Theorizing concerning the origins of Ghana has been dominated by disputes between ethnohistoric accounts and archaeological interpretations. The earliest discussions of its origins are found in the Sudanese chronicles of Mahmud Kati and Abd al-Rahman as-Sadi. According to Kati’s Tarikh al-Fettash in a section probably composed by the author around 1580, but citing the authority of the chief judge of Messina, Ida al-Massini who lived somewhat earlier, twenty kings ruled Ghana before the advent of the prophet Muhammad, and the empire extended until the century after the prophet.^[4] In addressing the rulers’ origin, the Tarikh al-Fettash provides three different opinions: that they were Soninke, Wangara (which are a Soninke group), or Sanhaja Berbers.

Al-Kati favored another interpretation in view of the fact that their genealogies linked them to this group, adding “What is certain is that they were not Soninke” (min al-Zawadi).^[5] While the 16th-century versions of genealogies might have linked Ghana to the Sanhaja, earlier versions, for example as reported by the 11th-century writer al-Idrisi and the 13th-century writer ibn Said, noted that rulers of Ghana in those days traced their descent from the clan of the Prophet Muhammad either through his protector Abi Talib, or through his son-in-law Ali.^[6] He says that 22 kings ruled before the Hijra and 22 after.^[7]

While these early views lead to many exotic interpretations of a foreign origin of Wagadu, these views are generally disregarded by scholars. Levtzion and Spaulding, for example, argue that al-Idrisi’s testimony should be looked at very critically due to demonstrably gross miscalculations in geography and historical chronology, while they themselves associate Ghana with the local Soninke.^[8] In addition, the archaeologist and historian Raymond Mauny argues that al-Kati’s and al-Saadi’s view of a foreign origin cannot be regarded as reliable. He argues that the interpretations were based on the later presence (after Ghana’s demise) of nomadic interlopers from Libya, on the assumption that they were the historic ruling caste, and that the writers did not adequately consider contemporary accounts such as those of Ya’qubi (872 CE), al-Masudi (c. 944 CE), Ibn Hawqal (977 CE), and al-Biruni (c. 1036 CE), as well as al-Bakri, all of whom describe the population and rulers of Ghana as “negroes“.^[9]

In the late 19th century, as French forces occupied the region in which ancient Ghana lay, colonial officials began collecting traditional accounts, including some manuscripts written in Arabic somewhat earlier in the century. Several such traditions were recorded and published. While there are variants, these traditions called the most ancient polity they knew of Wagadu, or the “place of the Wago” the term current in the 19th century for the local nobility. The traditions described the kingdom as having been founded by a man named Dinga, who came “from the east” (e.g., Aswan, Egypt^[10]), after which he migrated to a variety of locations in western Sudan, in each place leaving children by different wives. In order to achieve power in his final location he had to kill a goblin, and then marry his daughters, who became the ancestors of the clans that were dominant in the region at the time of the recording of the religion. Upon Dinga’s death, his two sons Khine and Dyabe contested the kingship, and Dyabe was victorious, founding the kingdom.^[11]

French colonial officials, notably Maurice Delafosse, whose works on West African history has been criticised by scholars such Charles Monteil, Robert Cornevin and others for being “unacceptable” and “too creative to be useful to historians” in relation to his falsification of West African genealogies,^{[12][13][14][15]} concluded that Ghana had been founded by the Berbers, a nomadic group originating from the Benue River and linked them to North African and Middle Eastern origins. While Delafosse produced a convoluted theory of an invasion by “Judeo-Syrians”, which he linked to the Fulbe, others took the tradition at face value and simply accepted that nomads had ruled first.^[16] Raymond Mauny, synthesizing early archaeology, various traditions, and the Arabic materials in 1961 concluded that foreign trade was vital to the empire’s foundation.^[17] More recent work, for example by Nehemiah Levtzion, in his classic work published in 1973, sought to harmonize archaeology, descriptive geographical sources written between 830 and 1400 AD, the older traditions of the Tarikhs, from the 16th and 17th centuries and at last the traditions collected by French administrators. Levtzion concluded that local developments, stimulated by trade from North Africa, were crucial in the development of the state, and he tended to favor the more recently collected traditions over the other traditions in compiling his work.^[18] While there has not been much further study of either traditions or documents, archaeologists have added considerable nuance. Christopher Ehret observes that the proposed founding date of c. 300 AD fits very well with what is known about the Wagadu state’s control of the trans-saharan gold trade.^[19]

