Ife in 1200 is a walled town in the rain forest, the largest of the Yoruba country.
Its first earth wall, about 7 km round, dates from the tenth or eleventh century in Ogundiran's synthesis; the second wall and the paving of the main roads come in the thirteenth. Inside, compounds of mud walls with courtyards are beginning to be floored with potsherd pavements; shrines in groves hold terracotta heads and figures; glass is melted and drawn into beads at Igbo Olokun on the north side. The city's art and pavements reach their height in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, so on 1 January 1200 Ife is rising rather than at its peak.
Who holds it
- Name
- The ooni of Ife, name not known for 1200
- Title
- Seat of the ooni
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
The ooni of Ife (name not known), with the town and palace chiefs.
How things stand that morning
Under the ooni; no event dated.
Charter
None: a sacred king's town governed by custom.
Council
The ooni with town chiefs (Ihare) and palace chiefs (Modewa) and the priests (Isoro) of the shrines, in the later constitution; their form in 1200 is not pinned.
Communities
Yoruba lineages of the town quarters; the priesthoods of the shrines; craft lineages of glassmakers, potters and smiths. No foreign merchants are attested.
Fairs and markets
Periodic markets on the Yoruba four-day week and a central market by the palace in later times; the great festivals of the later calendar (Olojo, Edi) cannot be dated back to 1200.
Militia
Townsmen under their quarter and lineage heads (later practice); nothing attested for 1200.
Walls and castle
The first earth wall and ditch (tenth or eleventh century); the palace (afin) enclosure at the centre. The second wall is thirteenth-century and may not yet stand.
Trade and crafts
Glass and glass beads (Igbo Olokun, radiocarbon about the eleventh to fifteenth century); terracotta sculpture; stone carving (granite and quartz); iron smithing; cotton spinning and weaving; farming of yams and oil palm; imports of copper, copper alloys and salt from the north by the Niger trade.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- 1200No dated event.Depends on: Not applicable Stopped by: Not applicable
Places of note
- Igbo Olokun (Olokun grove): Glass workshop: crucibles and glass of the eleventh to fifteenth century.
- Ita Yemoo: Pavement and shrine site with terracotta and copper-alloy figures, mostly later than 1200.
- Obalara's Land: Garlake's excavated shrine and pavements, fourteenth century: later than 1200.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Good archaeology (Willett, Garlake, Eyo, Babalola, Ogundiran's synthesis); no written record.
On the map: The town with its near farmland.
Primary sources for Ife
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Ife, Benin, Nri, the Yoruba towns and the Akan: archaeology and recorded tradition (no contemporary text; traditions written down from the 1890s). No text of any kind exists for the forest belt in 1200.
Sources and studies
- Ogundiran, The Yoruba: A New History (2020), via Wikipedia, Ife Empire
- Wikipedia, List of rulers of Ife
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.