The Umayyads and Wagadou:
The Umayyad outpost of Djenne was of somewhat minimal importance. After all, Qurtuba (1) was a long, long way from the sleepy little town on the Bani River, and Caliphs that ruled Al-Andalus and the Maghreb were mostly of Visigothic, Moorish and Amazigh (2) stock. With a foreign policy that was firmly focused on containing the Romans and Franks in the north, the Umayyad government didn't really bother the Mande people of the region that much, except to collect taxes and stabilize the lucrative gold/salt trade route through the Sahara. Without public funding, Djenne simply became a dusty backwater of mudbrick buildings and unpaved streets that turned to dust every time it rained. Thankfully for the people, it rarely rained. Unfortunately, the taxes mentioned earlier fell somewhere between "unsustainable" and "crippling". The problem was that the Umayyad military was all too eager to collect said taxes, and did so every year without fail.
One day, the Mande decided they had enough. Djenne was the first city to rebel and declare independence from the Umayyads. The Caliph was busy fighting (yet another) war with the Romans at the time, and somehow just glossed over the fact that one of the cities under his control had rebelled. After all, the region was a sleepy backwater which didn't provide many troops or goods for the Caliphate. Besides, it could always be retaken after the more pressing issue of the Romans could be dealt with. So the rebellion was initially ignored as troops in Mauritania were posted to Al-Andalus' northern marches beyond the Pyrenees. Dyabe Cisse, the Ghana of Djenne, was given some breathing room for the time being. The first thing he did was begin to train a defense force. Realizing that he was desperately short of manpower, he placed every male above the age of 5 into the Sofa system. Every grown man would report to his district or village mustering field in the case of an emergency. However, weaponry was maintained at government expense. Training was strongly encouraged, and archery, swordsmanship and horsemanship were promoted as virile activities.
Moving along the Niger river valley, Dyabe Cisse convinced the people of the backwater trading posts of Timbuktu and Gao to join his movement. Noting the inferiority of his weapons, Dyabe Cisse adopted the composite bow from the Umayyads. However, his methods of making fine steel were far behind the their northern neighbors, their horses and camels were of inferior bloodstock, and their knowledge of siege weaponry was far behind the rest of the world. Helmets and armor had to be imported from up north, thus making protective gear fantastically expensive. Thick hides and folded felt provided enough protection against arrows, but soft iron spear points and arrowheads would do little to stop the Umayyad Furusiyyah (3), who were armored head to toe in chain, scale and plate. But iron was still heavy and a fat lump of it on the end of a long stick would still smash skulls. Thus the Kompinoo, or two handed mace was adopted as not only the primary weapon for Djenne's shock infantry, but also, as the national symbol, gracing Djenne's flag.
More importantly, the Ghanas of Djenne, Gao and Timbuktu adopted the pike. Horses, no matter how well trained, would not charge into a forest of pikes. Combined with the new, composite bow equipped archers, the bow and pike blocks were extremely difficult to attack with cavalry. This theory was shown to be true in practice as well, when Dyabe Cisse attacked the Umayyad held city of Walata and wiped out its garrison. The attack caused the Caliph, Muhammad al-Mansur III to panic. A massive force was sent towards the rebellious African territories. Dyabe Cisse, Ghana of Djenne, was laying siege to the city of Koumbi Saleh, a vital Umayyad outpost. The Umayyad army was made of hardened veterans from wars against the Romans and Franks, and used to dealing with pike and archer blocks. Sensing this, Dyabe Cisse decided to preserve his army. He retreated to the swamplands along the Niger River and dug in. The Umayyads pursued.
There was no battle. It was rather anti-climactic really. The Umayyad soldiers began dropping dead from malaria as soon as they hit the swamp lands. The Mande, with their sickle shaped red blood cells, simply laughed. With so much of their army sick and dying, the Umayyads were forced to retreat back to Koumbi Saleh. With his position secure, Dyabe Cisse could move against the lands of Wangara (4) and Tekrur (5), seizing them in rapid succession. Later, for various reasons, the Umayyads would simply abandon the post of Kumbi Saleh and the post of Tegdaoust as well. The land of Wagadou was now free to build its own civilization. It grew fat off of Trans-Saharan trade. Then it grew greedy. Subsequent Ghanas of Wagadou sent military expeditions to the south and west. By 1100, the Empire had reached Kano in the west and the Gold Coast in the south. Outnumbered and outmuscled, the Yoruba peoples along the western African coast had no choice but to submit to the Ghanas of Wagadou. The entire Niger river valley from Wangara to the Slave Coast was under Wagadou control.
Life was good. But whatever sadistic gods that exist out there all hate happiness.
In 1128, life suddenly got bad.
~*~*~
(1): Cordoba
(2): Berber
(3): Chivalry/Knights
(4): Guniea Highlands
(5): Roughly where modern day Senegal is.