Robert Smith, "The Canoe in West African History", harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBourgeois1987 (, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Kitab al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik (Book of Highways and Kingdoms) Ab Ubayd Al-Bakri, "The Empire of Mali, In Our Time BBC Radio 4", "Tracing History in Dia, in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali -Archaeology, Oral Traditions and Written Sources". His reign is associated with numerous construction projects, including part of Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu. Traveling from his capital of Niani on the upper Niger River to Walata (Oualta, Mauritania) and on to Tuat (now in Algeria) before making his way to Cairo, Mansa Ms was accompanied by an impressive caravan consisting of 60,000 men including a personal retinue of 12,000 enslaved persons, all clad in brocade and Persian silk. Duties of the farba included reporting on the activities of the territory, collecting taxes and ensuring the native administration didn't contradict orders from Niani. They also used flaming arrows for siege warfare. A Golden Age: King Mansa Musa's Reign. Muhummed's three wivesMarva Barfield, Laura Cowan, and Adrienne Easterwere also sexually assaulted, beaten, and imprisoned; Barfield participated in the children's abuse at Muhummed's instruction, and Cowan has also been accused of participating in the abuse. One of the greatest caravans to ever cross the Sahara was led by Mansa Musa, the legendary ruler of the vast West African empire of Mali. It had a well-organised army with an elite corps of horsemen and many foot soldiers in each battalion. 1996 - 2023 National Geographic Society. 05 Mar 2023. However, many believe Mansa Musa's wealth outdoes that of all modern billionaires. World History Encyclopedia. The salt was dug from the ground and cut into thick slabs, two of which were loaded onto each camel where they would be taken south across the desert to Oualata and sold. Rulers of West African states had made pilgrimages to Mecca before Mansa Ms, but the effect of his flamboyant journey was to advertise both Mali and Mansa Ms well beyond the African continent and to stimulate a desire among the Muslim kingdoms of North Africa, and among many of European nations as well, to reach the source of this incredible wealth. A kl-koun led free troops into battle alongside a farima ("brave man") during campaign. [93] Musa may have brought as much as 18 tons of gold on his hajj,[94] equal in value to over US$957million in 2022. At its peak, Mali was the largest empire in West Africa, widely . Ms Is hajj left a lasting impression of Malis splendour on both the Islamic and European worlds. [128] Nevertheless, the mansa managed to keep tax money and nominal control over the area without agitating his subjects into revolt. Between 1324 - 1325, Mansa Musa . He built mosques and large public buildings in cities like Gao and, most famously, Timbuktu. [107] The Gambia was still firmly in Mali's control, and these raiding expeditions met with disastrous fates before Portugal's Diogo Gomes began formal relations with Mali via its remaining Wolof subjects. His reign saw the first in a string of many great losses to Mali. The Mali Empire (Manding: Mand[3] or Manden; Arabic: , romanized:Ml) was an empire in West Africa from c. 1226 to 1670. . Islamic studies flourished thereafter. [57], Modern oral traditions also related that the Mandinka kingdoms of Mali or Manden had already existed several centuries before Sundiata's unification as a small state just to the south of the Sonink empire of Wagadou, better known as the Ghana Empire. Another testimony from Ibn Khaldun describes the grand pilgrimage of Mansa Musa consisting of 12,000 slaves: "He made a pilgrimage in 724/1324 []. He is the resurrected spirit of Masuta the Ascended, the second boss in the first elite dungeon, Temple of Aminishi . Mansa Musa is potentially the richest person to ever live; as ruler of Mali from 1312 to 1337, he came into power after his brother, King Abu Bakr the Second, vanished on an oceanic voyage. Sundiata Keita is the first ruler for which there is accurate written information (through Ibn Khaldun). Elephant ivory was another major source of wealth.When Mansa Musa went on a pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca in 1324 C.E., his journey through Egypt caused quite a stir. Corrections? Eventually, due to Muhammad's failure to return, Musa was recognized as mansa.