Rise of the Ghana Empire

Name: Rise of the Ghana Empire
Start: 701
End: 800

Type Event Region West Africa Time 701–800

Around the 8th century, the Ghana Empire centered on Wagadu formed in the Sahel-Sudanic savanna of West Africa;…

Timeline

701–750Upper Senegal River—north of the Niger bend · SahelSoninke groups formed a loose alliance in the savanna-woodland zone, controlling local salt, grain, and gold transshipment nodes, accumulating political and economic resources for imperialization.
750–800Kumbi Saleh · West AfricaThe legendary 'King of Ghana' integrated subject states through cavalry and court ritual, taxed southern goldfields and regulated North African caravan passage; the empire's fame spread to North Africa and al-Andalus through Arab geographers' records.

Levtzion, N. & Hopkins, J.F.P. (eds.), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History — Nehemia Levtzion (1981)
UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. III: Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century (1988)