magnificent bronze head of King Obalufon are distinguished by the emphasized monumentality of the generalized sculptural volumes, a peculiar combination of precise and strong plastic modeling with rhythmic and ornamental graphic elaboration of the surface of the form in order to convey hairstyles, stripes applied to the face, tattoos, etc.
On some of the bronze heads, round holes were made around the mouth or forehead, intended for attaching mustaches, hair curls, and jewelry. In some Ife heads one can also see features of conveying a portrait resemblance, without, however, destroying the harmony of the created typical image of a person.
One of the most artistically significant monuments of this circle are bronze half-figures of one of the Oni - a deified king - the ancestor of the reigning dynasty. The frontal solemnity of the pose, free, however, from hieratic immobility, the wealth of ornamental decorations placed on the proportionally slender figure of the king, the restrained dynamics of the elastic-smooth contour of the entire composition create an image that is striking in its aesthetic perfection.
Among the finds made outside Ife, mention should be made of a bronze figurine of a seated scribe from Tada, somewhat reminiscent of ancient Egyptian sculpture, as well as a number of realistic animal images.
An offshoot of the Ife culture was the culture of medieval Benin. By the 15th century The state of Benin achieved a dominant position, pushing into the background the Yoruba kings who had lost their former power. At the end of the 15th and first half of the 16th century. The Portuguese conducted quite a brisk trade with Benin, then, with the transfer of the center of trade and colonial interests of the Portuguese to India, Benin’s ties with Europe were almost completely interrupted. However, travelers of the 17th and 18th centuries. we are indebted for the most vivid descriptions of Benin during the years of its greatest power.
Thus, the Dutch doctor Olfert Dapper published a “Description of African Countries” in Amsterdam, which contains a message from the Dutch merchant Samuel Blomert, who visited Benin: “The king’s palace is quadrangular and is located on right side city when you enter through the Gotton Gate (the gate on the road to Gwato). It is as large as the city of Harlem, and is surrounded by a special wall besides the one that surrounds the city. The palace consists of many magnificent houses and beautiful long quadrangular galleries almost the same size as the Amsterdam stock exchange. These galleries rest on high pillars, covered from top to bottom with copper depicting military exploits and battles... Each roof is decorated with a turret on which is placed a bird cast from copper, with outstretched wings, very skillfully depicted from life. The city has very straight and wide streets, each about one hundred and twenty feet wide” (O. Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaenische Gewesten van Egypten, Afrikan, Negrosland etc., Amsterdam, 1676, p. 502.).
The French traveler Landolf, who visited Benin in 1786, compares it with the most major cities France at that time. According to him, about eighty thousand people lived in Benin.
This was Benin in the 16th-18th centuries. Bronze reliefs, heads and carved elephant tusks, now kept in museums in Europe and America, tell us about the former splendor of his palaces.
Large bronze heads depict the kings of Benin and are associated with ancestor worship. To this day, in every house in Benin there is an altar where sacrifices are made to the ancestors, and above all to the deceased father. Carved wooden heads are usually placed on altars, conveying, as accurately as possible, a portrait likeness of the deceased. The image of an ancestor is called ukhuv-elao, which translated means the skull of an ancestor. Previously, members of a large patriarchal family gathered at the altar - the head of the house, his household, servants and slaves. To a certain extent, the large patriarchal family of Benin was similar to the ancient Roman one, the head of which also made sacrifices on the altar of his ancestors on behalf of the entire family. In Benin, as in imperial Rome, the kings were deified, the royal altar was considered the altar of the ancestors of the entire country, and the cult of the king’s ancestors had national significance.
Uhuv-elao of the ancestors of the king and supreme military leader - Ezomo, who owned huge estates and hundreds of slaves, were made of bronze. At the top of the bronze heads there are holes into which carved elephant tusks were inserted. They apparently depicted processions associated with the great annual festival of the ancestors.
According to local legends, during the reign of King Oguola, that is, in the mid-13th century, a foundry master, Igwe-Iga, was sent from the city of Ife to Benin. From that time on, Benin had its own foundry masters at the royal court. They lived in a special quarter in the immediate vicinity of the palace. The art of bronze casting was kept secret.
Bronze heads and figures of Benin kings 15-18 centuries. have a pronounced Negroid character, but all facial features are conveyed in a simplified and schematic manner. Ukhuv-elao depicts the king in a traditional headdress - a wicker cap with two wings on the sides. At the point where the wings are attached, large rosettes are placed, from which protrusions extend, consisting of beads strung on a solid base. (Beads of some varieties were valued more expensively than gold in Benin.) The lower part of the head up to the mouth is covered with a kind of high standing collar. These are strings of beads worn during ceremonies. Below, at the base of the ukhuv-elao, on the rim are depicted various animals, the figures of which are probably a kind of list of the king’s titles and, apparently, should have been “read” something like this: brave like a panther, mighty like a bull, strong like an elephant and etc. Some heads without a rim at the bottom may represent the king’s mother, who was held in high esteem at the court of the king of Benin. However, all the bronze heads of kings and queens are homogeneous - before us are the same lifeless, majestic masks. The bronze figurine of a “flutist”, the head of a woman, etc. are distinguished by the great vitality of the image.
Bronze reliefs were intended to decorate palace halls and galleries. On them we see kings, courtiers, military leaders, European merchants, scenes of hunts and sacrifices. The military leaders are depicted in armor with bells hanging from them, which, according to the Benin people, have magical power. Wearing such bells was a sign of power.
In general, compared to the art of Ife culture, the art of Benin is more conventional and less masterful in plastic arts. The volumes become more schematic, losing that sense of plasticity of the living body that was characteristic of the Ife masters, but the actual ornamental element in sculpture acquires much greater importance, reaching a high and unique development. The craft level of metal processing, casting, carving, etc. is also very high. To some extent, the art of Benin, with its schematic volumes, conventional proportions, and abundance of ornament, resembles in its type the monuments of the early Middle Ages Western Europe, while the works of Ife masters evoke rather associations with monuments of early antiquity or Ancient India.
It would, however, be wrong to see in the art of Benin only a manifestation of artistic decline, to regard it only as craft court art. Closely connected with the emerging feudal ideology, the art of Benin was also connected with the emerging cult-palace architecture.
In Benin, a relief associated with architecture developed, and certain early forms of monumental composition of the medieval type developed. This is a bronze relief depicting the ceremonial guards symmetrically located around the royal throne. This relief is also interesting because it gives an idea of the architecture and architectural decor of the Benin palace. The sculptural group depicting the leader and his retinue is interesting for its hieratic symmetrical composition. It is curious that the principle of primitive social hierarchy finds its expression in the large-scale relationships of figures. The king-commander is much larger in size than his companion; a slave or an ordinary warrior standing at the feet of the king, and two lions, symbolizing the strength and courage of the ruler, are depicted as very small. On the pedestal of the group, symbolic figures are depicted in relief, in particular defeated and beheaded enemies. By the type of its naive symbolism, this composition is reminiscent of some works of Mesopotamia or early Romanesque art.
However, for all their primitiveness, works of this kind signified a transition from an ornamental understanding of an artistic whole or from the depiction of albeit realistically bright individual figures to a more complex and monumental association of a group of people connected by a common action or expressing a certain common idea.
