Thread by @rhaplord

My article:

"A complete history of Jenne: 250BC-1893AD"

Journal of African cities chapter 6
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

@africaupdates @GioB1974 @PaulMMCooper @MikeStuchbery_ @tommymiles @alykhansatchu The city of Jenne has for centuries been at the heart of west Africa's political and cultural landscape.

Enframed within earthen walls was a cosmopolitan urban settlement of wide allies and terraced mansions whose entrances were graced by majestic baobabs
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

Integrated within west Africa's social landscape, the city of Jenne had a profound influence on the region's cultural history
Jenne’s commercial significance, its architectural styles and its literary production left a remarkable legacy in African history.
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

The original settlement of Jenne was established at the Neolithic site of jenne-jeno about 2-3km away, which was occupied from the 3rd century BC.

Jenne-jeno was the center of a complex society, surrounded by an urban cluster of more than 60 towns
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

Jenne-jeno was part of a broader Neolithic tradition that arose in the region of Mema and Dhar Tichitt beginning in the 3rd millennium BC

the city reached its height during the 9th cent, afterwhich jenne was founded around the 13th cent.
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

The empires of Mali and Songhai subsumed Jenne during their heyday between the 13th-16th century.

while the city retained some autonomy under Mali, the Songhai founder Sunni Ali conquered it after a lengthy siege in the 1470s
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

Under Songhai, the city was ruled through a dual administrative system in which the traditional ruler was retained alongside an appointed Songhai governor

Jenne flourished under Songhai as a major trading city exporting gold from Begho in northern ghana
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

Jenne was one of the oldest centers of scholarship in west Africa, its scholars flourished under state patronage beginning in the Songhai era

thousands of manuscripts dating back as far as 1394 have been digitized from Jenne's private libraries
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

Jenne's manuscripts were composed and copied in by local scholars in various languages including Arabic, Songhai, Bozo, Fulfulde and Bambara

They include copies of west African classics like the tarikh al-sudan, works on theology, history and astronomy
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

After the collapse of Songhai in 1591, Jenne briefly became part of the Pashalik based at Timbuktu, that was subject to morocco until 1618.

the preexisting administration was maintained but Moroccan rule was weak and Jenne was constantly invaded

isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

The hinterland of Jenne was the nucleus of the emerging states of Bambara and Masina during the 17th and 18th century, the former of which eventually grew into the Segu empire.

Between 1767 and 1800, Segu's rulers conquered Jenne and Timbuktu
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

Jenne was never firmly under Segu's control and its elite exerted some influence on the Segu court, along with the Masina elite.

The relationship b'tn Jenne and Segu was disliked by the theocratic leader Amadu Lobbo of Masina who invaded the city in 1819
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

Amadu's resentment towards Jenne's elites was best demonstrated by his intentional destruction of the old mosque, around the time he took the city in 1819-21.

His Masina empire later fell to the emerging empire of Tukulor which conquered Jenne in 1861
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

Jenne's architectural style is characterized by multistory, terraced buildings, with imposing façades, decorated with protruding beams.

It begun at jenne-jeno where Jenne's earliest rectilinear story buildings were built
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

The largest buildings in Jenne were constructed by a specialist guild of masons; their hiring and a building's monumentality reflected the status of the owner

Its exterior designs carry a symbolic function modeled after pre-existing cultural styles.
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

The great mosque of Jenne is the most recognizable architectural monument built by the city's masons guild

it reproduced the pre-existing architectural designs of jenne's pre-colonial houses, complete with west africa's emphasis on the mihrab's height
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

The main construction material was mudbricks and palm wood. knowledge of construction was learned through apprenticeship and houses are built according to the skill of each mason.
The masons also preserve aspects rooted in traditional cultural practices.

isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

During the weakening Tukulor's state hold on Jenne, the city was mostly ruled by the Maiga family in the 1880s who built the Maiga house

French forces took the city in 1893, and reoriented its trade to Mopti, leaving Jenne as a relatively marginal town
isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/a-complete-h…

icymi

Navigation, trade and civilization on Africa's second Nile: a history of the Niger River

patreon.com/posts/79454230…