Deck 13: African Civilizations and the Spread of Islam

Question 1

Between 800 and 1500 as the frequency and intensity of contact with the outside world increased, what was the chief impact on sub-Saharan Africa?

A) The arrival of the Portuguese
B) The arrival of Christianity
C) The arrival of Islam
D) The arrival of Chinese merchants

Answer 1

The arrival of Islam

Question 2

What was one of the major differences between African civilizations and other post classical societies?

A) African civilizations built somewhat less clearly on prior societies than did other post classical societies.
B) African civilization was almost entirely dependent on cultural importations from Islam and the Arabic world.
C) Prior to 800, African civilizations had no prior contacts with civilizations outside of the African continent.
D) There were no civilizations in Africa until the post classical period.

Answer 2

African civilizations built somewhat less clearly on prior societies than did other post classical societies.

Question 3

Who was Mansa Musa?

A) The leader of Mali
B) A Christian missionary from Portugal
C) The leader of Songhay
D) The leader of Ghana

Answer 3

The leader of Songhay

Question 4

African societies organized around kinship or other forms of obligation and lacking the concentration of political power and authority were referred to as

A) stateless.
B) hunting and gathering bands.
C) Bantu conical clans.
D) Islamic tribes.

Question 5

What was the function of secret societies in African culture?

A) They smuggled valuable gold across the Sahara and established vital trade routes with the Mediterranean.
B) Because secret societies were restricted to females, they permitted women to have an invisible, but powerful, role in political affairs within African societies.
C) Because their membership cut across lineage divisions, they acted to maintain stability within the community and diminish clan feuds.
D) They served as a disruptive and revolutionary force in African society forestalling the formation of larger states.

Question 6

Which of the following statements best describes the indigenous religion of much of sub-Saharan Africa?

A) Much of sub-Saharan Africa was Christian.
B) Animistic religion, belief in the power of natural forces personified as deities, characterized much of Africa.
C) African religion prior to the arrival of the Muslims was typified by an independent form of monotheism characterized by worship in monumental temple complexes.
D) Uniquely, African societies lacked religious principles prior to the arrival of the Christians and Muslims.

Question 7

Which of the following was NOT a belief shared by practitioners of many indigenous African religions?

A) The idea of a creator deity
B) The idea that disasters and illnesses were produced by saints
C) The veneration of ancestors
D) The view that working the land had religious significance

Question 8

Which of the following statements concerning the economies of Africa is NOT correct?

A) North Africa was fully involved in the Mediterranean and Arab economic world.
B) Settled agriculture and iron working had been established in many areas before the post-classical period.
C) Trade was handled by professional merchants, often in kinship groupings.
D) Much of the region lacked a market economy and was based on self-sufficient agricultural units.

Question 9

What may have been the population of Africa in 1500 CE?

A) 1-15 million
B) 15-30 million
C) 30-60 million
D) 60-75 million

Question 10

What region of Africa was first converted to Islam by 700 C.E.?

A) East Africa
B) Central Africa
C) West Africa
D) North Africa

Question 11

The puritanical reform movements of the Almoravids and Almohadis arose among what groups of people?

A) The Berbers, native desert dwellers of north Africa
B) The Arabs during the conquest of north Africa
C) The Nubians of the early Sudan
D) The inhabitants of the empire of Mali

Question 12

What does ?umma? mean?

A) Social equality
B) African ruler
C) Equality of all clans
D) Community of believers

Question 13

What was the most important Christian kingdom in Africa?

A) Mali
B) Songhay
C) Kongo
D) Ethiopia

Question 14

Which of the following regions was an important point of initial cultural contact between Africa and Islam?

A) The Atlantic Ocean
B) The Pacific Ocean
C) North Africa
D) South Africa

Question 15

The Sahel refers to the

A) grassland belt at the southern edge of the Sahara that served as a point of exchange between the forests of the south and north Africa.
B) East African coastline that became the primary point of contact for Muslim merchants from India and southeast Asia and African traders.
C) series of trading ports that rapidly developed along the Atlantic coast to support the trade in African slaves.
D) forest zone of central Africa that remained free of Islamic influence largely because of the inability of the camel to withstand the climate of the region.

