According to Al Bakri, Kumbi Saleh (Ghana) consisted of two towns. In one town lived the arabs, it held twelve mosquets and numerous wells of sweet water. In this town lived learned men, as well as jurists and religious men. Six miles away laid the city where the king lived (Al Ghaba), in a palace surrounded by a defensive wall.
Only the king and his heir could wear sewn clothes and other accessories, signs of wealth, while the common people that followed his religion could only dress with simplicity, shaving their beards and hair. The king's way of living would exude power, wealth and magnificence, and his followers could only show humility by kneeling and sprinting their heads with dust. While the arabs would greet him by clapping.
As I understand it, the customs in arab lands were much more equal, there were not big social differences between its inhabitants. In the other part of the city, this was not the case, there would be big social differences between the king and its followers, that the author doesn't name bi its etniciti, nationality or religion. They were just the followers of the king.