Compared to these images, the life-size bronze figure of a rooster is striking in its realism. The plumage is carefully engraved, and if the artist can be reproached for anything, it is only for the excessive thickness of the bird’s legs, which, in all likelihood, was caused by technical necessity: the figure of the rooster is too massive and heavy to be supported on thinner legs.
The culture of Ife and Benin influenced the culture of almost all the peoples of the Guinean coast, from the Niger River all the way to the Volta River and even west of it. Bronze casting is still common among many peoples of Upper Guinea.
The creativity of Ghanaian foundry masters is very interesting, namely bronze castings of weights for weighing gold. More Arab travelers of the 10th-15th centuries. reported about countries far to the south where gold was mined. Gold mining areas were located within the now independent states of Ghana and Ivory Coast. Among the Baule people, in particular, gold casting was very common. Preserved big number gold masks, which are distinguished by great elegance and fine workmanship. They are extremely rare. They were worn around the neck or at the waist, and may represent the heads of slain enemies. But in their character they resemble the small masks that we see on the belts of nobles depicted on bronze reliefs of ancient Benin. Baule masks are very diverse, but they also have certain common features: ovoid or oval face, cord-shaped brow ridges, almond-shaped closed eyes, long thin nose, conventionally rendered hair in the form of stylized twisted buns.
To the south of the states located along the Guinea coast and the lower reaches of the Niger, in the zone of Equatorial Africa, several large state formations also arose. The most significant among them was the kingdom of Kongo, where during its heyday, in the 15th-17th centuries, trade and crafts reached a high degree of development. However, rich and original artistic traditions were preserved not so much in the centers of this kingdom, but in the territory that flourished in the 16-18 centuries. far from the sea, in the depths of the equatorial forests, the state of Bushongo (in the upper reaches of the Kassai River, a tributary of the Congo). Among the monuments of Bushongo, wooden memorial statues of kings deserve special attention, the tradition of creating them dates back to the beginning of the 17th century. These sculptures, such as the statue of King Shambo Bolongongo, are distinguished by sharp expressiveness of form, laconically precise and sharp modeling of volumes. The kings were depicted sitting with their legs crossed, slightly tilted forward. An indispensable attribute of these statues were various objects symbolizing the deeds of rulers worthy of perpetuation. For example, the image of an anvil served as a symbol of the fact that blacksmithing had reached a high level under this king. Shambo Bolongongo himself is depicted with a playing board on his lap as a sign that the game "lela" appeared in the country during his reign.
In general, the artistic heritage of the slave-owning and early feudal states of the Tropical and South Africa has significant aesthetic value. It refutes the version of a number of bourgeois scientists about the ahistorical ethnographically frozen nature of black culture, confirms that the peoples of Africa in their historical and artistic development emerged from the stage of a primitive pre-class society, moving along the path of progress, reached a high level of social division of labor and production and created their own statehood and its original highly developed artistic culture. The slave trade, organized by Europeans to supply labor for American plantations, and subsequent colonization roughly interrupted the process of independent historical progress of the peoples of Tropical and Southern Africa and threw them back, slowing down their material and spiritual development for several centuries.
1. Peoples of Africa In the vast plains between the Niger and Senegal rivers, in the valleys of these rivers, Western Sudan is located. A lot of gold was mined here. There were legends about the wealth of Sudan in the Middle Ages. One Arab geographer reported that here “gold grows in the sand, just like carrots, and is harvested at sunrise.” The most important trade routes from the Gulf of Guinea to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea passed through Western Sudan. Farmers traded with nomads who lived on the border of the Sahara: in exchange for salt, hides and livestock, the nomads received grain and handicrafts. The journey through the Sahara Desert was difficult and dangerous. More than a dozen caravans died here from thirst or attacks by nomads.
2. West Africa The most ancient state of Sudan was Ghana, which achieved power in the 10th century. The king of Ghana and the family nobility became rich from trading in gold and salt. The king had a large army, consisting of detachments of archers and cavalry. In the capital of Ghana, a special royal quarter with a palace, sanctuary and prison was surrounded by walls. Solemn royal receptions were held here. In another part of the city, mosques and houses of Arab merchants were built.
2. West Africa At the end of the 11th century, the troops of the Sultan of the Arab state of Morocco (North Africa) captured and destroyed the capital of Ghana. The king undertook to pay tribute to the Sultan and, together with the nobility, converted to Islam. The rebellious population soon expelled the Moroccans, but Ghana's territory was reduced and it submitted to the state of Mali.
2. West Africa The heyday of Mali dates back to the 13th century, when its rulers conquered neighboring territories where caravan routes passed and gold was mined. The ruler and his entourage converted to Islam. After this, Muslim merchants from North Africa settled in the cities.
2. West Africa Later, in the 15th century, the Songhai state strengthened. The expansion of its borders was achieved during the reign of the energetic, warlike Ali Ber (1464-1492). He built a large river fleet; Severe discipline was introduced in the army. Ali Ber spent almost his entire life hiking. He managed to annex the main cities of Sudan to his possessions. In African tales and legends, Ali Ber appears as a wizard who could fly, become invisible and turn into a snake.
2. West Africa Rulers and nobles kept 500-1000 dependent people on their lands, who were settled in special villages. Dependent people paid rent to the owner and taxes to the state. Free community members also depended on the nobility. Since the middle of the 16th century, Songhai has been rapidly weakening. The ruler's relatives, holding high positions, conspired; the influential Muslim nobility in the cities had little respect for the rulers. The outbreak of internecine wars led the state into decline. At the end of the 16th century, Songhai was defeated by the troops of the Sultan of Morocco.
3. East Africa Aksum maintained close ties with the Roman Empire and later with Byzantium. The king and his entourage accepted the Christian faith. Writing was created in the country. In the 7th century, the Arabs took possession of Aksum in southern Arabia and then attacked it. The state broke up into separate principalities; the princes waged a fierce struggle for the throne. In the 10th century, Aksum ceased to exist.
3. East Africa City-states grew on the eastern coast of Africa. Arabs, Iranians, and Indians willingly settled in them. Large ships were built here, and there were many experienced sailors. Merchants from these cities sailed their ships across the Indian Ocean and traded with India, Iran and other Asian countries.
4. African culture Muslim schools arose, and in the city of Timbuktu - a higher school where they studied theology, history, law, mathematics, and astronomy. Scientists created writing based on local languages. Libraries were founded where many handwritten books were kept. Books were sold in shops, and, according to a contemporary, they received “more profit than from other goods.”
4. African culture Africans had considerable achievements in art. Ancient wooden and bronze sculptures and masks amaze with their expressiveness. Bronze plaques with bas-reliefs (convex images) of kings and nobles, scenes of hunting, war and court life were found in the royal palace in Benin.
4. African culture Europeans began to explore Africa back in ancient times. In the 14th century they swam freely along its north- west coast, exchanging knives, glass beads and other products of European artisans for gold, ivory, highly valued in Europe, rhinoceros horns, which were attributed medicinal properties, parrots for noble ladies.
Materials used Agibalova E.V., Donskoy G.M. History of the Middle Ages 6th grade / textbook for secondary schools. - M.: Education, 2008. Illustrations: - Devyataikina N.I. History of the Middle Ages: Tutorial. 6th grade. Part 1 / Devyataikina N. I. - M.: OLMAPRESS, 2008.
