Silla or Silli was an ancient town in the

Senegal River Valley The Senegal River ( or "Senegal" - compound of the Serer term "Seen" or "Sene" or "Sen" (from Roog Seen, Supreme Deity in Serer religion) and "O Gal" (meaning "body of water")); , , , ) is a river in West Africa; much of its length mark ...

. Its exact location is debated. Possible identifications include the site of Sinthiou Bara in the Matam Region of

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

, the village of Silla near Kaedi in

Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...

, or a site closer to the juncture of the

and Faleme rivers. In the 11th century Silla was the prominent trading centre on the Senegal River.

Al-Bakri Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī (), or simply al-Bakrī (c. 1040–1094) was an Arab Andalusian historian and a geographer of the Muslim West. Life Al-Bakri was born in Huelva, the ...

described Silla as the capital of a ‘vast kingdom’ led by a ruler almost as grand as Ghana's/Wagadu's, but modern scholars tend to view it as a powerful city-state often politically dependent on its neighbors rather than a kingdom. The people converted to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

during the time of

War Jabi War Jabi ('' Serer'': Waar Jaabi or War Jaabi or ''War-Dyabe''; ) was the first Muslim king of Takrur in the 1030s, the first to proclaim Islam as a state religion in the Sudan. Background War Jabi was a member of the Manna dynasty that had rule ...

, king of neighboring

Takrur Takrur, Tekrur or Tekrour ( 500 – c. 1456) was a state based in the Senegal River in modern day Senegal which was at its height in the 11th and 12th centuries, roughly parallel to the Ghana Empire. It lasted in some form into the 18th ...

and waged war against the pagan 'Lamlam' to the south. Like many trade cities in the Western Sudan at the time, Silla was a city in two parts, split by the

Senegal river The Senegal River ( or "Senegal" - compound of the Serer term "Seen" or "Sene" or "Sen" (from Roog Seen, Supreme Deity in Serer religion) and "O Gal" (meaning "body of water")); , , , ) is a river in West Africa; much of its length mark ...

. The inhabitants of Silla may have been converted to

Maliki The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major madhhab, schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the ...

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

following war with Wagadu, who had asked the

Almoravids The Almoravid dynasty () was a Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almo ...

for assistance, in the 1080s. Silla was eclipsed by

in the 12th century.

Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...

reported that Silla was a part of the

Mali Empire The Mali Empire (Manding languages, Manding: ''Mandé''Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: ''UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century'', p. 57. University of California Press, 1997. or ''Manden ...

in the 14th century. In the Soninke epic Gassire's Lute, Silla is mentioned as a previous "appearance" of

Wagadu The Ghana Empire (), also known as simply Ghana, Ghanata, or Wagadu, was an ancient western-Sahelian empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali. It is uncertain among historians when Ghana's ruling dynasty began. T ...

References

Sources

* * *{{cite journal , last1=McIntosh , first1=Susan , title=New Perspectives on Sincu Bara, a First Millennium Site in the Senegal Valley , journal=African Archaeological Review , date=2000 , volume=17 , issue=1 , pages=1–43 , doi=10.1023/A:1006694511823 , url=https://www.academia.edu/6006666 , access-date=3 November 2024 Lost cities and towns Successor states to the Ghana Empire Fula history History of Senegal