The Spread of Islam in Africa

Islam in Africa, one of the continent's main religions. Islam arrived early to Africa in the 7th century. By the 11th century, Islam had spread across North Africa and also to parts of the East and West. In this programme, we look at how Islam took hold in Africa and how it assumed a uniquely African guise. And how the powerful Islamic dynasties of the Berbers in North Africa created empires that stretched across the continent and extended as far as Europe. Here in Tunisia, people gather for a very special annual event. Hunting with birds, a sport beloved by the Arabs, is popular today across North Africa. The Arabs arrived in Africa in the first half of the 7th century and their influence is particularly evident across the north of the continent. The Arabs brought their faith, language and culture. Today, Islam is the dominant religion and Arabic the main language in the region. How are you? Oh, I can take it here. Thank you. Oh, thank you. So this is the... Yeah. He wants me to dance with it. You know, the Falcon Festival here at Hawaria in north-eastern Tunisia takes place just once a year. And these birds actually migrate from Arabia to this part of North Africa in search of food in those mountains there behind me. And the locals really just have this festival. They keep the birds... Oh! Well, the locals here keep these birds as a hobby just for a couple of months to train them for this festival. And what they do is they throw a bird and then the falcon is supposed to run after it and catch it. And if your falcon does that, then it's done well. But falconry actually goes back centuries. The Arabs actually used falcons for hunting. And handling them is a skill which is just handed down from generation to generation. But you'll be glad to hear that these falcons, after a couple of months, they are returned, they're freed, they're liberated and they go back to their home in Arabia. This is a Burmese bird, from the Sucur tribe, or the Chawahin tribe in the Gulf. They live with us in the mountains, in Tunisia, in Hawaria. We take four small birds from the wild in Hawaria. It's huge and it can reach up to 380 kilometers per hour. And this is the bird. Yes, yes. At the nest. 30 kilometers an hour, wow. Yes. And the way the bird is hunted, from top to bottom. It takes the top, then it goes down to the nest. Beautiful, beautiful creature. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much. Thank you. I make my way from the festival in Hawaria and head to the capital Tunis to see another example of North Africa's Arab heritage. The famous Arabian stallion is the most highly prized horse in the region to this day. The Kassar Sayyid Hippodrome in Tunis is where locals keep their thoroughbreds and Haitham Asayid wants to show me his horse. Very nice to see you, thank you. Hi Sayyid, how are you? Fine, thanks. So, Haitham, thank you so much for showing me your beautiful horse. This is the Arabian breed. What makes it so... And why was it significant historically? Well, the Arabian breed is very special because the Arabian horse adapts itself to our climate, the whole North Africa, where the heat is extreme and they can survive very well on it, even on little water. They have plenty of stamina. This is the reason why they were used for the big conquests, historically speaking. They have plenty of speed as well. This is why we raised them in Tunisia. And as a breed, in general, they are... smart, they are intelligent and with plenty of character. I haven't ridden a horse for many, many years. I think I'll leave it to you or somebody else to show us just what this horse can do. Thank you so much. Are you going to help me get off now? The Arabian Stallion was amongst the most treasured of the animals that the Arabs brought with them to Africa. The Arabs' intention was to spread their Muslim faith, and one of the first places they set their sights on was Egypt. The Arabs came to Egypt very early in the history of Islam. An Arab commander called Amr ibn al-As arrived in the country with a small army around 640. This is the site of the oldest mosque in Egypt. It's called Amr ibn al-As after the... brilliant Arab general who conquered Egypt and brought Islam to the country. The mosque is situated in Fustat, the new capital he established for Egypt and is part of modern-day Cairo. The present mosque dates back from the late 18th century and is built in a style which reflects the simplicity of the original mosque. The conversion of the Egyptians to Islam was gradual. I meet Dr. Abdelbaki Al-Sayed, an Islamic scholar inside Egypt's famous Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo. He told me that Amr ibn al-As completed his conquest through a peace agreement with the Egyptians. There was a great vision and distance from Amr ibn al-As to deal with the Egyptians in a lenient and tolerant way. And this is what made the Qubaits, all of them, except a few of them, ally with Amr ibn al-As and spread Islam to all the people. He... didn't just bring Islam with him, he also introduced Arabness to Egypt, didn't he? But he started teaching people. The dialogue in the mosque was done in Arabic. The recitation of the Qur'an was done in Arabic. The transformation into Arabic did not take long. After penetrating Egypt, the Arabs decided to attack the Christian Nubians in northern Sudan, who by now had been Christian for hundreds of years. The Arabs went to the town of Old Dongola and destroyed the cathedral there, so that today all you can see are just ruins of some early churches. Professor Youssef Fadil is one of Sudan's foremost experts on the arrival of Islam, and he explains how a truce known as a Baqt was struck between the Nubians and the Arabs. The first contact between Islam and the Sudan was 650. They are AD. Now, no sooner has Islam spread in Egypt, than the Nubians here began to make skirmishes on the southern part of Egypt, sort of defending or coming to the assistance of their Christian brothers there. And that caused some annoyance. The caliphate in Medina decided to put an end to that. So they began to send a kind of winter attacks to stop the Nubians from doing this. In the end, they decided to send... A campaign against the Nubians to stop them from harassing the inhabitants of southern Egypt. And that came what we call the Bakht Agreement. Now, the Bakht Agreement is a treaty of no aggression. Each will not attack the other. That is in essence. This treaty continued for something like 600, 700 years. Nubia had managed to hang on to its independence. The Bakht or treaty lasted for six centuries. and the Nubians continued to practice their Christian faith. But in the end, the Nubians and other people in what is today Sudan could not resist the tide of Islam, which came to them from two directions, from the north and from the east. From the