Kanku Musa was the most famous ruler of Mali. His pilgrimage (hajj) to holy places in 1324 became known throughout the Muslim world. On the way, he was accompanied by a retinue of 8 thousand warriors and no less number of slaves; The camels were loaded with up to one hundred packs of gold weighing about 12 tons. In every city where Kanku Musa arrived on Friday, he ordered the construction of a mosque. Even in the center of the Sahara, he feasted on fresh fish, which messengers brought him, and to bathe his beloved wife, they dug a huge pool and filled it with water from wineskins. Arriving in Cairo, Kanku Musa, without bargaining, paid any price for goods and distributed alms in huge sums. In Mecca, he bought houses and plots of land for black pilgrims. In the end, Musa ran out of money accumulated by generations of subjects, but they trusted him so much that a Cairo merchant lent a large amount. The Hajj to Mecca strengthened the authority of the ruler of Mali among Muslims.
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Africa. Middle Ages
North and North-East Africa. The Middle Ages of North Africa and Egypt are closely connected with the Northern Mediterranean. Since the 3rd century. Egypt and the countries of North Africa, which were part of the Roman Empire, were experiencing a deep crisis. The aggravation of internal contradictions of late antique society contributed to the success of the invasions of barbarians (Berbers, Goths, Vandals) in the African provinces of Rome. At the turn of the IV-V centuries. with the support of the local population, the barbarians overthrew the power of Rome and formed several states in North Africa: the kingdom of the Vandals with their capital in Carthage (439-534), the Berber kingdom of Djedar (between Mulua and Ores) and a number of smaller principalities of the Berber agellides (kings): Luata ( in the north of Tripolitania), Nefzaoua (in African Castile on the territory of Byzacena, modern Tunisia), Djeraoua (in Numidia), etc. The process of so-called de-Romanization included the restoration of the positions of local languages and cultures that gravitated to the east.
Byzantine power over Egypt and North Africa(conquered in 533-534) was fragile. The arbitrariness of the military authorities and the corruption of the state apparatus weakened the central government. The positions of the African provincial nobility (Latin in North Africa, Greek in Egypt) were strengthened, often entering into alliance relations with barbarians and external enemies of Byzantium. In 616-626, Sassanid Persian troops occupied Egypt; in North Africa, the lands belonging to the empire were captured by the Berber Agellides. In 646, the Carthaginian exarch (governor) of Byzantium, Gregory, announced the separation of Africa from Byzantium and proclaimed himself emperor. The situation of the masses, suffering from fiscal oppression and exploitation by large landowners, worsened. Popular discontent was expressed in the widespread spread of heresies [Arians, Donatists, Monophysites (Jacobites)] and the aggravation of religious-communal struggle.
In the middle of the 7th century. popular heretical movements found an ally in the Muslim Arabs. In 639, Arabs appeared on the borders of Egypt. During the military campaigns, the Arab commanders Amr ibn al-As, Okba ibn Nafi, Hasan ibn al-Noman, with the active support of the local population who fought against the Byzantines “Rumi” and the land aristocracy, defeated the troops of the Byzantine governor of Egypt, then the Carthaginian emperor Gregory, king Djedar Kosela, the Berber queen Ores Kahina and their allies (see). In 639-709, all the African provinces of Byzantium became part of the Arab Caliphate (until 750, led by the Umayyad dynasty, then by the Abbasids). Monophysites and representatives of ancient heretical movements supported the Arabs, who were close to the indigenous population in language and cultural traditions. The power of the caliphs was strong in the developed regions of North Africa (Egypt, eastern and central Maghreb). In peripheral areas with strong remnants of tribal relations, the power and authority of the caliphs was very conditional, if not nominal.
The inclusion of North Africa in the caliphate contributed to the gradual leveling of the levels of socio-economic development of its various regions. The consequences of the economic decline of the 3rd-7th centuries were overcome. During the Umayyad era, a rise began in Egypt and North Africa. Agriculture, primarily agriculture, associated with massive construction in the 8th century. irrigation systems (reservoirs, underground, distribution and drainage canals, new dams and water-lifting mechanisms) and the transition to multi-field crop rotations. Along with traditional branches of agriculture (cereal production, olive growing, winemaking, horticulture), the production of so-called Indian crops (sugar cane, rice, cotton), as well as sericulture (in Ifriqiya), have become widespread. The extraction of silver, gold (in Sijilmas), copper, antimony, iron, and tin fully met domestic needs. High level handicraft production has reached, especially the production of fabrics, processing of glass, copper, iron, weapons making, and various arts and crafts. Shipyards were built in Egypt and Ifriqiya, and siege equipment was manufactured. There was a rise in the commodity-money economy. Land and large manufactories belonged to the state; trade and handicraft production were concentrated in the hands of private individuals. The social structure of the population had an early feudal character. The ruling class of feudal lords (Khassa) consisted of the bureaucratic strata, the Arab military nobility, and the top of the local population that closed with it. The bulk of the population was the communal peasantry and the plebeian strata of the city (amma) - small owners and wage earners. A large number of slaves (in Ifriqiya in the 9th century, 20-25% of the population) were used in various branches of production and in the non-productive sphere. A major role was played by the trading and merchant strata and tax farmers. Collective forms of exploitation of direct producers (rent-tax) prevailed. In Africa there were significant centers of the Arab culture of the caliphate: in Ifriqiya, Egypt, from the 9th-10th centuries. - in Fez, which developed under the strong influence of Ifriqiya and Muslim Spain. The Arabic language became widespread and became official in 706. The Arabization of the population, primarily the process of introducing it to the values of Arab culture, occurred extremely unevenly. It quickly spread to Tunisia and other coastal areas of North Africa, where the Semitic population predominated. Arabization proceeded more slowly in Egypt, Castile and other areas of North Africa, as well as in the interior Berber regions of Algeria and Morocco, where in the 8th-11th centuries. the population continued to speak respectively Coptic, Latin and various Berber languages. In Egypt only at the beginning of the 14th century. the Coptic language was supplanted by Arabic (isolated pockets of spoken Coptic remained until the 17th century). In Tunisia, the last inscriptions in Latin date back to the mid-11th century; local Romance and Berber languages existed until the 15th century. In the western Maghreb, the process of Arabization proceeded even more slowly. By the beginning of the 16th century. 85% of the population of Morocco and 50% of the population of Algeria continued to speak Berber languages.
Islam was professed by the ruling elite and the army, but the majority of Muslims were the plebeian strata of the city, the population of less developed areas. According to some estimates, 2/3 of Muslim clergy in the 8th-11th centuries. came from the trade and craft classes of the population. The agricultural population, intellectuals, and government officials were little affected by Islamization. The majority of the population of Morocco and other regions of Northern Sahara already at the beginning of the 8th century. considered themselves Muslims. In Morocco, the last centers of Christianity and paganism disappeared in the 10th century. At the same time, in Egypt and Ifriqiya until the beginning of the 10th century. Muslims were a minority. The primary process of Islamization in these countries ended mainly at the beginning of the 11th century, when up to 80% of the population abandoned Christianity. In Ifriqiya, the last Christian communities ceased to exist in the middle of the 12th century. Social and political contradictions were reflected in the struggle of diverse religious schools and movements.
