Editing Sudano-Sahelian architecture (section)

== Historical background ==
Large [[Neolithic]] proto-urban walled stone settlements, likely built by Mande-speaking Soninke peoples date from around 1,600-400 BC at [[Dhar Tichitt]] and nearby sites in southeastern [[Mauritania]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Holl |first=Augustin F.C. |date=2009 |title=Coping with uncertainty: Neolithic life in the Dhar Tichitt-Walata, Mauritania, (ca. 4000–2300 BP) |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248548075 |journal=C. R. Geoscience |volume=241 |issue=8 |pages=703–712|doi=10.1016/j.crte.2009.04.005 |bibcode=2009CRGeo.341..703H }}</ref><ref name="HollA21985Second">{{cite journal | vauthors = Holl A | title = Background to the Ghana Empire: archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (Mauritania) | journal = Journal of Anthropological Archaeology | date = 1985 | volume = 4 | issue = 2 |url = https://www.academia.edu/2558381 | doi = 10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4 | pages = 90–94 }}</ref> Other early examples of Sudano-Sahelian style are probably from [[Dia, Mali|Dia]] around 600 BC<ref name="Arazi">{{cite web |last1=Arazi |first1=Noemie |title=Tracing History in Dia, in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali -Archaeology, Oral Traditions and Written Sources |url=http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1444342/1/U591645.pdf |website=University College London |publisher=Institute of Archaeology}}</ref> and [[Jenné-Jeno]] around 250 BC, both in [[Mali]], where the first evidence of permanent [[mudbrick]] architecture in the region is found, including residences and a large city wall.<ref>{{citation | last=Brass | first=Mike | url= http://www.antiquityofman.com/Complex_WA_EA.html | title= The Antiquity of Man: East & West African complex societies | year=1998}}</ref> The first [[Great Mosque of Djenné]] (built around 1200 to 1330<ref name="Bourgeois">{{Harvnb|Bourgeois|1987}}</ref>) in modern Mali, according to traditional accounts, was constructed on the site of an older pre-Islamic palace by the city's king.<ref>"When the sultan became a Muslim, he had his palace pulled down and the site turned into a mosque dedicated to God Most High. This is the present congregational mosque. He built another palace for himself and his household near the mosque on the east side." {{Harvnb|Hunwick|1999|p=18}}</ref> 

Starting in the 9th century AD, Muslim merchants came to play a vital role in the western [[Sahel]] region through [[trans-Saharan trade]] networks.<ref name=":2423">{{harvnb|Bloom|Blair|2009|loc=''Africa''}}</ref> The earliest mosques discovered in [[sub-Saharan Africa]] are at [[Kumbi Saleh]] (in present-day southern Mauritania), the former capital of the [[Ghana Empire]].<ref name=":24233">{{harvnb|Bloom|Blair|2009|loc=''Africa''}}</ref> Here, a mosque has been discovered which consisted of a courtyard, a prayer hall, and a square [[minaret]], built in dry stone covered in red mud used as plaster. On both the exterior and interior of the mosque, this plaster was painted with floral, geometric, and epigraphic motifs. A similar stone mosque from the same period has been found at [[Awdaghust]].{{Sfn|Pradines|2022|p=|pp=51–52}} Both mosques are dated generally between the 9th and 14th centuries. The mosque of Kumbi Saleh appears to have gone through multiple construction phases from the 10th century to the early 14th century.{{Sfn|Pradines|2022|p=|pp=51–52}} At Kumbi Saleh, locals lived in domed-shaped dwellings in the king's section of the city, surrounded by a great enclosure. Traders lived in stone houses in a section which possessed 12 mosques (as described by [[Al-Bakri]]), one centered on [[Friday prayer]].<ref>Historical Society of Ghana. Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, The Society, 1957, p. 81</ref> The king is said to have owned several mansions, one of which was 66 feet long, 42 feet wide, contained seven rooms, was two stories high, and had a staircase; with the walls and chambers filled with sculpture and painting.<ref>Davidson, Basil. The Lost Cities of Africa. Boston: Little Brown, 1959, p. 86</ref>
[[File:2007_Sankore_Mosque_Timbuktu_01.jpg|thumb|[[Sankore mosque|Sankore Mosque]] in [[Timbuktu]] (16th century with later renovations)<ref name=":242333">{{harvnb|Bloom|Blair|2009|loc=''Timbuktu''}}</ref>]]
A variety of possible influences on this architecture have been suggested. North African and Andalusi architecture to the north may have been one of these,{{Sfn|Petersen|1996|p=306}} with the existence of square minarets possibly reflecting the influence of the [[Great Mosque of Kairouan]].<ref name=":2423" />  As Islamization progressed across the region, more variations developed in mosque architecture, including the adoption of traditional local forms not previously associated with Islamic architecture.<ref name=":24232">{{harvnb|Bloom|Blair|2009|loc=''Africa''}}</ref> Under Songhai influence, minarets took on a more pyramidal appearance and became stepped or tiered on three levels, as exemplified by the tower of the [[Tomb of Askia|mosque–tomb]] of [[Askia Muhammad I|Askia al-Hajj Muhammad]] in [[Gao]] (present-day Mali). In [[Timbuktu]], the [[Sankore Madrasah|Sankoré Mosque]] (established in the 14th-15th centuries{{Sfn|Pradines|2022|p=63}} and rebuilt in the 16th century, with later additions<ref name=":242332">{{harvnb|Bloom|Blair|2009|loc=''Timbuktu''}}</ref>), had a tapering minaret and a prayer hall with rows of arches.<ref name=":24232" /> The presence of tapering minarets may also reflect cultural contacts with M'zab region to the north,<ref name=":24232" /> while decoration found at Timbuktu may reflect contacts with Berber communities in what is now Mauritania.{{Sfn|Petersen|1996|p=307}} More local or indigenous pagan cultures may have also been an influence in the later Islamic architecture of the region.{{Sfn|Petersen|1996|p=306}}

During the French colonial occupation of the Sahel, French engineers and architects had a role in popularizing a "Neo-Sudanese" style based on local traditional architecture but emphasizing symmetry and monumentality.{{Sfn|Petersen|1996|p=308}}<ref name=":24234">{{harvnb|Bloom|Blair|2009|loc=''Africa''}}</ref><ref name=":242322">{{harvnb|Bloom|Blair|2009|loc=''Mali, Republic of''}}</ref> The Great Mosque of Djenné, which was previously established in the 14th century but demolished in the early 19th century,<ref name=":24234" /> was rebuilt in 1906–1907 under the direction of Ismaila Traoré and with guidance from French engineers.<ref name=":242322" />{{Sfn|Petersen|1996|p=308}} Now the largest earthen (mud) building in sub-Saharan Africa, it served as a model for the new style and for other mosques in the region, including the [[Grand Mosque of Mopti]] built by the French administration in 1935.<ref name=":242322" />{{Sfn|Petersen|1996|p=308}} Other 20th-century and more recent mosques in West Africa have tended to replicate a more generic style similar to that of modern Egypt.<ref name=":24234" />