north, trade, interaction, as well as military expeditions from Egypt to Nubia, meant its Christian heritage began to unravel. Islam also entered Sudan from the east, from Arabia, just a short journey across the Red Sea. The one across the Red Sea were purely Arabs. They heard of the Sudan that there are plenty of grazing ground, water. So the news came to them through those merchants who have been to the Sudan and people began to infiltrate at very small numbers, unnoticed, and continued until the 13th, 14th and 15th century, the climax of the Arab migration. That is one attraction. The second one is that in the eastern desert, Arabs discovered gold mines and emeralds. And this is To them, it constituted a gold rush. It became in large numbers. Did these Arabs integrate? Did they intermarry, for instance, with the local populations? A lot of intermarriage. I would say it has produced something very unique. If you take it in the way of culture, by way of music, we are more African-oriented in our music than in Arabia. This is the first sign. The color itself is more African than Arabs as such. In the behavior, we have a lot of Arabian customs and the same African ones. Give us some examples. The way the people behave, being generous to the people who come along the road, this is more of an Arab country perhaps. Now if you take the facial marks, this is an African custom. And you see it on my face and I have been there for a long time. This is an African custom. When the Arabs came, they adopted it. However, the custom of tribal marks is one that has died out today in Sudan. As in many other parts of Africa, Islam in Sudan took on a distinctly Sufi or mystic identity infused with local colour, music and dance. These people are referred to as the whirling dervishes, though to be accurate they are groups of worshippers who sway, twirl and dance and chant praise to Allah repeatedly, building themselves up into a high state of spirituality. Can you describe what the main features of Sufism is and the dervishes that we see today in Sudan? Personally, I think it's more of an African influence in it more than in other things. Perhaps the welding has been there, but if you take the way they beat the drum, it's more of an African tune. When you hear the drum beating like that, you feel an urge to go and join the group and dance. What's the principal purpose, though, of the dance, to get into a trance? Well, perhaps some of them do get in a trance. But in that action, one hopes that they will get identified with Islamic teams. teaching and religion and so on, and they will say their prayers properly. So that is perhaps a means to bring them, but not an ending itself. Let's now turn to the powerful Islamic dynasties that became established in North Africa. It was another Arab general, Uqba ibn Nafiq, who swept across North Africa and introduced Islam to this part of the continent. He was the nephew of Abn ibn al-As, who'd brought Islam to Egypt. Uqba ibn Nafiq first arrived in North Africa around 644. He defeated the Berbers, who followed their traditional religions or were Jewish or Christian. Their conversion to Islam... took place over a period of time. The legacy of Akbar ibn Nafiq is still evident today in the region, for instance in the town of Kerouan in northern Tunisia. Akbar ibn Nafiq brought with him many Muslims from Arabia, the early followers of the Prophet Muhammad. They settled and died in their new home in Kerouan. This is the tomb of Abu Zama al-Balawi, one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad. Now, al-Balawi actually died about 40 kilometres from Kerouan, but he was brought here for burial. And local legend has it that buried with him are three hares belonging to the... Prophet Muhammad, that apparently he always kept with him. The 7th century marked the start of a golden age in Kerouan. There were amenities and services. And when, for instance, the inhabitants of Kerouan suffered from water shortages... The authorities here built reservoirs like this one behind me. The water was brought in via aqueducts from the hills west of Kerouan into the reservoirs. The water system built so many centuries ago is still very clear to see and one can only marvel at the sophistication of its engineering. After his campaign in what is today Tunisia, Oqba ibn Nafiq went to modern-day Algeria, where he was killed in battle by the Berbers. There was a gap of several decades before another Arab general, Musa ibn Nusayr, would go to North Africa to try to subdue the Berbers. Musa ibn Nusayr was one of the greatest Arab commanders in this period of history. He succeeded in bringing North Africa under Arab control, spreading Islam and expanding the influence of the Muslim community. However, there were some Berbers who wanted neither Arab rule nor Islam, like the legendary Berber queen known as Kahina, or Kahina as the Arabs call her. Her name means priestess or soothsayer. She led the resistance to the Arabs. and their religion. Kahina was believed to have been born in the early 7th century and has attained mythical status as a heroine for all the people of North Africa today. Moroccan historian Professor Nuhi Al-Wafi is a Berber or Amazigh, as they prefer to be called. for refusing to accept Islam, but she urged her two sons to convert in order to survive. This was the stronghold of Queen Kahina, the Aures Mountains of eastern Algeria. You can just imagine her using her knowledge of the terrain to attack the invading Arabs. Queen Kahina is the symbol both of Berber pride and strong female leadership right across North Africa. And it was here in Algeria that she died. Kahina's stand against Islam may have been brave, but in the end, her resistance to the Islamisation of the Berbers proved futile. But the introduction of Islam was often peaceful. By the end of the 7th century, a holy man from Mecca called Mule Idris took refuge in the old Roman town of Volubilis in modern-day northern Morocco. after experiencing problems in Mecca. Mule Idris so impressed the Berbers with his piety that they made him their leader. He had children with a Berber woman called Kenza and gave his name to a new dynasty, the Idrisites. Mule Idris was succeeded by his son Mule Idris II. He expanded the state and in 807 moved his capital to Fez, which he wanted to turn into a centre of enlightenment. Fez is home to the Karowin Mosque, one of the finest in the world. According to local tradition, when Mule Idris II died in 828, He was buried here in this tomb, in this mosque, in his beloved Fes. Upon his death, he was succeeded by his son Muhammad, but he turned to his mother Kenza for advice and she told him to divide the kingdom amongst his father's ten sons. This weakened the Idrisite dynasty and spelt the beginning of the end of their rule. But the Idrisites did manage to hang on to some of their power