Most of the information about the economy of Ghana comes from al-Bakri. Al-Bakri noted that merchants had to pay a one gold dinar tax on imports of salt, and two on exports of salt. Other products had fixed dues; al-Bakri mentioned both copper and “other goods.” Imports probably included products such as textiles, ornaments and other materials. Many of the hand-crafted leather goods found in old Morocco also had their origins in the empire.^[34] Ibn Hawqal quotes the use of a cheque worth 42,000 dinars.^[35] The main centre of trade was Koumbi Saleh. The king claimed as his own all nuggets of gold, and allowed other people to have only ‘gold dust’.^[36] In addition to the influence exerted by the king in local regions, tribute was received from various tributary states and chiefdoms on the empire’s periphery.^[37] The introduction of the camel played a key role in Soninke success as well, allowing products and goods to be transported much more efficiently across the Sahara. These contributing factors all helped the empire remain powerful for some time, providing a rich and stable economy that was to last several centuries. The empire was also known to be a major educational hub.^{[citation needed]} Ghana grew rich from the Trans-Saharan Trade by trading gold, iron and salt.

Testimony about ancient Ghana depended on how well disposed the king was to foreign travelers, from whom the majority of information on the empire comes. Islamic writers often commented on the social-political stability of the empire based on the seemingly just actions and grandeur of the king. Al-Bakri, a Moorish nobleman living in Spain questioned merchants who visited the empire in the 11th century and wrote of the king:

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 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 that hardly ever leave the place where the king is, guarding him. Around their necks they wear collars of gold and silver studded with a number of balls of the same metals.^[38]

Ghana appears to have had a central core region and was surrounded by vassal states. One of the earliest sources to describe Ghana, al-Ya’qubi, writing in 889/90 (276 AH) says that “under his authority are a number of kings” which included Sama and ‘Am (?) and so extended at least to the Niger River valley.^[39] These “kings” were presumably the rulers of the territorial units often called kafu in Mandinka.

The Arabic sources are vague as to how the country was governed. Al-Bakri, far and away the most detailed one, mentions that the king had officials (mazalim) who surrounded his throne when he gave justice, and these included the sons of the “kings of his country” which we must assume are the same kings that al-Ya’qubi mentioned in his account of nearly 200 years earlier. Al-Bakri’s detailed geography of the region shows that in his day, or 1067/1068, Ghana was surrounded by independent kingdoms, and Sila, one of them located on the Senegal River, was “almost a match for the king of Ghana.” Sama is the only such entity mentioned as a province, as it was in al-Ya’qubi’s day.^[40]

In al-Bakri’s time, the rulers of Ghana had begun to incorporate more Muslims into government, including the treasurer, his interpreter, and “the majority of his officials.”^[38]

A 17th-century chronicle written in Timbuktu, the Tarikh al-fattash, gave the name of the capital as “Koumbi”.^[4] Beginning in the 1920s, French archaeologists excavated the site of Koumbi Saleh, although there have always been controversies about the location of Ghana’s capital and whether Koumbi Saleh is the same town as the one described by al-Bakri. The site was excavated in 1949–50 by Paul Thomassey and Raymond Mauny^[43] and by another French team in 1975–81.^[44] The remains of Koumbi Saleh are impressive, even if the remains of the royal town, with its large palace and burial mounds, have not been located. Another problem for archaeology is that al-Idrisi, a twelfth-century writer, described Ghana’s royal city as lying on a riverbank, a river he called the “Nile” following the geographic custom of his day of confusing the Niger and Senegal Rivers, which do not meet, as forming a single river often called the “Nile of the Blacks”. Whether al-Idrisi was referring to a new and later capital located elsewhere, or whether there was confusion or corruption in his text is unclear. However, he does state that the royal palace he knew was built in 510 AH (1116–1117 AD), suggesting that it was a newer town, rebuilt closer to the Niger than Koumbi Saleh.^[33]

Soninke rulers (“Ghanas”) of the Cisse dynasty[edit]

• Kaya Magan Cissé(Also known as Dinga Cisse)
• Dyabe Cisse: circa 790s
• Bassi: 1040–1062
• Tunka Manin: 1062–1076

Almoravid occupation

• Abu Bakr ibn Umar: 1076–1087

Sosso rulers[edit]

• Kambine Diaresso(sometimes also written as Jarisso) : 1087-1090
• Suleiman: 1090-1100
• Bannu Bubu: 1100-1120
• Magan Wagadou: 1120-1130
• Gane: 1130-1140
• Musa: 1140-1160
• Birama: 1160-1180