With the collapse of the caliphate in the 9th century. In the Sunnite areas of Africa, Abbasid power weakened. Their African provinces became independent feudal states. They were led by the dynasties of the Tulunids (868-905) and Ikhshidids (935-969) in Egypt, the Aghlabids (800-909) in Ifriqiya, who recognized the power of the caliphs only as the spiritual leaders of Islam. The Idrisid state (788-974) in northern Morocco did not recognize Abbasid suzerainty and was heavily influenced by the rulers of Muslim Spain.
The development of mass anti-feudal movements determined the first successes of the Fatimids, who at the turn of the 9th-10th centuries. became the head of the Ismaili Shiites, who preached the establishment of social justice and messianic ideas about the imminent coming of the Mahdi. The Fatimids established their power in Ifriqiya, conquered Morocco and Egypt (969) and founded a caliphate, which also included a number of countries in the Middle East. In 973 its capital was moved from Mahdia to Cairo (Egypt). The social and political institutions of the Abbasid era underwent significant changes. Private trade and free craft were eliminated, and peasant communities were placed under state control. The state monopolized various branches of handicraft and agricultural production, and direct producers turned into state serfs. The Fatimids forcibly enforced Ismailism and ended the relative religious tolerance of the Umayyad and Abbasid times. In response to the disobedience of the Zirids, who restored (1048) an independent Sunni state in Ifriqiya, the Fatimids sent the Arab nomadic tribes Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym to North Africa, who on April 14, 1052, at the Battle of Haydaran (north of Gabes), defeated the troops of the Ifriqi emirs. The Bedouin invasion changed the fortunes of North Africa. The nomads - the Arabs and the Zenata Berbers who joined them - destroyed cities, ravaged the fields and villages of Ifriqiya and the Algerian High Plateau. The urban and agricultural population paid them tribute. The western regions of the Maghreb were invaded by the Almoravid Berbers, who relied on the Saharan nomadic Sanhaja tribes. In 1054, the Almoravids captured the capital of Western Sahara Audagost, conquered Tafilalt, Sousse and the lands of Bergwat, took Fez (1069) and established their power in western Algeria. By the beginning of the 12th century. the Almoravid state included Western Sahara, Morocco, Western Algeria, and Muslim Spain.
From the middle of the 11th century. Egypt and especially the Maghreb countries entered a period of economic and cultural decline. Their extensive irrigation systems were completely destroyed by nomads. During the same period, the balance of power in the Mediterranean Sea changed: shipping and maritime trade began to pass into the hands of Europeans. The Normans conquered Sicily (1061-91), captured Tripoli (1140), Bejaia, Sousse, Mahdia (1148), and together with the crusaders made several attacks on Thinis, Alexandria (1155) and other cities on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. In the XII-XIII centuries. The crusaders waged a fierce war at sea and launched several invasions of Egypt and North Africa. In 1168 their troops approached Cairo. The heavy defeats that the crusaders suffered in Egypt in 1219-21 and 1249-50 and in Tunisia in 1270 forced them to abandon their plans for conquest in Africa.
The struggle against the Normans and crusaders under the banner of the protection and revival of Islam was launched by Ibn Tumart in the west and Salah ad-Din in the east. Ibn Tumart laid the foundations of the military-religious movement of the Almohads, which overthrew the power of the Almoravids, subjugated the Arab and Berber Zenate tribes and created a powerful military power in North Africa (1146-1269). Its successors were the Hafsid states in Tunisia (1229-1574), the Zayyanids in western Algeria (1235-1551) and the Marinids in Morocco (1269-1465). Salah al-Din overthrew the Fatimid dynasty (1171), destroyed the social and political institutions of their caliphate and founded a Sunni state in Egypt led by the Ayyubid dynasty (1171-1250). In Egypt, the traditions of Salah ad-Din and the Ayyubids were adopted by the Mamluk sultans (1250-1517), who stood at the head of a powerful empire that claimed hegemony in the Muslim world. The states of the Ayyubids, Almohads and their successors managed to repel the threat from the Crusaders and establish the religious unity of North Africa based on Sunnism. A period of undivided dominance of Sunni orthodoxy and a merciless struggle against infidels began. There was further economic regression in Egypt and North Africa. The destruction of irrigation systems predetermined the decline of agriculture. In the XII-XV centuries. Rice and cotton crops, sericulture and winemaking gradually disappeared, and the production of flax and industrial crops fell. The population of agricultural centers, including the Nile Valley, reoriented itself to the production of grain, as well as dates, olives and horticultural crops. Huge areas were occupied by extensive cattle breeding. The process of so-called Bedouinization of the population proceeded extremely quickly. At the turn of the XI-XII centuries. Algerian High Plateaus, plains of central and southern Tunisia, later Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, in the 14th century. Upper Egypt turned into semi-desert dry steppes. Dozens of cities and thousands of villages disappeared. In Cyrenaica by the end of the 14th century. There is not a single urban-type settlement left. The population fell rapidly (according to Tunisian historians, the population of Ifriqiya in the 11th-15th centuries decreased by two-thirds; apparently, the population of Egypt decreased in approximately the same proportion).
The main social, political and military institutions of the late Middle Ages developed under the Ayyubids and Almohads. The importance of subsistence economic relations, especially in the Maghreb countries, has increased. The system of iqta - land and other awards for military service. Holders of iqta - Bedouin emirs, Mamluk and Almohad warriors - formed the main social support of the late medieval states. In cities, the state monopolized the production and sale of certain types of goods (while maintaining free craft and private trade in a number of sectors), regulated economic life, often acting as the owner or co-owner (under the Almohads) of city real estate (workshops, bakeries, shops, baths, etc.) . P.). In rural areas, especially Upper Egypt and the countries of North Africa, emirs and sheikhs of nomadic tribes (Arabs and Zenat Berbers), relying on their own military formations, acted as direct exploiters of peasants and semi-nomads, who paid them tribute and carried out a number of other duties.
Feudal tyranny and tax oppression in the context of a sharp deterioration of environmental conditions and economic decline aggravated social contradictions. At the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. The Hafsids, Zayanids, Marinids and Mamluk sultans of Egypt were unable to suppress the discontent of the masses, restrain the separatist aspirations of local rulers and at the same time resist the external threat. In 1415 the Portuguese captured Ceuta, then Arsila and Tangier (1471), and in 1515 they attacked Marrakesh, the capital of southern Morocco. The Spaniards in 1509-10 captured the cities of Oran, Algiers, Tripoli, and subjugated the interior of Algeria. The Zayyanids in 1509 and the Hafsids in 1535 recognized themselves as vassals of Spain. The fleet of the Order of St. John attacked Egypt in 1509. The Portuguese, who appeared in the Indian Ocean in 1498, penetrated the Red Sea in 1507, and defeated the Egyptian fleet at Diu in 1509, posing a threat to the holy Muslim cities of Mecca and Medina, pilgrimage and trade. Under these conditions, the Ottoman Empire, acting as the defender of Islam, with the support of the local population, defeated the Mamluks in 1516-17 and annexed Egypt and Cyrenaica. In 1512-15, Ottoman ghazis - fighters against the “infidels” - Oruj and Hayraddin Barbarossa, raised an anti-Spanish uprising in North Africa. The rebels, supported by Ottoman troops, defeated the Spaniards, overthrew local rulers and recognized the suzerainty of the Turkish Sultan (1518). In 1533 Algeria, in 1551 Tripolitania, in 1574 Tunisia became provinces Ottoman Empire. In Morocco, the "holy war" against the Portuguese was led by (1465-1554) and (1554-1659). The expulsion of the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors, the end of feudal wars and the restriction of nomadism by the Ottoman Turks contributed to the revival of cities and agriculture. A major role in the development of manufactories, handicraft production and the spread of new agricultural crops (corn, tobacco, citrus fruits) was played by the Moriscos expelled from Spain, who in the 16th - early 17th centuries. settled along the entire southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea from Morocco to Cyrenaica.
