The west African kingdom of Gao (or Kawkaw) was established by the 8th century AD, and involved in active trade throughout northern Africa. Although there have been no chronologies constructed yet, it is known that the primary cities of Gao and Goa Sane had important trade connections with the Almoravid Islamic dynasties of western Sahara and southern Spain by the 12th century. During the 13th and 14th centuries, Gao was ruled by the kingdom of Mali, and in the 15th century, the city became the capital of the Songhai empire.
The most important extant structure at Gao is the Tomb of Askia at the Great Mosque of Gao, built in the 16th century for the caliph Askia Mohammed, the Songhai leader who converted Gao to Islam. ArchNet has a series of photographs of Askia and Gao.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the Guide to the Islamic Civilization and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Pekka Masonen. 1997. Trans-Saharan Trade and the West African Discovery of the Mediterranean. In M'hammad Sabour & Knut S. Vikør (eds), Ethnic Encounter and Culture Change. Papers from the Third Nordic Conference on Middle Eastern Studies, Bergen 1997: Nordic Research on the Middle East, vol. 3, pp. 116-142.
Susan Keech McIntosh. 1996. West African Savanna Kingdoms. In Brian Fagan (ed), Oxford Companion to Archaeology. OUP: London.
