Neco 2017 Islamic Religious Studies Question 27

The first major Islamic scholar arrived in the Mali Empire in 1235 CE, and the Songhai Empire adopted Islam as the state religion in 1493 CE. In the Mali Empire the Muslim population grew at a constant rate of \(2\%\) of the total population per decade, while in the Songhai Empire it grew at \(3\%\) per decade. At the start of each period the Muslim population was \(5\%\) of the total population. Assuming the rates remain constant, (a) how many decades are required for the Muslim population in each empire to reach at least \(50\%\) of the total population? (b) Which empire reaches this level first? (c) If the initial total population of Mali was 8 million and that of Songhai was 12 million, and the total population in each empire grows at \(1\%\) per year, estimate the total number of Muslims in each empire when the \(50\%\) threshold is first reached.