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Mediaeval western north African powers

The Ghana Empire or Wagadou Empire (existed before c. 830 until c. 1235) was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania, and Western Mali. Complex societies had existed in the region since about 1500 BCE, and around Ghana's core region since about 300 CE. When Ghana's ruling dynasty began is uncertain, it is first mentioned in documentary sources around 830 CE by Al-Kwarizmi. It is clear, however, that Ghana was incorporated into the Empire of Mali, according to a detailed account of al-'Umari, written around 1340, but based on testimony given to him by the "truthful and trustworthy shaykh Abu Uthman Sa'id al-Dukkali, a long term resident. In al'Umari/al-Dukkali's version, Ghana still retained its functions as a sort of kingdom within the empire, its ruler being the only one allowed to bear the title malik and "who is like a deputy unto him."

The modern Sosso people trace their history to a 12th- and 13th-century Kaniaga kingdom known as the "Sosso." With the fall of the Ghana Empire, the Sosso expanded into a number of its former holdings, including its capital of Koumbi Saleh. Under King Soumaoro Kanté, the Sosso briefly conquered the Mandinka kingdoms of what is now Mali. These gains were lost at the Battle of Kirina (c. 1240) when Sundiata Keita led a coalition of smaller states to soundly defeat the Sosso and begin the Mali Empire.

The Mali Empire or Mandingo Empire or Manden Kurufa was a West African empire of the Mandinkac. 1230 to 1600. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa I. The Mali Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa, allowing the spread of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River. The Mali empire extended over a large area and consisted of numerous vassal kingdoms and provinces. The Mandinka of the Middle Ages referred to their ethnic homeland as “Manden” in Africa. Among the many different ethnic groups surrounding Manden, were Pulaar speaking groups in Macina, Tekrur and Fouta Djallon. The Mandinka of Manden became the Malinke of Mali.

The Gao Empire preceded the Songhay Empire as a power in the region of the Middle Niger. It owes its name to the town of Gao located at the eastern Niger bend. In the ninth century CE it was considered to be the most powerful West African kingdom. The Songhai Empire in western Africa was a large Islamic empire from the early 15th to the late 16th century This empire bore the same name as its leading ethnic group, the Songhai. Its capital was the city of Gao. In 1340 the Songhai took advantage of the Mali Empire's decline and successfully asserted its independence. Disputes over succession weakened the Mali Empire, and many of its peripheral subjects broke away. The Songhai made Gao their capital and began an imperial expansion of their own throughout the western Sahel.

Mediaeval central north African powers

Toward the end of the first millennium A.D., the formation of states began across central Chad in the sahelian zone between the desert and the savanna. For almost the next 1,000 years, these states, their relations with each other, and their effects on the peoples who lived in "stateless" societies along their peripheries dominated Chad's political history. Recent research suggests that indigenous Africans founded most of these states, not migrating Arabic-speaking groups, as was believed previously. Nonetheless, immigrants, Arabic-speaking or otherwise, played a significant role, along with Islam, in the formation and early evolution of these states.

Most states began as kingdoms, in which the king was considered divine and endowed with temporal and spiritual powers. All states were militaristic (or they did not survive long), but none was able to expand far into southern Chad, where forests and the tsetse fly complicated the use of cavalry. Control over the trans-Saharan trade routes that passed through the region formed the economic basis of these kingdoms. Although many states rose and fell, the most important and durable of the empires were Kanem-Borno, Bagirmi, and Wadai, according to most written sources (mainly court chronicles and writings of Arab traders and travelers). http://countrystudies.us/chad/5.htm

The Kanem Empire (ca. 600 BCE - 1380 CE) was located in the present countries of Chad, Nigeria and Libya. At its height it encompassed much of Chad, Fezzan, east Niger and north-east Nigeria. Mainly known from a chronicle discovered in 1851 by Heinrich Barth. An older theory assumes a process of local state founding initiated by the nomadic Zaghawa, while a recent theory suggests the founding of Kanem by immigrants from the collapsed Assyrian Empire.

The Bornu Empire (1396-1893) was a continuation of the Kanem Empire founded centuries earlier by the Sayfawa Dynasty. Around 1396, the Kanembu finally overcame attacks from neighboring Arabs, Berbers and Hausa, to found a new state in Bornu. Over time, the intermarriage of the Kanembu and Bornu peoples created a new people and language, the Kanuri. In time it would become even larger than Kanem, incorporating areas that are today parts of Chad, Niger and Cameroon. After decades of internal conflict, rebellions and outright invasion from the Bulala, the once-strong Sayfawa Dynasty was forced out of Kanem. Even in Bornu the Sayfawa Dynasty's troubles persisted until around 1472, when Mai Ali Dunamami defeated his rivals and began the consolidation of Bornu. He built a fortified capital at Ngazargamu to the west of Lake Chad.

The Kingdom of Baguirmi (also "Sultanate") (1522–1897), was an Islamic kingdom or sultanate that existed southeast of Lake Chad in what is now Chad to the southeast of the Kanem-Bornu Empire.

The Ouaddai Empire (1635–1912) (Also Wadai Empire) was originally a non-Muslim kingdom, located to the east of Lake Chad in present-day Chad. It emerged in the sixteenth century as an offshoot of the Sultanate of Darfur (in present-day Sudan) to the northeast of the Kingdom of Baguirmi. In 1635, the Maba and other small groups in the region rallied to the Islamic banner of Abd al-Karim, who led an invasion from the east and overthrew the ruling Tunjur group.