and they continued to rule in a decentralised manner for nearly a century after. Anfez was established as one of the ancient centers of learning. In fact, it has the oldest university in continuous use in the world. Its old quarter dates back to the early 9th century, though the remains are mostly medieval. North Africa, with Kerouan in Tunisia as its capital, was very much part of the Islamic world. And there followed a period of history in which a succession of dynasties ruled one after the other. Some were North African, others from Arabia, and what we now call the Middle East. Here are some of the most important dynasties. At the end of the 8th century, the Baghdad-based Abbasids appointed Ibrahim ibn al-Akhlab as governor of Tunisia. He founded the Aghlabid royal family, which ruled on behalf of Baghdad in North Africa. Then from Kabylie in central Algeria, a new dynasty emerged, the Fatimids. They followed the minority Shia sect, not the Sunni or mainstream form of Islam that most people adhere to in Africa. The Fatimids conquered North Africa and a year later their leader Abdullah declared a caliphate in modern-day Tunisia to south of Kerouan. The Fatimids built a new capital called Mahadia. Go there today and you see the hand of Fatima everywhere. Fatima was one of the daughters of the prophet Muhammad. Ahlan wa sahlan. I get my own personalised version. There we are. Abdul Latif engraved my name in Arabic. Zainab Badawi. And that's the hand of Fatima, which will apparently bring me luck. The Grand Mosque just here was part of a massive building program embarked upon by the Fatimids when they made Mahadiya their capital. It was founded in the early 10th century by the caliph Abdullah al-Mahadi and he gave the city his name. The Fatimids chose Mahadiya because of its closeness to the sea and indeed today it is still one of Tunisia's most attractive ports. Dr. Rida Boussoufara is a Tunisian archaeologist and historian. While people are indigenous, there is a political and social order that was ruled before the Arabs came. These tribes, most of them, converted, but they remained on their ancient barbaric customs. The Fatimids could not take power unless they were favored by some barbaric tribes. They were the ones who supported the government. They were the ones who built the cities. They were the merchants. They were the craftsmen. So they represented the society at that time. After gaining control of this part of North Africa, the Fatimids next turned their attention to Egypt. They had a strong and disciplined army, and in 969... They conquered Egypt. They built a new capital city, Cairo, and established its famous mosque, Al-Azhar. The Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, which was built in the 10th century, for hundreds and hundreds of years, it has been the seat of Islamic learning. for the Sunni form of Islam, but in fact it was built by the Fatimid dynasty who governed Egypt for 200 years and they adhered to the Shia form of Islam. Ensconced in Cairo, the Fatimids' hold on their dominions elsewhere came under challenge. In their former capital Mahadia in Tunisia, a local family, the Zirids, were ruling on behalf of the Fatimids. But they opposed the minority Shia form of Islam practiced by them. So the Zirids broke away from the Fatimids around 1045 and established their own kingdom. The period of rule under the Zirid dynasty was a high point in the history of this part of North Africa. From their base here in Mahadia along the Tunisian coast, the Zirid rulers presided over decades of prosperity across many economic sectors. The Fatimid forces attacked the rebellious Zirids. The town of Mahadia was impregnable. But the rest of the region went into decline, and for several decades after, there was a power vacuum in North Africa. Then, around 1050, the Almoravids, the first of several new powerful Berber dynasties, emerged in what is today Morocco. And it was the Almoravids who founded the city of Marrakesh. Marrakesh is probably the most important... of the cities in Morocco built by its Berber dynasties. The Al-Moravids established a thriving city within these walls. They built many mosques and schools, which rapidly led to Marrakech becoming the religious, cultural and trading centre of the Al-Moravid Empire. The Al-Moravid ruler Yusuf ibn Tashfin was a powerful, charismatic man. Under him, the Al-Moravid seized control of much of Morocco and built an empire. Their power extended far and wide and included terrorism, in modern-day Spain, Algeria, Libya, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. Their capital, Marrakech, was a meeting point for caravan routes. They became rich from trade, especially through selling salt for gold. They had so much gold that the Almoravid gold coin was the most trusted currency in the whole of the Mediterranean at this time. When Yusuf ibn Tashfin died around 1106, he was succeeded by his son, Ali. The first 20 years of Ali's rule saw Marrakesh grow even more in stature. But faced with unrest to the north and south, the Almoravids grew weaker, and by 1147, a new dynasty came to dominate the region, and they were the Almohads. The Almohads, like the Almoravids, were responsible for Islamizing North Africa. Religion was important to them. But the Almohads had a more philosophical, intellectual approach to religion and saw themselves as the chosen ones. To make their mark, the Almohads built the great Kutubia Mosque of Marrakesh alongside the stone remains of an earlier mosque they'd built. Non-Muslims are not permitted to go inside the Al-Qutubiyyah Mosque, but it's only when you enter that you get a sense of its scale, magnificence, yet striking simplicity. The Al-Qutubiyyah Mosque is the most impressive legacy of the Al-Mohad rulers of Morocco. The Al-Mohad's architectural heritage was one of their greatest achievements. They established a new capital on the site where Rabat, Morocco's current capital city, stands. But they also set up efficient government frameworks and coherent taxation systems. They were major patrons of philosophy and therefore helped stimulate new thinking which later influenced European Renaissance intellectuals. Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur, to give him his full name, was the third Al-Mahad ruler. He was in power from 1184 to 1199 and was reputedly an accomplished man who wrote beautiful Arabic prose. Walking around the old quarters of the Almohad fortress of Rabat, you can almost feel the presence of the Almohads. By 1250, the power of the Almohads had drained away. By now, the most powerful of the Berber kingdoms... was a dynasty known as the Myrrenides, a nomadic Berber tribe who encouraged the cult of holy men. Their most famous king was Abu al-Hassan, known as the Black Sultan. He ruled his empire with an iron fist, and under him the city of Fez regained its former glory and once more became a centre of culture and craftsmanship. Moroccan historian Professor Mohamed Kibri Alawi explains how the Myrrhinids developed Fez and took other key cities such as Rabat and the nearby site of Cella. But the site really came into its own with the sultan from the Myrrhinid dynasty known as the Black Sultan who built the outside walls and the towers that we see standing today. What do we know about him? At the end of the 13th century, after the Mughal rule, The construction of a royal cemetery under the reign of Sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub, a Merinid sultan. The royal necropolis is partly established on the Roman city. And the black sultan, Abu al-Hassan, enlarged this royal cemetery. And we have the date of the construction of the rampart, the end of the construction of the rampart, which is 1339. These works were commissioned by the black sultan, Abul Hassan, who welcomed the death of several sultans and princes of the Mérénide dynasty. It is important to imagine that great personalities, sultans and princes, have therefore crossed the great gateway through which we now access the site. Black Sultan Abul Hasan was forced to abdicate from power in 1351. He died in exile in the high Atlas Mountains, but he was buried here at the necropolis he founded at Cella. This is his tomb. It looks rather plain, but in fact, on top of it, there would have been a stela or a small pillar that would have been standing on it. It now is exhibited at the entrance to the site. Beside the Black Sultan's tomb is a smaller one, which has the remnants of a small marble pyramid. Historians and archaeologists can't be sure, but they believe that this is where his son... This is a basin that was originally a spring, it was originally an ablution site, and it is the most frequented site by the local population. The Basin of Eels is still a big attraction too. Visitors are keen to see the eels and I wonder if I might be able to bring some to the surface. Well fortunately I got a helping hand from Alal who has been guarding this pond for many many years and Alal I saw that you just threw some boiled egg into the pond and I saw an eel emerge. Yeah. So how long have you been doing this? I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, how long have you been working here? I have to talk to him in Arabic. How long have you been working here? I've been here for 40 years. I give you the eggs and I give the eggs to the tourists so they can see the fish, the eels. Eels, yes. So he said that he... Keep him with me for a while, Yahaad. He said that the tourists come and they give him money and what he does is he throws bits of boiled egg into the water and the eels emerge. That's what... what people want to see. Alal and I are able to converse together in Arabic because of the Arab influence in Morocco and Sudan, where I was born. But the impact of the Arabs and their religion and language was not confined to just northern Africa. Islam was also introduced to West Africa by the 8th century through trade across the Sahara. But there was only a significant Muslim presence there by the 11th century, for instance, in what is today Senegal. Today, nearly all Senegalese are Muslim. And when it comes to the lunchtime prayers on Friday, most people stop what they're doing and go to one of the many mosques in the capital, Dakar. The Grand Mosque is a dominant feature of Dakar. It was built by the late Moroccan King Hassan II. Thierno Karr is an authority on Islam and director of the Islamic Institute in Dakar. He told me more about how Islam took hold in Senegal through the teachings and preachings of Sufi mystics like the Maribu sect. In the beginning of the 11th century, Senegalese and African Muslims from West Africa called Islam by ancient Marabou. The oldest confrérie in Africa is the Qadirib confrérie. It's the first confrérie that penetrated into our country. And in East Africa, Islam also has strong and deep roots. The Muslims of what is today Eritrea claim to have some of the earliest Muslim converts on the continent when followers of the Prophet Muhammad fled across the Red Sea from Mecca to the coast of what is today Eritrea. In fact, this small building on the Eritrean coast is claimed by the Eritreans as the first Muslim shrine in Africa for its belief to be the site where followers of the Prophet Muhammad prayed when they fled Mecca for Africa in the early 7th century. Elsewhere in East Africa, Islam arrived later around the 13th century, as Felix Chami, a Tanzanian historian, tells me as we walk along the island of Zanzibar. We are told there were kings in Azania, on the coast of East Africa. And these kings had territories in which people were very much free. They were living in a very free country of life. So influence of Arabs can be traced much back from that of Swahili time period, 1200 AD. Because here now we can see actual Islamic religion being adopted. Since Arabic is the language of the Koran, This meant the Arabic script was used to write the Swahili language that's spoken mostly on the east coast of Africa. The Swahili coastal culture is the fusion of local African, Arab and Indian influences. For instance, the Swahili language spoken in this part of Africa incorporates many Arabic words and was first written in the Arabic script. These two carpenters in stone town Zanzibar are chatting away in Swahili while they go about their work. You can make out words of Arabic origin here and there in the conversation. If you want to take it, you have to be peaceful. If you want to take it, you have to be peaceful. You will take it? You will take it. You will take it? Clearly, the legacy of the Arabs, their religion and language is evident in Africa today. Not only in parts of the East and West, but particularly in the North. It would be easy to categorize North Africa as just being part of the Arab world. part of the Arab world and somehow separate from the rest of Africa. But North Africans share a legacy with millions of people elsewhere on the continent. As we've seen, the powerful Berber dynasties like the Al-Mahavids and the Al-Mahads had deep ties with other Africans. And the fusion of the Arab influence with African culture has given rise to something unique to Africa. I'm left with the thought that Africa surely is the most complex, varied and diverse of all the world's continents. Its rich culture and heritage mean it has a fascinating and much overlooked history. This series has been guided and inspired throughout by a unique project, the General History of Africa, undertaken by UNESCO on behalf of African nations to bring an African perspective to the continent's history. Because everybody, young and old, African and non-African alike, should understand that Africa's history is, after all, part of our global story.

