Sahelian Islam s Shift Towards Salafism and Its Implications for Regional Terrorism heritage.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heritage.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
There have been Muslims in West Africa since the XIth century, if not earlier. The region that is now Mali was the center of several famous Islamic empires, notably the Ghana Empire (VIIIth-XIthcentury) (Dieterlen & Sylla, 1992) the Songhai Empire (1464-1591) (Cissoko, 1996), and states established by a succession of jihads led by various Muslim armies.