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Virtual Guide | West African Kingdoms | ReligionsAfrica | West African Kingdoms | Religions | Dogon CultureBenin Bronze | Catalogue Spread of IslamMohammed was born in 570. In 622, he fled to Medina where he started Islam, his new religion.Islamization of Africa started in the north after the Arab conquest of Egypt in 639. Before, populations along the Mediterranean coastline were mostly Christian. In the sub - Sahara, traditional religions, mostly animism with a ram or snake as central deity, were widespread. Berber Sijilmasa and Almoravid - spread Islam via the trans - Sahara trade routes. In northern Sudan, the Funji Sultanatew was established, from where Mande and Hausa traders carried the new faith to the rest of the Sudan. In 670, Uqba ibn Nali established Islam in northern Libya and Tunisia. During the 11th century, Bedouin tribes Islamized the rest of the Maghreb. Mansa, (King) Kankan Musa (1312 - 1337), who reigned the Malinese empire at its height, is remembered for his sensational pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. Amongst his entourage of hundreds of servants and thousands of soldiers, were eighty camels carrying twenty - four thousand pounds of gold that he gave away to strangers, leaving an unintended trail of devastating inflation. In the wake of Islam, traditions of Islamic law, architecture, and education infiltrated Africa's animist societies, so did the Arab-led transcontinental slave trade. 
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