Here in Tunisia, people gather for a very special annual event. Hunting with birds, a sport beloved by the Arabs, is popular today across North Africa. The Arabs arrived in Africa in the first half of the 7th century and their influence is particularly evident across the north of the continent. The Arabs brought their faith, language and culture. Today, Islam is the dominant religion and Arabic the main language in the region.

How are you? Oh, I can take it here. Thank you. Oh, thank you.

So this is the... Yeah. He wants me to dance with it.

You know, the Falcon Festival here at Hawaria in north-eastern Tunisia takes place just once a year. And these birds actually migrate from Arabia to this part of North Africa in search of food in those mountains there behind me. And the locals really just have this festival. They keep the birds...

Oh! Well, the locals here keep these birds as a hobby just for a couple of months to train them for this festival. And what they do is they throw a bird and then the falcon is supposed to run after it and catch it.

And if your falcon does that, then it's done well. But falconry actually goes back centuries. The Arabs actually used falcons for hunting.

And handling them is a skill which is just handed down from generation to generation. But you'll be glad to hear that these falcons, after a couple of months, they are returned, they're freed, they're liberated and they go back to their home in Arabia. This is a Burmese bird, from the Sucur tribe, or the Chawahin tribe in the Gulf. They live with us in the mountains, in Tunisia, in Hawaria.

We take four small birds from the wild in Hawaria. It's huge and it can reach up to 380 kilometers per hour. And this is the bird. Yes, yes.

At the nest. 30 kilometers an hour, wow. Yes. And the way the bird is hunted, from top to bottom.

It takes the top, then it goes down to the nest. Beautiful, beautiful creature. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much. Thank you.

I make my way from the festival in Hawaria and head to the capital Tunis to see another example of North Africa's Arab heritage. The famous Arabian stallion is the most highly prized horse in the region to this day. The Kassar Sayyid Hippodrome in Tunis is where locals keep their thoroughbreds and Haitham Asayid wants to show me his horse.

Very nice to see you, thank you. Hi Sayyid, how are you? Fine, thanks. So, Haitham, thank you so much for showing me your beautiful horse.

This is the Arabian breed. What makes it so... And why was it significant historically? Well, the Arabian breed is very special because the Arabian horse adapts itself to our climate, the whole North Africa, where the heat is extreme and they can survive very well on it, even on little water.

They have plenty of stamina. This is the reason why they were used for the big conquests, historically speaking. They have plenty of speed as well.

This is why we raised them in Tunisia. And as a breed, in general, they are... smart, they are intelligent and with plenty of character. I haven't ridden a horse for many, many years. I think I'll leave it to you or somebody else to show us just what this horse can do.

Thank you so much. Are you going to help me get off now? The Arabian Stallion was amongst the most treasured of the animals that the Arabs brought with them to Africa.

The Arabs' intention was to spread their Muslim faith, and one of the first places they set their sights on was Egypt. The Arabs came to Egypt very early in the history of Islam. An Arab commander called Amr ibn al-As arrived in the country with a small army around 640. This is the site of the oldest mosque in Egypt. It's called Amr ibn al-As after the... brilliant Arab general who conquered Egypt and brought Islam to the country.

The mosque is situated in Fustat, the new capital he established for Egypt and is part of modern-day Cairo. The present mosque dates back from the late 18th century and is built in a style which reflects the simplicity of the original mosque. The conversion of the Egyptians to Islam was gradual.

I meet Dr. Abdelbaki Al-Sayed, an Islamic scholar inside Egypt's famous Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo. He told me that Amr ibn al-As completed his conquest through a peace agreement with the Egyptians. There was a great vision and distance from Amr ibn al-As to deal with the Egyptians in a lenient and tolerant way. And this is what made the Qubaits, all of them, except a few of them, ally with Amr ibn al-As and spread Islam to all the people.

He... didn't just bring Islam with him, he also introduced Arabness to Egypt, didn't he? But he started teaching people. The dialogue in the mosque was done in Arabic.

The recitation of the Qur'an was done in Arabic. The transformation into Arabic did not take long. After penetrating Egypt, the Arabs decided to attack the Christian Nubians in northern Sudan, who by now had been Christian for hundreds of years.

The Arabs went to the town of Old Dongola and destroyed the cathedral there, so that today all you can see are just ruins of some early churches. Professor Youssef Fadil is one of Sudan's foremost experts on the arrival of Islam, and he explains how a truce known as a Baqt was struck between the Nubians and the Arabs. The first contact between Islam and the Sudan was 650. They are AD.

Now, no sooner has Islam spread in Egypt, than the Nubians here began to make skirmishes on the southern part of Egypt, sort of defending or coming to the assistance of their Christian brothers there. And that caused some annoyance. The caliphate in Medina decided to put an end to that.

So they began to send a kind of winter attacks to stop the Nubians from doing this. In the end, they decided to send... A campaign against the Nubians to stop them from harassing the inhabitants of southern Egypt.

And that came what we call the Bakht Agreement. Now, the Bakht Agreement is a treaty of no aggression. Each will not attack the other.

That is in essence. This treaty continued for something like 600, 700 years. Nubia had managed to hang on to its independence. The Bakht or treaty lasted for six centuries. and the Nubians continued to practice their Christian faith.

But in the end, the Nubians and other people in what is today Sudan could not resist the tide of Islam, which came to them from two directions, from the north and from the east. From the north, trade, interaction, as well as military expeditions from Egypt to Nubia, meant its Christian heritage began to unravel. Islam also entered Sudan from the east, from Arabia, just a short journey across the Red Sea.