N. A. Ivanov.
In the first centuries A.D. e. a kingdom was formed on the territory of Northern Ethiopia. In the 4th-6th centuries, during its heyday, the hegemony of Aksum extended to Nubia (where the states of Nobatia and Nobatia were formed on the site of the Meroitic kingdom), southern Arabia (the Himyarite kingdom), as well as to the vast territories of the Ethiopian Highlands and the north of the Horn of Africa. During this period, Christianity began to spread in the countries of North-East Africa (in the 4th-6th centuries in Aksum, in the 5th-6th centuries in Nubia). In Nubia in the 7th century. Nobatia and Mukurra united into a kingdom that repelled the invasion of the Arabs. In the 10th century Mukurra and Aloa formed a new association, in which the dominant role in the middle of the 10th century. passed from King Mukurra to King Aloa. In the country of the nomadic people of Beja, Nubia and Ethiopia, Arabs settled - merchants, pearl seekers, gold miners, who, mixing with the indigenous population, spread Islam among them. In the middle of the 9th century. The king of Beja recognized himself as a vassal of the Abbasid caliphate. Muslim principalities arose in eastern, central and southern Ethiopia until the 10th century. who remained tributaries of Aksum. These principalities monopolized the trade of the states of the Ethiopian Highlands with the outside world. In the VIII-IX centuries. The city of Aksum, the main port and other cities fell into decay in the first half of the 11th century. The Aksumite kingdom finally collapsed. The civilization created by the Aksumites formed the basis of the culture of medieval Ethiopia. After the collapse of the Aksumite kingdom, independent kingdoms and others were formed in the southern part of the Ethiopian Highlands, in the north-west, in the area of Lake Tana, the principality of the Falasha Jews, in the north - a number of Christian principalities (including the principality of Agau Lasta). In the east and in the center of the highlands in the 12th - first half of the 13th centuries. The strongest of the Muslim states on the territory of Ethiopia was the Makhzumiya Sultanate. In the 12th century. Christian principalities united under the Lasta (dynasty). At the end of the 13th century. Mukurra became a vassal of Egypt at the end of the 14th century. broke up into a number of small Christian and Muslim principalities; Aloa fell into decline. At the end of the 13th century. The Zague dynasty submitted to the Solomon dynasty, and the Makhzumiya Sultanate disintegrated under the blows of the Sultanate. These two states entered into a bitter struggle, during which the Christian Ethiopian Empire at times subjugated both the Muslim, pagan and Jewish states of the highlands. In the XV-XVI centuries. The Ethiopian Empire was experiencing a period of growth.
In Sudan in the 15th century. Christian kingdoms of Aloa were conquered by the Arabs in the 16th century. The Muslim sultanates of Fuig () and . At the beginning of the 16th century. Africa was invaded by the Portuguese, who captured most of the Swahili sultanates, and the Turks, who conquered Egypt and Northern Nubia. In Ethiopia, the Portuguese and Turks intervened in a war between the Christian empire and the Muslim sultanate (in the eastern highlands), which left both states weakened. As a result, Portuguese influence was established in the Ethiopian Empire.
Yu. M. Kobishchanov.
Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa has played a prominent role in the economic and cultural ties of the Mediterranean-Middle Eastern region since the mid-1st millennium. In areas of direct contact with the societies of this region, relatively developed African class societies emerged. At the same time, significant specificity was observed in the formation of such societies in sub-Saharan Africa. Class society developed here mainly through the monopolization of the “social official function” (F. Engels, see K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, 2nd ed., vol. 20, p. 184), and not the main means of production. The intermediary nature of trade with the class societies of the Mediterranean and Western and South Asia required increased attention specifically to the military-organizational aspects of the functioning of the social organism. However, this led to an increased lag among the peoples of Tropical Africa in comparison with development in Europe and the Middle East, since it did not create incentives for the accelerated development of social production in African societies themselves. Tropical Africa, according to most scientists, did not know a slave-owning socio-economic formation; most of its peoples transitioned to class society in its early feudal form. At the same time, the features of African early class societies are the significant role and stability of the community with a wide variety of its forms; the presence of huge tracts of land available for development with a low population density; the leading role of the political superstructure in the oppression and exploitation of direct producers; the absence (with rare exceptions) of vassalage in its developed forms, characteristic of Europe and Japan, forces some scientists to consider these societies within the framework of the idea of the “Asian mode of production” expressed by K. Marx in the 50s. XIX century The important class-forming role of trade gave reason to some researchers to assume the existence in the past in Tropical Africa of a special “African mode of production”, based on a combination of a subsistence community economy with simple reproduction with the monopolization by a small social elite of all foreign economic contacts of society. This issue cannot be considered finally resolved. However, it is clear that the general direction social development The peoples of Africa were the same as those of the peoples of other parts of the globe, that is, from clan society to class society. One should keep in mind the certain inadequacy of the terminology we are accustomed to to the actual character of African pre-colonial societies outside of North and North-East Africa. In the overwhelming majority of cases, even in the most developed of them, the process of class formation had not yet been completed by the time Europeans met them. The incompleteness of the class structure predetermined the absence of political organization in the full sense of the word, that is, the state as an instrument of class domination. Therefore, the use of such terms as “kingdom”, “kingdom”, “principality” and the like, when applied to these societies, is largely arbitrary and their use without appropriate reservations is fraught with a certain overestimation of the level of socio-economic development of pre-colonial Africa.
Outside North and Northeast Africa, there were several centers of political and cultural development during this period. The main ones are: ancient zones of contact with Western Asia and Europe - Central and Western Sudan and the eastern coast; the coast of the Gulf of Guinea and adjacent areas; Congo Basin; Great Lakes region of East Africa; South East Africa, closely associated with the east coast. A greater or lesser number of peripheral societies gravitated towards each of these centers.
The countries of Western and Central Sudan have achieved the greatest development. In Western Sudan in the IV-XVI centuries. succeeded each other as the hegemon in the political and cultural life of the state, and. In addition to them, there were also several smaller ones, which, as a rule, were in tributary dependence on them. Ghana in the 7th-9th centuries. actively traded with North Africa, the basis of this trade was the exchange of Sudanese gold and slaves for salt mined in the northern part of the Sahara. At the end of the 11th century. Ghana was significantly weakened in the clash with the Almoravids, although the latter's dominance over Ghana proper was short-lived. In the XII - early XIII centuries. All dependent possessions fell away from Ghana, and in the first half of the 13th century. the remnants of the territory of Ghana became part of the possessions of the Soso leader - Soumaoro Kante.
In the middle of the 10th century. Arab sources for the first time mention a state created by the ancestors of the Fulbe, Wolof and Serer. After the 15th century mentions of the state of Tekrur cease and its name becomes a designation for the regions of Western Sudan lying approximately from the inner delta of the river. Niger to the Atlantic Ocean. It is also preserved in the name of modern Toukouler in Senegal - one of the Fulbe groups. From about the 12th century. On the territory of Tekrur, Jolof is also known - the Wolof state, and in the middle of the 15th century. European travelers mention states and several smaller ones.