Rulers during Kaniaga occupation

• Diara Kante: 1180-1202
• Soumaba Cisse as vassal of Soumaoro Kanté: 1203–1235

Ghanas of Wagadou Tributary

• Soumaba Cisse as ally of Sundiata Keita: 1235–1240

1.  Burr, J. Millard and Robert O. Collins, Darfur: The Long Road to Disaster, Markus Wiener Publishers: Princeton, 2006, ISBN 1-55876-405-4, pp. 6–7.
2. ^ al-Kuwarizmi in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 7.
3. ^ Willie F. Page; R. Hunt Davis, Jr., eds. (2005), “Ghana Empire”, Encyclopedia of African History and Culture, vol. 2 (revised ed.), Facts on File, pp. 85–87
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b Houdas & Delafosse 1913, p. 76.
5. ^ Houdas & Delafosse 1913, p. 78, translation from Levtzion 1973, p. 19
6. ^ al-Idrisi in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 109, and ibn Sa’id, p. 186.
7. ^ Hunwick 2003, p. 13 and note 5.
8. ^ Levtzion & Spaulding 2003, p. 27.
9. ^ Mauny 1954, p. 204.
10. ^ Alexander, Leslie M.; Rucker, Walter C. Jr. (9 February 2010). Encyclopedia of African American History [3 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851097746. Retrieved 13 September 2018 – via Google Books.
11. ^ Levtzion 1973, pp. 16–17.
12. ^ Monteil, Charles (1966). “Fin de siècle à Médine (1898-1899)”. Bulletin de l’IFAN. série B. 28 (1–2): 166.
13. ^ Vidal, Jules (1924). “La légende officielle de Soundiata, fondateur de l’Empire manding”. Bulletin du Comité d’Études Historiques et Scientifiques de l’AOF. 8 (2): 317–328.
14. ^ African Studies Association, History in Africa, Vol. 11, African Studies Association, 1984, University of Michigan, pp. 42-51.
15. ^ Cornevin, Robert, Histoire de l’Africa, Tome I: des origines au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1962), 347-48 (reference to Delafosse in Haut-Sénégal-Niger vol. 1, pp. 256-257)
16. ^ Delafosse 1912, pp. 215–226 Vol. 1.
17. ^ Mauny 1961, pp. 72–74, 508–511.
18. ^ Levtzion 1973, pp. 8–17.
19. ^ Ehret 2016, p. 300.
20. ^ Munson 1980.
21. ^ Kevin McDonald, Robert Vernet, Dorian Fuller and James Woodhouse, “New Light on the Tichitt Tradition” A Preliminary Report on Survey and Excavation at Dhar Nema,” pp. 78–80.
22. ^ ibn Khaldun in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 333.
23. ^ Delafosse 1912, p. 291 Vol. 1.
24. ^ Jump up to:^a b al-‘Umari in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. Corpus, p. 262.
25. ^ al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. Corpus, p. 73.
26. ^ For example, Levtzion, Ghana and Mali, pp. 44–48.
27. ^ Masonen & Fisher 1996.
28. ^ Lange 1996, pp. 122–159.
29. ^ “Listening for Silences in Almoravid History: Another Reading of “The Conquest that Never Was” Camilo Gómez-Rivas
30. ^ “Law and the Islamization of Morocco under the Almoravids” Camilo Gómez-Rivas
31. ^ Insoll 2003, p. 230.
32. ^ Jump up to:^a b ibn Khaldun in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. Corpus, p. 333.
33. ^ Jump up to:^a b al-Idrisi in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, pp. 109–110.
34. ^ Chu, Daniel and Skinner, Elliot. A Glorious Age in Africa, 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965.
35. ^ Krätli, Graziano; Lydon, Ghislaine (2011). The Trans-Saharan Book Trade: Manuscript Culture, Arabic Literacy and Intellectual History in Muslim Africa. Brill Publishers. ISBN 9789004187429.
36. ^ al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. Corpus, p. 81.
37. ^ “The Story of Africa- BBC World Service”. www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
38. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d al-Bakri (1067) in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, p. 80.
39. ^ al-Ya’qubi in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans. Corpus, p. 21.
40. ^ al-Bakri in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and trans., Corpus, pp. 77–83.
41. ^ Levtzion 1973, pp. 22–26.
42. ^ al-Bakri, 1067 in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, pp. 79–80.
43. ^ Thomassey & Mauny 1951.
44. ^ Berthier 1997.

