Al-Bakri Documents the Ghana Empire in the Book of Routes and Realms

In 1068, Andalusian geographer al-Bakri completed his Book of Routes and Realms in Córdoba, Spain, without traveling to West Africa. Using merchant accounts and Arabic sources, he documented the Ghana Empire's two-part capital, royal court ceremonies, gold monopoly, and trans-Saharan tax system under King Tunka Manin. Al-Bakri wrote as the Almoravids pressured Ghana from the north. His work provides the most detailed surviving description of the Ghana Empire, which Mali later succeeded, and established Arabic geographical scholarship documenting West Africa.