The Soso hegemony in Western Sudan was short-lived. In the 30s XIII century Soumaoro was defeated in the fight against the Malinke leader Sundyata Keita. Sundyata became the creator of the second great power of the Sudanese Middle Ages - Mali. By the middle of the 13th century. he subjugated vast areas along the upper and middle reaches of the river. Niger. During its heyday (the second quarter - the beginning of the third quarter of the 14th century), Mali's political influence spread from the city of Gao to the Atlantic Ocean. Caravan trade with North Africa remained the most important class-forming factor in Mali. Within Malian society since the 13th century. Forms of exploitation close to early feudal ones became widespread. The ideological expression of the acceleration of class formation in Mali was conversion to Islam royal family and the top of society already in the middle of the 13th century. From the second half of the 15th century. Mali, weakened by internal strife and clashes with neighbors, fell into vassalage to the Songhai state, which replaced it as the hegemon in Western Sudan. Like a small principality in the upper reaches of the river. Niger Mali existed until the 70s. XVII century, when it was conquered by the Bamana people, related to the Malinka.
The Songhai state emerged around the 7th century. In the second half of the 15th century. Songhai subjugated the main trading centers of Western Sudan - the cities of Timbuktu and Djenne. By the second half of the 16th century. A feudal society developed in Songhai. In the 90s XVI century this state was defeated by Moroccan troops, who captured a significant part of the territory of the middle reaches of the Niger River.
South of the big bend of the river. Niger, in the river basin White, Black and Red Volta, a political and cultural center arose, the foundation of which is associated with the Mosi people. The oral tradition of the Mosi traces the rulers of the states of this people to a certain Na Gbewa (Nedega). The first Mossi state of Ouagadougou arose around the 14th century, by the middle of the 15th century. - two other large states - and Fadan-Gurma, as well as smaller ones -, etc. Throughout the history of the states of Ghana, Mali and Songhai, the peoples of this area served as the object of military expeditions for slaves from their northern neighbors. Therefore, the Mossi developed a strong political and military organization. Their cavalry made successful campaigns to the north and northwest. The early feudal Mossi states existed until the colonial division of Africa.
Throughout the 16th century. There was a shift in the main trade routes from North Africa to the east. TO early XVII V. the role of the main centers of trans-Saharan trade passed from Djenne and Timbuktu to the Hausa city-states, Katsina, Gobiru, Zamfara, etc. (see).
In Central Sudan since the 7th century. Two centers of highly developed culture and statehood emerged: Sudanese itself, which was quite quickly Islamized, and the south, in the basins of the Shari and Logone rivers south of Lake Chad. The latter is usually associated with culture. In the XIII-XIV centuries. The Sao were a formidable military and political force in Central Sudan.
The state arose northeast of Lake Chad, apparently in the 8th-9th centuries. In the middle of the 13th century, during the heyday of Kanem's power, vast regions of the Sahara were subordinate to him up to the Tibesti highlands, and the southern border passed in the river basin. Shari and Logone; some of the Hausan cities also paid him tribute. The social system of Kanem is defined as early feudal, in many ways similar to that that existed in Mali and early Songhai. At the end of the 13th century. The decline of Kanem began as a result of internal strife, as well as under pressure from the warlike Bulala in the southeast. From the end of the 14th century. the center of the state moved southwest of Lake Chad, to the region of Borno, or Bornu (the same name was given to the state that existed until the second quarter of the 19th century). It reached its highest rise at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries. under the ruler Idris Alauma.
Similar to Bornu was the social organization of the state southeast of Lake Chad, which arose in the first half of the 16th century. IN mid-17th century V. Bagirmi's army made successful campaigns to the north, to Kanem, and to the northwest and northeast. Another large state Central Sudan - Wadai also emerged in the 16th century, when the ruling elite of the Tunjur (a people of mixed Negro-Arab origin) united the Maba and related peoples under their rule.
At the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. The spread of nomadic pastoralists across Western and Central Sudan has noticeably accelerated. During the XII-XIII centuries. The Fulani moved east, usually occupying lands unsuitable for agriculture. The first Fulbi state formation took shape at the end of the 14th century. in the Masina region (in the inner Niger delta); in the XVI-XVII centuries. it constantly served as the object of military expeditions, first of the Songhai kings, then of the Moroccan pashas sitting in Timbuktu, who became at the end of the first third of the 17th century. virtually independent rulers. These campaigns caused several Fulani migrations; the largest of them at the beginning of the 16th century. originated from Masina on the Fouta Djallon plateau (in modern Guinea). The movement of individual Fulbe groups to the east led to their appearance by the end of the 16th century. within Bornu and throughout modern northern Nigeria as far as the Adamawa Plateau in northern modern Cameroon.
On the east coast of Africa, the development of a system of city-states continued, connected by regular trade and cultural ties with the countries of Western and South Asia. The foreign trade orientation of the life of such cities (Mogadishu, Mombasa, Kilwa) is known from the description belonging to Ibn Battuta. Most of these centers were formed at the turn of the 8th-9th centuries; As a rule, no noticeable expansion of these states into the interior of the mainland occurred, although numerous agricultural settlements existed around the cities. Political dominance belonged to the merchant aristocracy, among which the descendants of migrants from the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf region occupied a prominent place. The rulers of East African city-states were actively involved in trade transactions. The Swahili civilization developed in this area; it was based on the culture of the African population of the coastal regions, enriched by many elements of Muslim culture brought by migrants. The largest centers of this civilization: Kilwa, Mombasa, Lamu, Pate. The appearance of the Portuguese at the end of the 15th century. on the coast of the Indian Ocean was accompanied by their destruction of the existing system of ocean trade in order to then monopolize this trade. Coastal cities were subjected to barbaric destruction. However, the population rebelled against Portuguese rule more than once; the largest performance took place in East Africa in the 30s XVII century By the end of the 17th century. the general weakening of Portugal and the increase in the military power of the Oman Sultanate in the east of the Arabian Peninsula led to the loss of all strongholds on the east coast of Africa north of Mozambique by the Portuguese.
There is almost no data on the history of the interior regions of this part of Africa. However, the first archaeological works allow, according to some researchers, to talk about the existence of approximately from the 10th century. comparatively highly developed Azanian culture. Traces of a huge settlement in Engaruka (Tanzania), dating from the 10th-16th centuries, have been discovered; throughout the territory of modern Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi, the remains of settlements, terraced hillsides were found, indicating relatively developed agriculture and dating back to the 13th-15th centuries, traces of specially laid roads, the length of which is about 1000 km.
An independent center of statehood was also connected to the coast of the Indian Ocean, which emerged on the territory of modern Zimbabwe (in the area between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers). In this area on the Zimbabwe Hill, at Inyanga, Dhlo-Dhlo and other points, numerous remains of large stone buildings for public and religious purposes have been preserved. Discoveries around the settlement itself make it possible to date the most ancient cultural layers of the 4th century. The construction of large structures, which began around the 7th century, lasted almost a millennium: the latest buildings date back to the 17th century. Already in the 10th century. Arab authors report the existence in the interior of South-East Africa of a strong state that had large reserves of gold. Important export items were also iron and copper, which were exported not only to the interior of Africa, but also to the Arabian Peninsula, India and Southeast Asia.