[89]. [122] They targeted Moroccan pashas still in Timbuktu and the mansas of Manden. It was "an admirable Monument", surmounted by a dome and adorned with arabesques of striking colours. Mansa Musa turned the kingdom of Mali into a sophisticated center of learning in the Islamic world.Mansa Musa came to power in 1312 C.E., after the previous king, Abu Bakr II, disappeared at sea. In 1307, Mansa Musa came to the throne after a series of civil wars and ruled for thirty years. [93] Mansa Souleyman's generals successfully fought off the military incursions, and the senior wife Kassi behind the plot was imprisoned. He belonged to the Keita Dynasty and came to power after Abu-Bakra-Keita II left on an expedition to explore the Atlantic Ocean, leaving Musa as his deputy and never returned. [34][35] Nonetheless, the possibility of such a voyage has been taken seriously by several historians. Like two mansolu (rulers of Mali) before him, Ms I undertook the hajj as an act of devotion in line with Islamic tradition. [112] Still, no help came from the envoy and further possessions of Mali were lost one by one. Mali's wealth in gold did not primarily come from direct rule of gold-producing regions, but rather from tribute and trade with the regions where gold was found. 1312 is the most widely accepted by modern historians. His descendants migrated to the land of Mali and established the Mandinka clan of Keita. Umari also describes the empire as being south of Marrakesh and almost entirely inhabited except for few places. Ibn Battuta observed the employment of servants in both towns. [20] For the later period of the Mali Empire, the major written primary sources are Portuguese accounts of the coastal provinces of Mali and neighboring societies.[21]. Musa was a very successful military leader. Mali borrowed the practice to stem inflation of the substance, since it was so prominent in the region. He made his wealth and that of Mali known through a long and extravagant pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, the 17th year of his reign as emperor of Mali. [4] Much of the recorded information about the Mali Empire comes from 14th-century Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun, 14th-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta and 16th-century Andalusian traveller Leo Africanus. Manuscript of Nasir al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Hajj al-Amin al-Tawathi al-Ghalawi's Kashf al-Ghummah fi Nafa al-Ummah. Ibn Battuta, who visited the capital city from 1352 to 1353, called it Mali. Certainly, his descendants were Muslim, and many went on pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj), and Keita's most famous descendent, Mansa Musa, dazzled Egypt and the Islamic world on his lavish pilgrimage east. Imperial Malian architecture was characterised by Sudano-Sahelian architecture with a Malian substyle, which is exemplified by the Great Mosque of Djenne. In addition, Mansa Ms had a baggage train of 80 camels, each carrying 300 pounds of gold. In search of a status discourse for Mande". During this period, there was an advanced level of urban living in the major centers of Mali. [93] Only at the state or province level was there any palpable interference from the central authority in Niani. [51] Musa made a major point of showing off his nation's wealth. [citation needed]. [98], The wealth of the Mali Empire did not come from direct control of gold-producing regions, but rather trade and tribute. His administration and military work allowed the empire to survive through the 16th century, solidifying him, his empire, and his family into the imaginations of storytellers around the world. Mansa Musa was immensely wealthy (whether he can be regarded as personally wealthy or wealthy because he controlled the gold mines of Mali is, of course, a . [26] Sariq Jata may be another name for Sunjata, who was actually Musa's great-uncle. The voyage is often incorrectly attributed to a Mansa Abu Bakr II, but no such mansa ever reigned. Mansa Ms probably died in 1332. According to the records of Ibn Battuta,[138][139] copper which traded in bars was mined from Takedda in the north and traded in the south for gold. During most of his journey, Ibn Battuta travelled with a retinue that included servants, most of whom carried goods for trade. [60] Other scholars whom Musa brought to Mali included Maliki jurists. In the 1450s, Portugal began sending raiding parties along the Gambian coast. Historians who lived during the height and decline of the Mali Empire consistently record its standing army peaking at 100,000, with 10,000 of that number being made up of cavalry. to 1337 C.E. Mansa Musa was an important ruler of the golden age of the Malink kingdom, based on the upper Niger River in Mali, West Africa. After Ibn Khaldun's death in 1406, there are no further Arab primary sources except for Leo Africanus, who wrote over a century later. Timbuktu became a major Islamic university center during the 14th century due to Mansa Musas developments. UsefulCharts, . The most common measure for gold within the realm was the ambiguous mithqal (4.5grams of gold). [87] The figure of Fajigi combines both Islam and traditional beliefs. The people of the south needed salt for their diet, but it was extremely rare. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca during the reign of Mamluk Sultan An-Nasir Muhammad (r. 12981308), but died on his voyage home. 4. Mansa Musa was a smart, powerful, competent Islamic autocrat who ruled over and expanded the Malian empire. [70] However, once Sundiata did gain use of his legs he grew strong and very respected. Captivation History summarizes Mansa Musa's story from his ancestors to his descendants as they reigned over the Mali Empire beginning in the 1300s. In approximately 1140 the Sosso kingdom of Kaniaga, a former vassal of Wagadou, began conquering the lands of its old rulers. During this period, trade routes shifted southward to the savanna, stimulating the growth of states such as Bono state. The final incarnation of the Gbara, according to the surviving traditions of northern Guinea, held 32 positions occupied by 28 clans. During his monarchy Musa or Musa, I was highly powered and the richest individual king Mansa Musa the . By the 6th century AD, the lucrative trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt and slaves had begun, facilitating the rise of West Africa's great empires. In the 17th year of his reign (1324), he set out on his famous pilgrimage to Mecca. It wasn't long before the new kingdom of Great Fulo was warring against Mali's remaining provinces. After unsuccessful attempts by Mansa Mama Maghan to conquer Bamana, the Bamana in 1670 sacked and burned the capital, and the Mali Empire rapidly disintegrated and ceased to exist, being replaced by independent chiefdoms. Upon stabbing their spears into the ground before Sundiata's throne, each of the twelve kings relinquished their kingdom to the Keita dynasty. It was cut into pieces and spent on goods with close to equal buying power throughout the empire. These farbas would rule their old kingdoms in the name of the mansa with most of the authority they held prior to joining the empire. So lavish was the emperor in his spending that he flooded the Cairo market with gold, thereby causing such a decline in its value that the market some 12 years later had still not fully recovered. Konkodougou Kamissa Keita, named for the province he once governed,[70] was crowned as Mansa Mari Djata Keita II in 1360. [45], Many oral histories point to a town called Dakajalan as the original home of the Keita clan and Sundiata's childhood home and base of operations during the war against the Soso. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [75] When the campaigning was done, his empire extended 1,000 miles (1,600km) east to west with those borders being the bends of the Senegal and Niger rivers respectively. Scholars who were mainly interested in history, Qurnic theology, and law were to make the mosque of Sankore in Timbuktu a teaching centre and to lay the foundations of the University of Sankore. [j][52][53] While in Cairo, Musa met with the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, whose reign had already seen one mansa, Sakura, make the hajj. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2023) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. Oral tradition states that he had three sons who fought over Manden's remains. [76] The latter possibility is corroborated by Ibn Khaldun calling Suleyman Musa's son in that passage, suggesting he may have confused Musa's brother Suleyman with Musa's son Maghan. Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton. Mansa means (King or Emperor) and he was ruling the Mali kingdom from C.E 1312 to 1337 for around 25 years. He made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca from 1324 to 1326. More than sixty years after the reign of Sundiata Keita, one of his descendants rose to become the King of Mali. The fame of Mansa Musa and his phenomenal wealth spread as he traveled on his hajjto Mecca. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Then, in 1630, the Bamana of Djenn declared their version of holy war on all Muslim powers in present-day Mali. Mansa Musa Family Tree | Empire of Mali Server Costs Fundraiser 2023 Running a website with millions of readers every month is expensive. From at least the beginning of the 11th century, Mandinka kings known as faamas ruled Manden from Ka-ba in the name of the Ghanas.