Question 16

What Sudanic kingdom declined in 1076 making way for new political organizations in the region?

A) Mali
B) Songhay
C) Ghana
D) Axum

Question 17

Which of the following statements concerning the Sudanic states of Mali and Songhay is most accurate?

A) Although powerful, the Sudanic states never reached the level of empires.
B) Sudanic states had territorial core areas in which the people were of the same ethnic background, but their power extended over subordinate communities.
C) What provided the cultural unity necessary for the establishment of states in the Sudan was the conversion of many people to Christianity.
D) The Sudanic states were distinguished from other African civilizations by the peculiar lack of family or clan lineages as an organizing principle of society.

Question 18

What was the geographical location of the empire of Mali?

A) Between the Zambezi and Congo Rivers
B) Between the cities of Mogadishu and Mombasa
C) Between the Niger and Senegal Rivers
D) Along the Nile River valley

Question 19

What monarch is credited with beginning Malinke expansion and creating the Mali Empire?

A) Sundiata
B) Mahmud of Ghur
C) Mansa Kankan Musa
D) Sunni Ali

Question 20

Which of the following was a major city near the Niger River?

A) Bantu
B) Ibn Batuta
C) Griot
D) Timbuktu

Question 21

The African traders associated with the Mali Empire were called

A) Soninke.
B) Zimbabwe.
C) Jenne.
D) Juula.

Question 22

What was the nature of urbanization within the Mali Empire?

A) As a conquest empire, Mali possessed garrison cities for its soldiers, but failed to develop commercial centers.
B) Mali possessed ?port cities? along the Niger River such as Jenne and Timbuktu that flourished both commercially and culturally.
C) The ?cities? of Mali were essentially religious and palace complexes that lacked populations of specialists other than men devoted to religious observances.
D) Mali failed to develop cities prior to its fall.

Question 23

Which of the following statements concerning the agricultural economy of Mali is most accurate?

A) Because of the poor soil, the majority of the people of Mali abandoned agriculture for trade.
B) Land in Mali was owned communally and farmed in clan groups.
C) Because of the early introduction of iron working in Mali?s culture, the agricultural economy was able to take advantage of extremely advanced technology.
D) Given the difficulties of the soil, periodic droughts, and the limitations of technology, the farmers of Mali were barely able to provide the basic foods that supported the imperial states.

Question 24

What was the social and political function of the griots?

A) Griots were religious diviners whose function was to foretell the future and guide the decisions of kings.
B) Griots were the classes of people of the conquest states of the Mali kings who were consigned to labor within the empire?s mines.
C) Griots mastered the oral traditions of the Malinke and by knowing the past were considered excellent advisors of kings.
D) Griots were Malinke merchants who served as trade middlemen throughout Africa.

Question 25

What ruler was responsible for the creation of the Songhay Empire?

A) Sundiata
B) Mansa Kankan Musa
C) Mahmud of Ghur
D) Sunni Ali

Question 26

Songhay was originally part of what African empire?

A) Ethiopia
B) Axum
C) Mali
D) Zimbabwe

Question 27

What was the military title taken by the later Muslim rulers of Songhay?

A) Dhow
B) Askia
C) Sultan
D) Caliph

Question 28

What led to the downfall of Songhay?

A) The collapse of the irrigation system on which the agricultural economy depended
B) Invasion by a Moroccan Muslim army equipped with firearms
C) Invasion by the Portuguese
D) Defeat and incorporation within the Mali Empire

Question 29

Following the decline of Songhay, smaller states developed east of Mali and Songhay among what people?

A) Nok
B) Almoravid
C) Hausa
D) Masai

Question 30

Why was Islam so readily adopted by rulers within the Sudan?