The creators of Zimbabwe's civilization were the Karanga and the Rozvi, two branches of the Bantu-speaking Shona people. At the beginning of the 15th century. one of the Karanga rulers adopted the title Mwene Mutapa (“Mr. Mutapa”), after which the Karanga and Rozvi state began to be called. The Portuguese slave trade, which became widespread in the mid-16th century, played a destructive role in the fate of Monomotapa. At the end of the 17th century. Monomotapa ceased to exist as a great power in Southeast Africa.
Among the peoples of Africa, who in the Middle Ages were not in direct contact with the Mediterranean-Middle Eastern world, the peoples of the Guinea coast, especially in the southwest of modern Nigeria and related ethnic groups on both sides of the border between Nigeria and Benin, achieved the greatest development. A distinctive culture was formed - one of the richest in the history of Africa. The Yoruba city-state (see) consisted of a large urban settlement with an agricultural district subordinate to it. In fact, such a city-state represented an expanded land community, within which the separation of crafts from agriculture took place relatively slowly. The bulk of the population consisted of free community members; Slave labor was widely used, usually within large patriarchal families. At the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries. The power of the Oyo rulers increased. This state became the largest political entity on the Guinean coast. To the southeast of the main area of Yoruba settlement, on the territory of the Bini (Edo) people, a city-state arose - (the Middle Ages) the historical period following antiquity and preceding modern times. Contents... Wikipedia
Literature: Marx K., Economic manuscripts 1857-1859, Marx K. and Engels F., Works, 2nd ed., vol. 46, part 1 2; Engels F., Anti Dühring, ibid., vol. 20; Lenin V.I., Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, Complete Works, 5th ed.,... ...
Africa (mainland)- Africa. I. General information There is great disagreement among scholars regarding the origin of the word “Africa”. Two hypotheses deserve attention: one of them explains the origin of the word from a Phoenician root, which, given a certain... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia - Exploration of Africa. The oldest geographical ideas about Africa, mainly about its northern part, are associated with Egypt. The knowledge accumulated in Ancient Egypt was subsequently used by the Greeks, Romans and Arabs. But the Egyptians penetrated... ... Encyclopedic reference book "Africa"
Africa- Even ten years ago, it could be said about A. that many parts of the inner continent, huge coastal spaces, river basins and inland lakes were still completely unknown to us, and about many parts there were only reports... ... encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
Africa- Africans carrying a European in a hammock. Figurine from Congo. Africans carrying a European in a hammock. Figurine from Congo. Africa is a continent, the second in area after Eurasia (. sq. km, together with the islands). The population of Africa is 670 million people... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of World History
AFRICA- a continent in the Eastern Hemisphere, the second largest after Eurasia. The territory of the mainland is clearly divided into several regions. The countries of North Africa are washed by the Atlantic Ocean from the west, the Mediterranean Sea from the north, and the Red Sea from the east.... ... Large current political encyclopedia
The verbal creativity of the peoples of Africa dates back to ancient times. Over thousands of years it has developed in oral collective (see.) and written (individual) forms. Foci of written literature in ancient times existed in the territories... Encyclopedic reference book "Africa"
And then North Africa. They began to trade with the local population, and gradually these regions became rich through trade. South of the Sahara were covered with dense thickets that were difficult to clear. In addition, there was a threat in these areas dangerous diseases. As Africans mastered the processing of iron and the manufacture of durable iron tools, they moved further south, clearing the land and plowing fields with their help.
West African states
Arab merchants began to make regular trips across the Sahara. They bought gold in West Africa and sold it in Mediterranean ports. Thanks to trade, the population of African countries grew richer. Magnificent cities with palaces and mosques began to be built there. The most famous city of all was the city of Timbuktu, which is shown in the picture. Some of the African kings ruled large states. One of the most powerful among them was Mali. Those who visited these countries kept travel notes and described their impressions of the luxury they saw, especially at the courts of the kings. Here are shown Arab merchants who came to a reception at the palace of an African king.
Since 1420, the Portuguese prince Henrique, nicknamed the Navigator, organized expeditions to explore the west coast of Africa and establish trade with Africans. Arab traders bought lotto, ironwork, tusks and coconuts from East African merchants in Kilwa and other east coast towns. 
From there, on their fast ships, they transported goods to India and China.
The picture on the left shows a Christian church in Ethiopia. In the north, only Ethiopia was able to resist the advance of Islam and preserve the Christian faith.
Life in Southern Africa
The tribes that lived in southern Africa differed, among other things, in the way of life they led. In the Kalahari Desert, the Bushmen obtained their food by hunting wild animals. The pygmies living in the tropical jungle also hunted, but in addition to this, they also collected berries and fruits in the jungle. Tribes living on the open plains of the east kept livestock and cultivated the land. People who knew how to process iron and make tools from it were indispensable to their fellow tribesmen.
Egypt is not the only state in Africa where high culture has existed and developed since ancient times. Many peoples of Africa have long been able to smelt and process iron and other metals. Maybe they learned this before the Europeans. Modern Egyptians speak Arabic, and a significant part of them do come from the Arabs, but the ancient population of Egypt came to the Nile Valley from the Sahara Desert, which in ancient times had abundant rivers and rich vegetation. In the center of the Sahara on the plateaus, drawings on rocks, carved with sharp stones or painted with paint, have been preserved. From these drawings it is clear that in those days the population of the Sahara hunted wild animals and raised livestock: cows, horses.
On the northern African coast and the adjacent islands lived tribes who knew how to make large boats and were successfully engaged in fishing and other marine crafts.
In the millennium BC. e. The Phoenicians, and later the Greeks, appeared in ancient settlements on the shores of North Africa. The Phoenician city-colonies - Utika, Carthage, etc. - grew stronger over time and, under the rule of Carthage, united into a powerful state.
Carthage's neighbors, the Libyans, created their own states - Numidia and Mauritania. From 264 to 146 BC. e. Rome fought with the Carthaginian state. After the destruction of the city of Carthage, the Roman province of Africa was created on the territory that belonged to it. Here, through the labor of Libyan slaves, a strip of coastal desert was turned into a flourishing region. The slaves dug wells, stacked stone water tanks, and built big cities with stone houses, water pipes, etc. Subsequently, the cities of Roman Africa suffered from the invasions of German vandals, and later these areas became a colony Byzantine Empire, and finally, in the VIII-X centuries. this part of North Africa was conquered by Muslim Arabs and became known as the Maghreb.
In the Nile Valley, south of the territory of ancient Egypt, the Nubian kingdoms of Napata and Meroe existed even before our era. To this day, the ruins of ancient cities, small pyramids similar to ancient Egyptian ones, as well as monuments of ancient Meroitic writing have been preserved there. Subsequently, the Nubian kingdoms were conquered by the kings of the powerful state of Aksum, which emerged in the first centuries of our era on the territory of what is now South Arabia and Northern Ethiopia.
Sudan stretches from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Nile itself.
It was possible to penetrate from North Africa to the country of Sudan only along ancient caravan roads that passed along the dried up beds of ancient rivers of the Sahara Desert. During scanty rains, some water sometimes collected in the old riverbeds, and in some places wells were dug by the ancient Saharawis.
