“a moorish captainroosevelt.ucsd.edu/_files/mmw/mmw13/rahimilecture6mmw13...* formation of good...
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“A Moorish Captain"
Virginia Mason Vaughan
"thick lips"
SUNJATA:
West African Epic of Mande Peoples
Mandinka People
Epic of Sundiata Sundiata Keita (1217-1255)
Founder of the Mali Empire
Mansa Musa (1280-1337)
Hamlet
MMW 13 Lecture 6, April 19
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This week’s lecture Today
Europe
Sub-Saharan Africa
Thursday:
Asia: China, India, Japan
Europe In 1200 Europe, as an economically, politically, and
religious/cultural landmass, has little coherence
Class Noble (aristocracy; clergymen, dukes, knights
Servants
Artisans & Guilds
Peasantry
Boroughs (self-governing walled town)
rising middle class 1050-1300
Medieval Guilds:Guilds were able to transform the labor system on
the estates of members of the nobility.
Labor Unions
Annual Fairs at public
squares
Champagne Fairs
Lex mercatoria Largely administrated by the merchants
Merchant justice system: codes, laws and customs
practiced throughout Europe
1. Property rights
2. Contractual formalities
3. A common language for commerce
* Formation of GOOD PRACTICES
Specialization of labor and
production
Professionalization & the Separation of
Work and Domestic Space
Gender Artisan (ex. Spinning by hand), peasant
Bankers or tailors
Private domain: embroidery, needlepoint, sewing,
spinning, and weaving
Most populated city in
Medieval Europe?
Paris
Venice
Afro-Eurasia
Sub-Saharan Africa
States and Societies
Bantu peoples 600 ethnic groups
2500-3000: millennia-long migration from west to east,
central and south Africa
Established major states from the 14th
century
Commerce and Urbanization Trade with Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean basin
Development of new commodities desired by
consumers throughout the eastern hemisphere.
Urbanization and organization of large states
Kingdoms
11th to 15th centuries Swahili cities.
12th to 16th centuries Christian Kingdom of Axum
13th to 15th centuries Mali Empire
Kingdom of Kongo 14th to 17th
century
Societies: Kinship Groups
Kin-based Societies: members related based on marriage or descent.
“Stateless society” or “segmentary society”
Political structure: governed themselves through family and kinship groups.
1) Village chiefs ruled but through concessions and negotiations.
Bantu kingdoms: appoint officials on the local level.
2) Ruling elites, military nobles, business entrepreneurs (male heads of the families).
3) Villages consisted of several extended families.
4) Common people, peasants and slaves.
Code of Ethics
.
Descent: Unilineal lineages can be matrilineal or
patrilineal.
Not biological linkage but a moral one.
Confucian filial piety.
Unlike Eurasia and North Africa
No institution of privately owned property (sub-Saharan
Africa).
Communities claimed ownership based on rights to land and
used it in common.
Status group: iron working, highly prestigious.
Sub-Saharan societies.
Agricultural economy and iron-working skills.
King groups.
Coastal Trade.
African traditions and Islam: The emergence of productive and
powerful societies in Africa.
Kingdom of Kongo
1200 small states near the Congo River form an alliance.
Kingdom of Kongo: a Congolese states that did trade from the
Atlantic Ocean.
Centralized government: king, officials and six provinces
administrated by governors.
Villages ruled by chiefs.
Effective organization of society.
Islam & sub-Saharan Africa
Kingdom of Ghana: regional state and a commercial site for trade in gold (Senegal river and Nigeria) in exchange of horses, cloth, small manufactured wares and salt (a major commodity in the tropics).
Introduction of Islam: Caravan (from north Africa and Mediterranean basis) and Indian basin.
10th century, Ghana converted to Islam.
TAXES & TRADE
Trade played a major role in the emergence of cities and
states in sub-Saharan Africa.
1) Taxes levied on trade provided finances for large armies.
2) Armies protected the sources and trade of gold.
3) Security
4) Maintained tributary states and defended Ghana against
nomadic incursions from the Sahara.
The lion prince Sundiata (1230-1255)
Founder of the Mali empire.
1235 consolidated his power on
the Mali empire, which included
Ghana, Senegal and Niger rivers.
● Naini: capital city
● very hospitable to Muslim merchants.
● Mali taxed all trade passing
through west Africa.
The lion prince Sundiata (1230-1255)
Founder of the Mali empire.
1235 consolidated his power on
the Mali empire, which included
Ghana, Senegal and Niger rivers.
● Naini: capital city
● very hospitable to Muslim merchants.
● Mali taxed all trade passing
through west Africa.
Mansa Musa (1312-1337)
Grand-nephew of Sundiata.
Muslim ruler.
Pilgrimage to Mecca (1324-1325)
Expanded Islam throughout
west Africa.
● Trade and Islam: More
Muslim merchants.
● Established a tradition of
centralized government and
expansion of Islam in the region.
What role did Islam play in
Africa?
Source of Legitimacy for rulers.
Cooperation between states
Alliances.
Expansion of commerce:
Appealed to merchants and ruling elites and a cultural
foundation for business relations with north African traders.
Non-Islamic Religions
Monotheism: A single divine force as the generator of life and
order.
Moralistic: promoted proper moral behavior and set ethnical
standards for members of the community.
Ancestor cults: rituals to regain their goodwill
Diviners: mediators between the spiritual and mundane worlds,
consulting oracles, identified the causes of the trouble, gave
medicine or assigned sacrificial performances to heal.
Christianity
4th century:
Kingdom of Axum
Merchants and missionaries.
Ethiopia: highlands
Magical Christianity: amulets or charms for protection.
Rocks shrines & Church:
11 massive churches.
13th century: Ethiopia’s Dynasty claimed descent from
the Israelite Kings David and Solomon.