Geography
The Ghana Empire's approximate location.
What is West Africa?
The name of the Muslim “house of worship” and the Arabic word for God.
What are mosque and Allah?
Two reasons Ghana’s economy thrived.
What are their position in the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade and their taxes on it?
The term used for a storyteller or passer of oral history in West Africa.
What is a griot?
The 7 elements of an empire.
What are: population, land, advanced agriculture, economy, government, military, and culture?
The capital of the Ghana Empire.
What is Koumbi?
The name of Allah’s messenger and the name of the holy text where the information he received from Allah was recorded.
What are Prophet Muhammad and the Quran?
Briefly explain the legend of Ouagadou-Bida and its relation to the decline of the Ghana Empire.
Points given according to the answer (must includes killing of serpent and subsequent drought).
The person who leads prayers in a mosque.
The meaning of the Soninke word "Ghana" and how it became the name we use for the empire.
What is king?
Travelers who visited heard the word used and started referring to the land as Ghana.
This desert is located to the northeast of the Ghana Empire.
What is the Sahara?
What Muslims do during Ramadan (include any exceptions to this.)
What is fast from sunrise to sunset? (Those whose health would be at risk such as pregnant women, sick, elderly and children don’t have to fast.)
The basic steps of the “silent trade.”
What are:
1) Salt traders left piles of goods and banged drums
2) Gold traders left gold near those piles, banged drums
3) Salt miners either agreed to amount by taking gold and leaving or left piles
4) Gold miners left more gold until salt miners “agreed”
Define middleman.
Agent in the middle of trade that facilitates the process between both sides.
Resource (in addition to gold and salt) that helped Ghana farm more efficiently and grow more powerful.
What is iron?
The name of the place salt was mined for trading and where it was in relation to Ghana (N/S/E/W).
What is Taghaza and North?
Ibn Yacin started this religious sect of Islam which wanted to invade Ghana and force others to adopt Islam.
What are the Almoravids?
The king was the only person allowed to own/keep this resource.
What are gold nuggets?
The structure in Mecca believed to be the most sacred spot on Earth to Muslims.
What is the Kaaba?
The name the Soninke people used to refer to their empire.
What is Ouagadou?
These two cities are visited during Hajj. They are found in this present day country and visited in this order.
What present day country are they in and which one is typically visited first?
What is Mecca and Medina?
What is Saudi Arabia and Mecca first then Medina?
The five pillars of Islam (list with Arabic names and English definitions).
What are:
Shahadah - Testimony
Salaat - Prayer
Sawmu/Ramadan - Fasting
Zakaah - Charity
Hajj - Religious journey/pilgrimage
Describe each of the twin cities of Ghana’s capital.
Points given according to the answer
King's side: Palace, priests, sacred grove, one mosque
Market side: muslim traders, markets, mosques
The traveler and historian who visited Ghana and wrote about his experiences.
Who is Ibn Battuta?
How life in the Ghana Empire changed after the Almoravids invaded.
The people lost their freedom of religion. They could no longer worship Ouagadou-Bida and were forced to convert to Islam.