Sudano-Sahelian mud-brick architecture
Arquitectura monumental de adobe sudano-saheliana
- Date
- c. 1240 · confidence medium
- Place
- Djenné and Timbuktu, Mali Empire
- Credited to
- Master builders of Djenné; Mansa Musa and Abu Ishaq al-Sahili (Djinguereber, 1327)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Great mud-brick mosques with buttresses and projecting palm-wood beams (toron) that serve as permanent scaffolding, replastered communally every year. A monumental adaptation to an environment lacking abundant stone or timber.
The present Great Mosque of Djenné dates from 1907; the original is dated to the 13th century. Al-Sahili is a traditional attribution.
What it led to
- the mosques of Djenné, Djinguereber and Sankore as centres of learning
- a building tradition maintained by masons' guilds (barey ton)
- the architectural identity of the Sahel to this day
Built on
- African rice (Oryza glaberrima) domesticationc. 800 BCE
- Jenné-Jeno, a stoneless city of the Niger deltac. 250 BCE
- Niger valley mud-brick architecture
- Islamic hypostyle mosque
Made possible
- Timbuktu madrasas and manuscript tradec. 1330
- Timbuktu madrasas and manuscript trade