The one across the Red Sea were purely Arabs. They heard of the Sudan that there are plenty of grazing ground, water. So the news came to them through those merchants who have been to the Sudan and people began to infiltrate at very small numbers, unnoticed, and continued until the 13th, 14th and 15th century, the climax of the Arab migration. That is one attraction.

The second one is that in the eastern desert, Arabs discovered gold mines and emeralds. And this is To them, it constituted a gold rush. It became in large numbers.

Did these Arabs integrate? Did they intermarry, for instance, with the local populations? A lot of intermarriage.

I would say it has produced something very unique. If you take it in the way of culture, by way of music, we are more African-oriented in our music than in Arabia. This is the first sign.

The color itself is more African than Arabs as such. In the behavior, we have a lot of Arabian customs and the same African ones. Give us some examples.

The way the people behave, being generous to the people who come along the road, this is more of an Arab country perhaps. Now if you take the facial marks, this is an African custom. And you see it on my face and I have been there for a long time. This is an African custom. When the Arabs came, they adopted it.

However, the custom of tribal marks is one that has died out today in Sudan. As in many other parts of Africa, Islam in Sudan took on a distinctly Sufi or mystic identity infused with local colour, music and dance. These people are referred to as the whirling dervishes, though to be accurate they are groups of worshippers who sway, twirl and dance and chant praise to Allah repeatedly, building themselves up into a high state of spirituality. Can you describe what the main features of Sufism is and the dervishes that we see today in Sudan? Personally, I think it's more of an African influence in it more than in other things.

Perhaps the welding has been there, but if you take the way they beat the drum, it's more of an African tune. When you hear the drum beating like that, you feel an urge to go and join the group and dance. What's the principal purpose, though, of the dance, to get into a trance? Well, perhaps some of them do get in a trance. But in that action, one hopes that they will get identified with Islamic teams.

teaching and religion and so on, and they will say their prayers properly. So that is perhaps a means to bring them, but not an ending itself. Let's now turn to the powerful Islamic dynasties that became established in North Africa. It was another Arab general, Uqba ibn Nafiq, who swept across North Africa and introduced Islam to this part of the continent.

He was the nephew of Abn ibn al-As, who'd brought Islam to Egypt. Uqba ibn Nafiq first arrived in North Africa around 644. He defeated the Berbers, who followed their traditional religions or were Jewish or Christian. Their conversion to Islam...

took place over a period of time. The legacy of Akbar ibn Nafiq is still evident today in the region, for instance in the town of Kerouan in northern Tunisia. Akbar ibn Nafiq brought with him many Muslims from Arabia, the early followers of the Prophet Muhammad. They settled and died in their new home in Kerouan. This is the tomb of Abu Zama al-Balawi, one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad.

Now, al-Balawi actually died about 40 kilometres from Kerouan, but he was brought here for burial. And local legend has it that buried with him are three hares belonging to the... Prophet Muhammad, that apparently he always kept with him. The 7th century marked the start of a golden age in Kerouan. There were amenities and services.

And when, for instance, the inhabitants of Kerouan suffered from water shortages... The authorities here built reservoirs like this one behind me. The water was brought in via aqueducts from the hills west of Kerouan into the reservoirs. The water system built so many centuries ago is still very clear to see and one can only marvel at the sophistication of its engineering. After his campaign in what is today Tunisia, Oqba ibn Nafiq went to modern-day Algeria, where he was killed in battle by the Berbers.

There was a gap of several decades before another Arab general, Musa ibn Nusayr, would go to North Africa to try to subdue the Berbers. Musa ibn Nusayr was one of the greatest Arab commanders in this period of history. He succeeded in bringing North Africa under Arab control, spreading Islam and expanding the influence of the Muslim community.

However, there were some Berbers who wanted neither Arab rule nor Islam, like the legendary Berber queen known as Kahina, or Kahina as the Arabs call her. Her name means priestess or soothsayer. She led the resistance to the Arabs. and their religion. Kahina was believed to have been born in the early 7th century and has attained mythical status as a heroine for all the people of North Africa today.

Moroccan historian Professor Nuhi Al-Wafi is a Berber or Amazigh, as they prefer to be called. for refusing to accept Islam, but she urged her two sons to convert in order to survive. This was the stronghold of Queen Kahina, the Aures Mountains of eastern Algeria.

You can just imagine her using her knowledge of the terrain to attack the invading Arabs. Queen Kahina is the symbol both of Berber pride and strong female leadership right across North Africa. And it was here in Algeria that she died. Kahina's stand against Islam may have been brave, but in the end, her resistance to the Islamisation of the Berbers proved futile.

But the introduction of Islam was often peaceful. By the end of the 7th century, a holy man from Mecca called Mule Idris took refuge in the old Roman town of Volubilis in modern-day northern Morocco. after experiencing problems in Mecca.

Mule Idris so impressed the Berbers with his piety that they made him their leader. He had children with a Berber woman called Kenza and gave his name to a new dynasty, the Idrisites. Mule Idris was succeeded by his son Mule Idris II. He expanded the state and in 807 moved his capital to Fez, which he wanted to turn into a centre of enlightenment.

Fez is home to the Karowin Mosque, one of the finest in the world. According to local tradition, when Mule Idris II died in 828, He was buried here in this tomb, in this mosque, in his beloved Fes. Upon his death, he was succeeded by his son Muhammad, but he turned to his mother Kenza for advice and she told him to divide the kingdom amongst his father's ten sons. This weakened the Idrisite dynasty and spelt the beginning of the end of their rule.

But the Idrisites did manage to hang on to some of their power and they continued to rule in a decentralised manner for nearly a century after. Anfez was established as one of the ancient centers of learning. In fact, it has the oldest university in continuous use in the world. Its old quarter dates back to the early 9th century, though the remains are mostly medieval. North Africa, with Kerouan in Tunisia as its capital, was very much part of the Islamic world.

