Islamic political and aesthetic influences African societies remain difficult to assess. In about center cities, such as Ghana and GAO, the presence of Muslim merchants resulted in the establishment of mosques. The Malian king Mansa Musa (r. 1312-1337) brought the architect al-Sahili from a pilgrimage to Mecca, who is often credited with creating the Sudano-Sahelian style of construction. Musa's brother Mansa Sulaiman continued on his way and encouraged the construction of mosques as well as the development of Islamic learning. Islam brought to Africa the art of writing and new weighting techniques. The city of Timbuktu, for example, flourished as a commercial and intellectual center, apparently undisturbed by various disorders. Timbuktu began as a Tuareg settlement, soon joining the Malian empire, then it was claimed by the Tuareg, and finally incorporated into the Songhai Empire. In the 16th century, most of the Muslim scholars in Timbuktu were of Sudanese origin. On the eastern coast of the continent, the Arabic vocabulary was absorbed into the Bantu languages to form the Swahili language. On the other hand, in numerous cases adaptation for sub-Saharan Africans was perhaps a way to defend themselves in contradiction of slave sales, a flourishing trade between Lake Chad and the Mediterranean. The leaders of Africans, who were not energetic preachers, the adaptation remained somewhat formal, a sign perhaps aimed at gaining political support from the Arabs and facilitating trade relations. The strongest resistance to Islam appears to have emanated from Mossi and Bamana with the development of the Ségou kingdom. In the end, sub-Saharan Africans established their own product of Islam, often referred to as "African Islam," with specific brotherhoods and practices.
For its resistance to the representation of people and animals. The environment of Islam's collaboration with the graphic arts in Africa was one in which Islamic forms were accommodated and adapted. The literacy of Muslim clerics and their esoteric powers drew dozens of converts to Islam. Sub-Saharan Muslim clerics known as marabouts began making amulets with verses from the Koran, which eventually displaced indigenous talismans and medicinal packages.
These charms are presented in the project of many old-style African artifacts. Islam too strengthened the African liking for symmetrical design and repeating patterns in the surface decoration of textiles and handmade objects. Local weaving may have been transformed by importing weaving techniques from North Africa.
Islam has also often existed alongside representative traditions such as masking. Such practices have often been seen as supplementary rather than opposed to Islam, particularly when considered effective or operating outside of the core concerns of the faith. Ibn Battuta, the Maghribi scholar who visited Mali in 1352-1353 and witnessed a costume performance at the royal court of its Muslim king, noted an early example of this. In many areas of Africa, the coexistence of Islam with representative art forms continues today. During the time when Islam has inclined an extensive variety of artistic follows in Africa since its introduction, monumental architecture is the best-preserved legacy of its early history on the continent. Mosques remain the greatest significant architectural specimens of the marvelous aesthetic diversity made by the interaction between African peoples and the Islamic faith.
