Ghana Empire - History of Islam in Ghana Empire

History of Islam in Ghana Empire

Meanwhile, modern scholars, especially the African Muslim scholars have argued about the extension of the Ghana Empire and tenure of its reign. The African Arabist, Sheikh Dr. Abu-Abdullah Adelabu of Awqaf Africa London claimed some non-Muslim historians have played down the territorial expansion of the Ghana Empire in, what he called, an attempt to undermine the influence of Islam in Old Ghana. In his works The Ghana World: A Pride For The Continent, Adelabu maintained works of celebrated Muslim historians and geographers in Europe like the Cordoban scholar Abu-Ubayd al-Bakri had been subjugated to accommodate contrary views of non-Muslim Europeans. He compared Al-Bakri (c. 1014–1094) to the Moroccan theologian and founder of the Almoravid movement and dynasty Abdallah Ibn Yasin (died 7 July 1059 C.E) and pointed at them among the early Muslim scholars whose scholastic works had been compromised on history of the Ghana Empire. Adelabu claimed constant cold-shouldering of Ibn Yasin's Geography of School Of Imam Malik in which he gave a comprehensive account of social and religious activities in the Ghana Empire have well-attested compositional bias of Ghana history documentation, especially by the European historians on topics related to Islam and the ancient Muslim societies. Adelabu said: "...the early Muslim documentaries including Ibn Yasin's revelations on ancient African major centers of Muslim culture crossing the Maghreb and the Sahel to Timbuktu and downward to Ashanti regions had not just presented researchers in the field of African History with solutions to the scarcity of written sources in large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, it consolidated confidence in techniques of oral history, historical linguistics and archaeology for authentic Islamic traditions in Africa".