A) They were all conquered by overwhelming Muslim armies and forcibly converted to Islam.
B) The Muslim concept of a ruler who united civil and religious authority reinforced traditional ideas of kingship.
C) The Muslim concept of religious equality allowed rulers to dispose of the traditional clans and lineages of Africa.
D) As a monotheistic religion, Islam was much like the traditional religions of Africa.

Question 31

What was the relationship between Islam and the indigenous religions of Africa?

A) Islamic teachers attempted to eradicate the animist indigenous religions of Africa.
B) Because both indigenous African religion and Islam were monotheistic, the two became inextricably intertwined.
C) Islam accommodated pagan practice and belief in the early stages of conversion, because rulership and authority was still based on the ability to intercede with local spirits.
D) Islam successfully overcame indigenous religious beliefs, and almost all Africans converted to Islam.

Question 32

How did contact with the Muslim world affect the African slave trade?

A) Because of the Muslim emphasis on equality of all believers, early Muslim rulers suppressed the slave trade.
B) Slavery was unknown in African society until the Muslims introduced it.
C) With the Muslim conquests of north Africa and commercial penetration to the south, slavery became a more widely diffused phenomenon and the slave trade developed rapidly.
D) Despite the Muslim acceptance of slavery and its widespread use in Islamic society outside of Africa, Muslims generally refused to accept black slaves.

Question 33

How was the institution of slavery viewed in Muslim society?

A) In theory, slavery was seen as a stage in the process of conversion of pagans to Islam.
B) Slavery was believed to be a permanent condition that rendered the enslaved incapable of entering heaven.
C) Slavery was viewed as so demeaning that those who were enslaved were good for nothing beyond labor in the fields or the mines.
D) Slavery was seen as abhorrent in Islamic society because of the emphasis on the equality of all believers.

Question 34

Which of the following groups did NOT migrate to the coastal region of east Africa?

A) Bantu
B) Seaborne immigrants from Indonesia and Malaya
C) Refugees from Oman and the Persian Gulf
D) Berbers from north Africa

Question 35

The Arabic term for the east African coast was

A) Zenj.
B) Dhow.
C) Askia.
D) Mandala.

Question 36

What was the common cultural trait of the urbanized trading ports of the east African coast?

A) Membership in the Soninke tribe
B) The artistic style of the Nok culture
C) Bantu-based and Arabic-influenced Swahili language
D) A single ruling family from the Malinke tribe

Question 37

What was the nature of trade with the towns of east Africa?

A) Most trade was focused on caravans crossing the Sahel to north Africa.
B) Trade was limited to local commerce among the towns and with the hinterlands lying west of the urbanized coast.
C) There was active trade to the Persian Gulf and Egypt, but little beyond those points.
D) International trade flourished in the urbanized ports of east Africa, including commerce with India and China.

Question 38

How did the expansion of Islam aid in the creation of international trade on the east African coastline?

A) Islam expanded to India and southeast Asia providing a religious bond of trust between those regions and the converted rulers of the cities of east Africa.
B) Because Islam regarded Christians as peoples of the book, Muslim merchants came to trade at the Christianized ports of east Africa.
C) The connection with the Islamic states of north Africa permitted the urbanized ports of east Africa to trade widely with northern Europe.
D) The direct trade routes between the African states of west Africa and the coast of east Africa stimulated commerce between the cities of the east and the Atlantic Ocean.

Question 39

To what extent did Islam successfully penetrate the populations of east Africa?

A) As in Asia the conversion of the coastal cities led to almost complete conversion of the populations lying inland.
B) Most of the clans and the most important lineage groups outside of the east African cities were converted to Islam in order to participate in trade.
C) Islam penetrated very little into the interior among the hunters, pastoralists, and farmers, and even the areas near the trading towns remained relatively unaffected.
D) Islam spread from the cities to the hinterland in such a way that eventually the countryside was more Islamic than were the cities.