And there followed a period of history in which a succession of dynasties ruled one after the other. Some were North African, others from Arabia, and what we now call the Middle East. Here are some of the most important dynasties. At the end of the 8th century, the Baghdad-based Abbasids appointed Ibrahim ibn al-Akhlab as governor of Tunisia.

He founded the Aghlabid royal family, which ruled on behalf of Baghdad in North Africa. Then from Kabylie in central Algeria, a new dynasty emerged, the Fatimids. They followed the minority Shia sect, not the Sunni or mainstream form of Islam that most people adhere to in Africa.

The Fatimids conquered North Africa and a year later their leader Abdullah declared a caliphate in modern-day Tunisia to south of Kerouan. The Fatimids built a new capital called Mahadia. Go there today and you see the hand of Fatima everywhere.

Fatima was one of the daughters of the prophet Muhammad. Ahlan wa sahlan. I get my own personalised version.

There we are. Abdul Latif engraved my name in Arabic. Zainab Badawi. And that's the hand of Fatima, which will apparently bring me luck.

The Grand Mosque just here was part of a massive building program embarked upon by the Fatimids when they made Mahadiya their capital. It was founded in the early 10th century by the caliph Abdullah al-Mahadi and he gave the city his name. The Fatimids chose Mahadiya because of its closeness to the sea and indeed today it is still one of Tunisia's most attractive ports.

Dr. Rida Boussoufara is a Tunisian archaeologist and historian. While people are indigenous, there is a political and social order that was ruled before the Arabs came. These tribes, most of them, converted, but they remained on their ancient barbaric customs.

The Fatimids could not take power unless they were favored by some barbaric tribes. They were the ones who supported the government. They were the ones who built the cities.

They were the merchants. They were the craftsmen. So they represented the society at that time.

After gaining control of this part of North Africa, the Fatimids next turned their attention to Egypt. They had a strong and disciplined army, and in 969... They conquered Egypt. They built a new capital city, Cairo, and established its famous mosque, Al-Azhar. The Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, which was built in the 10th century, for hundreds and hundreds of years, it has been the seat of Islamic learning.

for the Sunni form of Islam, but in fact it was built by the Fatimid dynasty who governed Egypt for 200 years and they adhered to the Shia form of Islam. Ensconced in Cairo, the Fatimids' hold on their dominions elsewhere came under challenge. In their former capital Mahadia in Tunisia, a local family, the Zirids, were ruling on behalf of the Fatimids. But they opposed the minority Shia form of Islam practiced by them. So the Zirids broke away from the Fatimids around 1045 and established their own kingdom.

The period of rule under the Zirid dynasty was a high point in the history of this part of North Africa. From their base here in Mahadia along the Tunisian coast, the Zirid rulers presided over decades of prosperity across many economic sectors. The Fatimid forces attacked the rebellious Zirids. The town of Mahadia was impregnable.

But the rest of the region went into decline, and for several decades after, there was a power vacuum in North Africa. Then, around 1050, the Almoravids, the first of several new powerful Berber dynasties, emerged in what is today Morocco. And it was the Almoravids who founded the city of Marrakesh. Marrakesh is probably the most important... of the cities in Morocco built by its Berber dynasties.

The Al-Moravids established a thriving city within these walls. They built many mosques and schools, which rapidly led to Marrakech becoming the religious, cultural and trading centre of the Al-Moravid Empire. The Al-Moravid ruler Yusuf ibn Tashfin was a powerful, charismatic man. Under him, the Al-Moravid seized control of much of Morocco and built an empire. Their power extended far and wide and included terrorism, in modern-day Spain, Algeria, Libya, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.

Their capital, Marrakech, was a meeting point for caravan routes. They became rich from trade, especially through selling salt for gold. They had so much gold that the Almoravid gold coin was the most trusted currency in the whole of the Mediterranean at this time.

When Yusuf ibn Tashfin died around 1106, he was succeeded by his son, Ali. The first 20 years of Ali's rule saw Marrakesh grow even more in stature. But faced with unrest to the north and south, the Almoravids grew weaker, and by 1147, a new dynasty came to dominate the region, and they were the Almohads. The Almohads, like the Almoravids, were responsible for Islamizing North Africa.

Religion was important to them. But the Almohads had a more philosophical, intellectual approach to religion and saw themselves as the chosen ones. To make their mark, the Almohads built the great Kutubia Mosque of Marrakesh alongside the stone remains of an earlier mosque they'd built. Non-Muslims are not permitted to go inside the Al-Qutubiyyah Mosque, but it's only when you enter that you get a sense of its scale, magnificence, yet striking simplicity.

The Al-Qutubiyyah Mosque is the most impressive legacy of the Al-Mohad rulers of Morocco. The Al-Mohad's architectural heritage was one of their greatest achievements. They established a new capital on the site where Rabat, Morocco's current capital city, stands.

But they also set up efficient government frameworks and coherent taxation systems. They were major patrons of philosophy and therefore helped stimulate new thinking which later influenced European Renaissance intellectuals. Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur, to give him his full name, was the third Al-Mahad ruler.

He was in power from 1184 to 1199 and was reputedly an accomplished man who wrote beautiful Arabic prose. Walking around the old quarters of the Almohad fortress of Rabat, you can almost feel the presence of the Almohads. By 1250, the power of the Almohads had drained away.

By now, the most powerful of the Berber kingdoms... was a dynasty known as the Myrrenides, a nomadic Berber tribe who encouraged the cult of holy men. Their most famous king was Abu al-Hassan, known as the Black Sultan.

