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Building concepts and
traditions of Islam came gradually with trade and proselytizing. The
formation of Islam and Islamic societies in western Africa was not done by
conquest or force, but in a gradual, non-disruptive way. The migration of
Muslim merchants, proselytizing of scholars and teachers, and the
interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims through trade facilitated this
peaceful change and led to the eventual conversion of a vast portion of W.
African inhabitants. By the tenth and eleventh centuries, many of the “Sudanic
States” such Mali and Ghana had gained their “Islamic identity”
through the conversions of their rulers.
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