The people of Sudan grew millet, cotton and other plants; raised livestock - cows and sheep. They sometimes rode bulls, but they did not know how to plow the land with their help. The soil for crops was cultivated with wooden hoes with iron tips. Iron in Sudan was smelted in small clay blast furnaces. Weapons, knives, hoe tips, axes and other tools were forged from iron. Initially, blacksmiths, weavers, dyers and other artisans were simultaneously engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. They often exchanged surplus products of their craft for other goods. Bazaars in Sudan were located in villages on the borders of the territories of various tribes. The population of such villages grew rapidly. Part of it grew rich, seized power and gradually subjugated the poor. Military campaigns against neighbors, if successful, were accompanied by the capture of prisoners and other military booty. The prisoners of war were not killed, but forced to work. Thus, slaves appeared in some settlements that grew into small towns. They began to be sold in bazaars, like other goods.
Ancient Sudanese cities often fought among themselves. The rulers and nobles of one city often brought several surrounding cities under their rule.
For example, around the 9th century. n. e. in the very west of Sudan, in the area of Auker (the territory of the northern part of the modern state of Mali), the state of Ghana, strong at that time, was formed.
Ancient Ghana was the center of trade between Western Sudan and North Africa, which was very important for the prosperity and power of this state.
In the 11th century Muslim Berbers from the Maghreb state of the al-Moravids, in northern Africa, attracted by the wealth of Ghana, attacked it and destroyed the state. The remote southern region of Mali suffered the least from the defeat. One of the rulers of Mali, named Sundiata, who lived in the middle of the 12th century, gradually captured the entire former territory of Ghana and even annexed other lands to it. After this, the state of Mali began to occupy a significant large territory than Ghana. However, the continuous struggle with neighbors gradually led to the weakening of the state and its collapse.
In the XIV century. The scattered and weak cities of the state of Mali were captured by the rulers of the city of Gao, the center of the small state of the Songhai people. The Songhai kings gradually united under their rule a vast territory on which there were many large cities. One of these cities, which existed during the times of the Mali state, Timbuktu became the cultural center of the entire Western Sudan. The inhabitants of the Songhai state were Muslims.
Medieval Muslim scholars from Timbuktu became known far beyond Western Sudan. They first created writing in the languages of Sudan using signs Arabic alphabet. These scientists wrote many books, including chronicles - books on the history of the states of Sudan. Sudanese architects built large and beautiful houses, palaces, mosques with six-story minarets. The cities were surrounded by high walls.
In the 15th century The sultans of Morocco repeatedly tried to conquer the state of Songhai. They eventually conquered it, destroying Timbuktu and other cities in the process. Wonderful libraries with valuable ancient manuscripts perished in the burning of Timbuktu. Many architectural monuments were destroyed. Sudanese scientists - architects, doctors, astronomers - taken into slavery by the Moroccans, almost all died on the way through the desert. The remnants of the cities' wealth were plundered by their nomadic neighbors - the Tuaregs and Fulani. The huge state of Songhai fell apart into many small and weak states.
From that time on, the trade caravan routes running from Lake Chad through the interior of the Sahara - Fezzan - to Tunisia were of primary importance. In the northern part of the territory of modern Nigeria until the 19th century. There were independent small states (sultanates) of the Hausa people. The Sultanate included a city with surrounding countryside. The richest and most famous city was Kano.
The western part of tropical Africa, located off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, was discovered by Portuguese, Dutch and English navigators of the 15th-17th centuries. was named Guinea. For a long time, sailors did not suspect that behind the wall of tropical vegetation of the Guinea coast they were hiding densely | populated areas with large, crowded cities. European ships landed on the shore and traded with the coastal population. Ivory, valuable wood, and sometimes gold were brought here from the interior regions. European merchants also bought prisoners of war, who were taken from Africa, first to Portugal, and later to the Spanish colonies in Central and South America. Hundreds of slaves were loaded onto sailing ships and transported across the Atlantic Ocean with almost no food or water. Many of them died along the way. Europeans in every possible way incited wars between the tribes and peoples of Guinea in order to get more slaves. European merchants of the XV-XV centuries. I really wanted to penetrate into the rich interior regions of Guinea ourselves. However rainforests and swamps, as well as the resistance of strong, well-organized states, prevented this for several centuries. Only a few people managed to get there. When they returned, they talked about large, well-planned cities with wide streets, about the rich palaces of the kings, well-armed troops maintaining order, wonderful bronze and stone works of art by local craftsmen, and about many other amazing things.
Cultural values and historical monuments These ancient states were destroyed by Europeans in the 19th century. during the colonial partition of West Africa. In our century, in the forests of Guinea, researchers discovered remains ancient culture Africans: broken stone statues, heads made of stone and bronze, ruins of palaces. Some of these archaeological sites date back to the millennium BC. e., when most Europe was still inhabited by wild tribes.
In 1485, the Portuguese navigator Diego Cano discovered the mouth of the high-water African Congo River. During the following voyages, the Portuguese ships ascended the river and reached the state of Congo. They brought with them ambassadors from the Portuguese king, as well as monastic preachers who were tasked with converting the population of the Congo to Christianity. Portuguese monks left records that tell about the medieval state of Congo and neighboring states - Lunda, Luba, Kasongo, Bushongo, Loango, etc. The population of these countries, like Guinea, was engaged in agriculture: they grew yams, taro, sweet potatoes and others plants.
Local craftsmen were famous for the art of making various wood products. Great importance had a blacksmith's trade.
All these states fell into decay and collapsed as a result of long wars with the Portuguese, who tried to conquer them.
The eastern coast of Africa is washed by the Indian Ocean. In winter, the wind (monsoon) blows here from the coast of Asia to the coast of Africa, and in the summer in the opposite direction. Since ancient times, the peoples of Asia and Africa have used monsoon winds for merchant shipping. Already in on the eastern coast of Africa there were permanent trading posts where the local population exchanged ivory, tortoiseshell shields and other goods for metal tools, weapons and fabrics from Asian merchants. Sometimes merchants from Greece and Egypt sailed here across the Red Sea.
Later, when some trading settlements grew into large cities, their inhabitants - Africans (the Arabs called them “Swahili”, i.e. “coastal”) - began to sail to Asian countries themselves. They traded in ivory, copper and gold, the skins of rare animals and valuable wood. The Swahili bought these goods from peoples who lived far from the ocean shores, in the depths of Africa. Swahili merchants bought elephant tusks and rhino horns from the leaders of various tribes, and exchanged gold in the country of Makaranga for glass, porcelain and other goods brought from overseas.
When merchants in Africa collected so much cargo that their porters could not carry it, then they bought slaves or took with them by force people from some weak tribe. As soon as the caravan reached the shore, the merchants sold the porters into slavery or took them to sell overseas.
Over time, the most powerful cities on the East African coast subjugated the weaker ones and formed several states: Pate, Mombasa, Kilwa, etc. Many Arabs, Persians and Indians moved to them. Scientists in East African cities created writing in the Swahili language, using, as in Sudan, signs of Arabic writing. There were literary works in the Swahili language, as well as chronicles of the history of cities.
During Vasco da Gama's voyages to India, Europeans first visited the ancient Swahili cities. The Portuguese repeatedly conquered and again lost East African cities, while many of them were destroyed by the invaders, and the ruins were overgrown with thorny tropical bushes over time. And now only in folk legends are the names of ancient African cities preserved.