He ruled his empire with an iron fist, and under him the city of Fez regained its former glory and once more became a centre of culture and craftsmanship. Moroccan historian Professor Mohamed Kibri Alawi explains how the Myrrhinids developed Fez and took other key cities such as Rabat and the nearby site of Cella. But the site really came into its own with the sultan from the Myrrhinid dynasty known as the Black Sultan who built the outside walls and the towers that we see standing today. What do we know about him?

At the end of the 13th century, after the Mughal rule, The construction of a royal cemetery under the reign of Sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub, a Merinid sultan. The royal necropolis is partly established on the Roman city. And the black sultan, Abu al-Hassan, enlarged this royal cemetery.

And we have the date of the construction of the rampart, the end of the construction of the rampart, which is 1339. These works were commissioned by the black sultan, Abul Hassan, who welcomed the death of several sultans and princes of the Mérénide dynasty. It is important to imagine that great personalities, sultans and princes, have therefore crossed the great gateway through which we now access the site. Black Sultan Abul Hasan was forced to abdicate from power in 1351. He died in exile in the high Atlas Mountains, but he was buried here at the necropolis he founded at Cella.

This is his tomb. It looks rather plain, but in fact, on top of it, there would have been a stela or a small pillar that would have been standing on it. It now is exhibited at the entrance to the site. Beside the Black Sultan's tomb is a smaller one, which has the remnants of a small marble pyramid. Historians and archaeologists can't be sure, but they believe that this is where his son...

This is a basin that was originally a spring, it was originally an ablution site, and it is the most frequented site by the local population. The Basin of Eels is still a big attraction too. Visitors are keen to see the eels and I wonder if I might be able to bring some to the surface. Well fortunately I got a helping hand from Alal who has been guarding this pond for many many years and Alal I saw that you just threw some boiled egg into the pond and I saw an eel emerge. Yeah.

So how long have you been doing this? I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, how long have you been working here? I have to talk to him in Arabic.

How long have you been working here? I've been here for 40 years. I give you the eggs and I give the eggs to the tourists so they can see the fish, the eels. Eels, yes. So he said that he...

Keep him with me for a while, Yahaad. He said that the tourists come and they give him money and what he does is he throws bits of boiled egg into the water and the eels emerge. That's what...

what people want to see. Alal and I are able to converse together in Arabic because of the Arab influence in Morocco and Sudan, where I was born. But the impact of the Arabs and their religion and language was not confined to just northern Africa. Islam was also introduced to West Africa by the 8th century through trade across the Sahara.

But there was only a significant Muslim presence there by the 11th century, for instance, in what is today Senegal. Today, nearly all Senegalese are Muslim. And when it comes to the lunchtime prayers on Friday, most people stop what they're doing and go to one of the many mosques in the capital, Dakar. The Grand Mosque is a dominant feature of Dakar. It was built by the late Moroccan King Hassan II.

Thierno Karr is an authority on Islam and director of the Islamic Institute in Dakar. He told me more about how Islam took hold in Senegal through the teachings and preachings of Sufi mystics like the Maribu sect. In the beginning of the 11th century, Senegalese and African Muslims from West Africa called Islam by ancient Marabou.

The oldest confrérie in Africa is the Qadirib confrérie. It's the first confrérie that penetrated into our country. And in East Africa, Islam also has strong and deep roots.

The Muslims of what is today Eritrea claim to have some of the earliest Muslim converts on the continent when followers of the Prophet Muhammad fled across the Red Sea from Mecca to the coast of what is today Eritrea. In fact, this small building on the Eritrean coast is claimed by the Eritreans as the first Muslim shrine in Africa for its belief to be the site where followers of the Prophet Muhammad prayed when they fled Mecca for Africa in the early 7th century. Elsewhere in East Africa, Islam arrived later around the 13th century, as Felix Chami, a Tanzanian historian, tells me as we walk along the island of Zanzibar. We are told there were kings in Azania, on the coast of East Africa.

And these kings had territories in which people were very much free. They were living in a very free country of life. So influence of Arabs can be traced much back from that of Swahili time period, 1200 AD. Because here now we can see actual Islamic religion being adopted. Since Arabic is the language of the Koran, This meant the Arabic script was used to write the Swahili language that's spoken mostly on the east coast of Africa.

The Swahili coastal culture is the fusion of local African, Arab and Indian influences. For instance, the Swahili language spoken in this part of Africa incorporates many Arabic words and was first written in the Arabic script. These two carpenters in stone town Zanzibar are chatting away in Swahili while they go about their work. You can make out words of Arabic origin here and there in the conversation. If you want to take it, you have to be peaceful.

If you want to take it, you have to be peaceful. You will take it? You will take it. You will take it?

Clearly, the legacy of the Arabs, their religion and language is evident in Africa today. Not only in parts of the East and West, but particularly in the North. It would be easy to categorize North Africa as just being part of the Arab world. part of the Arab world and somehow separate from the rest of Africa.

But North Africans share a legacy with millions of people elsewhere on the continent. As we've seen, the powerful Berber dynasties like the Al-Mahavids and the Al-Mahads had deep ties with other Africans. And the fusion of the Arab influence with African culture has given rise to something unique to Africa. I'm left with the thought that Africa surely is the most complex, varied and diverse of all the world's continents.

Its rich culture and heritage mean it has a fascinating and much overlooked history. This series has been guided and inspired throughout by a unique project, the General History of Africa, undertaken by UNESCO on behalf of African nations to bring an African perspective to the continent's history. Because everybody, young and old, African and non-African alike, should understand that Africa's history is, after all, part of our global story.

Transcript for:The Spread of Islam in Africa

Transcript for:
The Spread of Islam in Africa