Ghana Empire
Medieval Arab Writers and a Berber Origin

The earliest discussions of Ghana's origins are found in the Sudanese chronicles of Mahmud Kati (the Tarikh al-Fattash) and Abd al-Rahman as-Sadi (the Tarikh al-Sudan). Addressing the rulers' origin, the Tarikh al-Fattash offers three different theories: that they were Soninke; or Wangara (a Soninke/Mande group), which the author considered improbable; or that they were Sanhaja Berbers, which the author considered most likely. The author concludes that "the nearest to the truth is that they were not black." This interpretation derived from his opinion that the rulers' genealogies linked them to the Berbers. The Tarikh al-Sudan further states that "In origin they were white, though we do not know to whom they trace their origin. Their subjects, however, were Wa'kore." Chronicles by al-Idrisi in the 11th century and Ibn Said in the 13th noted that rulers of Ghana traced their descent from the clan of Muhammad, either through his protector Abi Talib or through his son-in-law Ali.

French colonial officials, notably Maurice Delafosse, erroneously concluded that Ghana had been founded by the Berbers and linked them to North African and Middle Eastern origins. Delafosse produced a convoluted theory of an invasion by "Judeo-Syrians", which he linked to the Fulbe (who actually co-founded Takrur).

This idea of a foreign origin for Wagadu is generally disregarded by modern scholars. Levtzion and Spaulding, for example, argue that al-Idrisi's testimony should be looked at skeptically due to serious miscalculations in geography and historical chronology. The archaeologist and historian Raymond Mauny argues that al-Kati's and al-Saadi's theories were based on the presence (after Ghana's demise) of nomadic Berbers originally from Libya, and the assumption that they were the ruling caste in an earlier age. Earlier accounts such Ya'qubi (872 CE), al-Masudi (c. 944 CE), Ibn Hawqal (977 CE), al-Biruni (c. 1036 CE), and al-Bakri (1068 CE) all describe the population and rulers of Ghana as " negroes ". Delafosse's works, meanwhile, have been harshly criticised by scholars such as Charles Monteil, Robert Cornevin and others for being "unacceptable" and "too creative to be useful to historians", particularly in relation to his interpretation of West African genealogies,
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