In the 11th century, the expansion of Islam in Africa entered a second phase, which was more warlike and justified by Jihad, as the Islamized Berbers of the Almoravid dyn-asty set out to conquer the continent, moving both north and south . In the north, they founded Marrakech around 1062, captured Fez in 1075 , and took Tlemcen in 1080 . In the south, they seized the capital of the Ghana Empire, Koumbi Saleh, in 1076, following a “bloody expedition, punctuated everywhere by pillaging, massa-cres, and manhunts,” with the help of the kingdom of Tekrour. The king of Ghana eventually converted to Islam.
The influence of Islam did not extend beyond the 10th parallel north in its southward expansion , where the great equatorial forest begins. This region was difficult to traverse and not conducive to dense settlement . Some historians also attribute this halt to the presence of the tsetse fly, a vector of sleeping sickness, which posed a danger to the horses of Arab riders. However , the cessation of geo-graphical expansion can also be explained by the desire of Abu Bakr ben Omar’s succes-sors , the conqueror of the Ghana Empire, to consolidate Almoravid pos-sessions in Africa and elsewhere.
When the Almohads succeeded the Almoravids in the 12th century, the map of Islam in Africa was largely fixed. The religion was present and dominant in the north of the con-tinent up to the northern border of the tropical forest, as well as in the eastern coastal zone.
The Almohad Empire at its maximum extent, between 1195 and 1212.
For more information :
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portail:Afrique
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa
- https://africacenter.org/
- https://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/
- https://etudes-africaines.cnrs.fr/
- https://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/
- https://www.afdb.org/fr/documents-publications/economic-perspectives-en-afrique-2024