• Berthier, Sophie (1997), Recherches archéologiques sur la capitale de l’empire de Ghana: Etude d’un secteur, d’habitat à Koumbi Saleh, Mauritanie: Campagnes II-III-IV-V (1975–1976)-(1980–1981), British Archaeological Reports 680, Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 41, Oxford: Archaeopress, ISBN 978-0-86054-868-3.
• Delafosse, Maurice (1912), Haut-Sénégal-Niger: Le Pays, les Peuples, les Langues; l’Histoire; les Civilizations. 3 Vols (in French), Paris: Émile Larose. Gallica: Volume 1, Le Pays, les Peuples, les Langues; Volume 2, L’Histoire; Volume 3, Les Civilisations.
• Ehret, Christopher (2016), The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press
• Houdas, Octave; Delafosse, Maurice, eds. (1913), Tarikh el-fettach par Mahmoūd Kāti et l’un de ses petit fils (2 Vols.), Paris: Ernest Leroux. Volume 1 is the Arabic text, Volume 2 is a translation into French. Reprinted by Maisonneuve in 1964 and 1981. The French text is also available from Aluka but requires a subscription.
• Hunwick, John O. (2003), Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi’s Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-12560-5. Reprint of the 1999 edition with corrections.
• Insoll, Timothy (2003), Archaeology of Islam in Sub-saharan Africa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-65702-0.
• Lange, Dierk (1996), “The Almoravid expansion and the downfall of Ghana”, Der Islam, 73 (2): 313–51, doi:10.1515/islm.1996.73.2.313, S2CID 162370098. Reprinted in Lange 2004, pp. 455–493.
• Lange, Dierk (2004), Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa, Dettelbach, Germany: J. H. Röll, ISBN 978-3-89754-115-3.
• Levtzion, Nehemia (1973), Ancient Ghana and Mali, London: Methuen, ISBN 978-0-8419-0431-6. Reprinted with additions 1980.
• Levtzion, Nehemia; Hopkins, John F. P. eds. and trans. (2000), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa, New York, NY: Marcus Weiner, ISBN 978-1-55876-241-1. First published in 1981 by Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-22422-5.
• Levtzion, Nehemia; Spaulding, Jay (2003), Medieval West Africa: Views from Arab Scholars and Merchants, Princeton NJ: Markus Wiener, ISBN 978-1-55876-305-0. Excerpts from Levtzion & Hopkins 1981. Includes an extended introduction.
• Masonen, Pekka; Fisher, Humphrey J. (1996), “Not quite Venus from the waves: The Almoravid conquest of Ghana in the modern historiography of Western Africa” (PDF), History in Africa, 23: 197–232, doi:10.2307/3171941, JSTOR 3171941, S2CID 162477947.
• Mauny, Raymond A. (1954), “The question of Ghana”, Journal of the International African Institute, 24 (3): 200–213, doi:10.2307/1156424, JSTOR 1156424, S2CID 143619637.
• Mauny, Raymond (1961), Tableau géographique de l’ouest africain au moyen age, d’après les sources écrites, la tradition et l’archéologie, Dakar: Institut français d’Afrique Noire.
• Munson, Patrick J. (1980), “Archaeology and the prehistoric origins of the Ghana Empire”, The Journal of African History, 21 (4): 457–466, doi:10.1017/s0021853700018685, JSTOR 182004, S2CID 161981607.
• Thomassey, Paul; Mauny, Raymond (1951), “Campagne de fouilles à Koumbi Saleh”, Bulletin de I’lnstitut Français de I’Afrique Noire (B) (in French), 13: 438–462, archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Includes a plan of the site.

• Conrad, David C.; Fisher, Humphrey J. (1982), “The conquest that never was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. I. The external Arabic sources”, History in Africa, 9: 21–59, doi:10.2307/3171598, JSTOR 3171598, S2CID 163009319.
• Conrad, David C.; Fisher, Humphrey J. (1983), “The conquest that never was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The local oral sources”, History in Africa, 10: 53–78, doi:10.2307/3171690, JSTOR 3171690, S2CID 162867483.
• Cornevin, Robert (1965), “Ghana”, Encyclopaedia of Islam Volume 2 (2nd ed.), Leiden: Brill, pp. 1001–2, ISBN 978-90-04-07026-4.
• Cuoq, Joseph M., translator and editor (1975), Recueil des sources arabes concernant l’Afrique occidentale du VIIIe au XVIe siècle (Bilād al-Sūdān) (in French), Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help). Reprinted in 1985 with corrections and additional texts, ISBN 2-222-01718-1. Similar to Levtzion and Hopkins, 1981 & 2000.
• Masonen, Pekka (2000), The Negroland revisited: Discovery and invention of the Sudanese middle ages, Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, pp. 519–23, ISBN 978-951-41-0886-0.
• Mauny, Raymond (1971), “The Western Sudan”, in Shinnie, P.L. (ed.), The African Iron age, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 66–87, ISBN 978-0-19-813158-8.
• Monteil, Charles (1954), “La légende du Ouagadou et l’origine des Soninke”, Mélanges Ethnologiques, Dakar: Mémoire de l’Institute Français d’Afrique Noire 23, pp. 359–408.

• Ghana Empire – World History Encyclopedia
• African Kingdoms | Ghana
• Empires of west Sudan
• Kingdom of Ghana, Primary Source Documents
• Ancient Ghana — BBC World Service