Question 40

What was the impact of the Portuguese arrival on the trading patterns of the east African coast?

A) Despite great effort to shift the focus of trade into their own hands, the Portuguese were never able to control the trade on the northern Swahili coast.
B) The Portuguese arrival disrupted the normal trade lines so severely that African trade with Indian and southeast Asia ceased to exist for centuries.
C) The Portuguese rapidly used their military superiority to control all aspects of trade along the east African coast.
D) The Portuguese allied themselves with Christians from Ethiopia in a combined assault on the east African coast that resulted in the destruction of the urbanized ports.

Question 41

What city-state did Ewuare the Great rule?

A) Benin
B) Timbukto
C) Niger
D) Oyo

Question 42

The ?Demographic Transition? is often associated with what change in society?

A) The militarization of society
B) The adoption of private property
C) Industrialization
D) Conversion to Christianity

Question 43

What was the major artistic output in Benin?

A) Oil painting
B) Wooden jewelry
C) Feathered head coverings
D) Ivory and bronze sculptures

Question 44

What was the form of political organization of the Yoruba people of Nigeria?

A) The Yoruba were organized in small tribal villages under the rule of individual headmen.
B) The Yoruba were organized in a number of small city-states under the authority of regional kings.
C) The Yoruba state was strongly centralized under a divine emperor who ruled from Ile-Ife.
D) The Yoruba were part of the Mali Empire.

Question 45

What was the form of political organization of the Kingdom of Kongo?

A) The Kingdom of Kongo was a confederation of smaller states brought under the control of the king and divided into eight provinces.
B) The Kingdom of Kongo was organized into a number of city-states ruled from Ile-Ife.
C) The Kingdom of Kongo was part of the Mali Empire.
D) The Kingdom of Kongo was a strongly centralized empire ruled by a divine king in Great Zimbabwe.

Question 46

Which of the following statements concerning Great Zimbabwe is NOT correct?

A) ?Zimbabwe? actually refers to the stone buildings that were typical of the culture.
B) Great Zimbabwe was both the capital of the kingdom and a religious center.
C) Great Zimbabwe was constructed by Arab Muslims who were trading with the Bantu residents of the region.
D) By the 15th century, a centralized state had begun to form centered on Great Zimbabwe.

Question 47

The ruler of the kingdom centered on Great Zimbabwe took the title of

A) Mansa.
B) Askia.
C) Alafin.
D) Mwene Mutapa.

Question 48

In what region was the influence of Islam most profound?

A) Central Africa
B) West Africa among the Yoruba and at Benin
C) Ethiopia
D) Sudan and Swahili coast

Question 49

Which of the following states represents the development of Bantu concepts of kingship and state-building?

A) Mali
B) Kingdom of Kongo
C) Songhay
D) Mombassa

Question 50

Which of the following statements concerning the impact of Islam on sub-Saharan Africa is most accurate?

A) Islam cut off north Africa from the regions of sub-Saharan Africa.
B) Although Africa had never been totally isolated from the Mediterranean, the spread of Islam brought large areas of Africa within the global community.
C) With the conversion of regions of the continent to Islam, Africa became the center of the Islamic world.
D) Despite widespread conversion of Africans to Islam, the continent remained outside the trading sphere of the Islamic world.

Question 51

What were the common elements of African society prior to the incursion of Islam?

Question 52

By what means was conversion of sub-Saharan Africa carried out? What were the primary avenues of Islamic entry into sub-Saharan Africa?

Question 53

Islamic influence was strongest in the Sudanic states and the Swahili coast. Compare and contrast the political forms of these regions. What does this suggest about the nature of Islamic influence in Africa?

Question 54

Compare and contrast the political forms of the African states not affected by Islam (Yoruba, Benin, Kongo, Zimbabwe) with those that were (the Sudanic states and the Swahili coast).

Question 55

Given the geographical location of those African states most affected by Islam, what were the most important points of contact between African and Islamic societies? What does this suggest about the nature of Islamic conversion?