[68]. It was common practice during the Middle Ages for both Christian and Muslim rulers to tie their bloodline back to a pivotal figure in their faith's history, so the lineage of the Keita dynasty may be dubious at best,[62] yet African Muslim scholars like the London-based Nigerian-British cleric Sheikh Abu-Abdullah Adelabu have laid claim of divine attainments to the reign of Mansa Mousa: "in Islamic history and its science stories of Old Mali Empire and significance of Mansa Mousa by ancient Muslim historians like Shihab al-Umari, documenting histories of African legendaries like Mansa Kankan Musa did actually exist in early Arabic sources about West African history including works of the author of Subh al-a 'sha one of the final expressions of the genre of Arabic administrative literature, Ahmad al-Qalqashandi Egyptian writer, mathematician and scribe of the scroll (katib al-darj) in the Mamluk chancery in Cairo[63] as well as by the author of Kitab al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik (Book of Highways and Kingdoms) Ab Ubayd Al-Bakri, an Arab Andalusian Muslim geographer and historian emboldened Keita Dynasty", wrote Adelabu. "[65], It is recorded that Mansa Musa traveled through the cities of Timbuktu and Gao on his way to Mecca, and made them a part of his empire when he returned around 1325. Al-Umari's list, which is quoted with slight differences by al-Qalqashandi, is as follows: Al-Umari also indicates that four Amazigh tribes were subjects of Mali: Gomez instead suggests that these tribes would have inhabited territory in the vicinity of Mema, Ghana, and Diafunu. [70] The mansa lost control of Jalo during this period. While on the hajj, he met the Andalusian poet and architect es-Saheli. The University of Sankore in Timbuktu was restaffed under Musa's reign with jurists, astronomers, and mathematicians. [8] Suleyman's death marked the end of Mali's Golden Age and the beginning of a slow decline. This style is characterised by the use of mudbricks and an adobe plaster, with large wooden-log support beams that jut out from the wall face for large buildings such as mosques or palaces. The Venetian explorer Alvise Cadamosto and Portuguese traders confirmed that the peoples of the Gambia were still subject to the mansa of Mali. Mansa Musa was a devout Muslim. [12] However, these hypotheses have been rejected by locals and are inconsistent with the apparent cognate status of Mali and Mand.[19]. Mansa Musa, one of the wealthiest people who ever lived - Jessica Smith TED-Ed 7.1M views 7 years ago The history of Nigeria explained in 6 minutes (3,000 Years of Nigerian history) Epimetheus. The post of a farba was very prestigious, and his descendants could inherit it with the mansa's approval. The child of this marriage received the first name of his mother (Sogolon) and the surname of his father (Djata). [124] Following this disastrous set of events, Mansa Mama Maghan abandoned the capital of Niani. . [147][148], The Sudano-Sahelian influence was particularly widely incorporated during the rule of Mansa Musa I, who constructed many architectural projects, including the Great Mosque of Gao and Royal Palace in Timbuktu, which was built with the assistance of Ishaak al-Tuedjin, an architect brought by Musa from his pilgrimage to Mecca. Most West African canoes were of single-log construction, carved and dug out from one massive tree trunk.[144]. Mansa Musa also ran out of gold on the hajj to Mecca but was not concerned because he knew he had enough gold back in Mali to pay back everyone he owed money to. [18][16], Another hypothesis suggests that the name Mali is derived from Mand mali "hippopotamus", an animal that had special significance to the Keitas, and that Mand means "little manatee". Upon his return in 1324, Ms Is pious pilgrimage inspired him to commission two enormous mosques in Timbuktu and Gao. The Songhai Empire had fallen to the Saadi Sultanate of Morocco eight years earlier, and Mahmud sought to take advantage of their defeat by trying to capture Jenne. The growing trade in Mali's western provinces with Portugal witnessed the exchange of envoys between the two nations. What made this possible was the decentralised nature of administration throughout the state. His information about the empire came from visiting Malians taking the hajj, or pilgrim's voyage to Mecca. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. [72] In contrast, al-Umari, writing twelve years after Musa's hajj, in approximately 1337,[73] claimed that Musa returned to Mali intending to abdicate and return to live in Mecca but died before he could do so,[74] suggesting he died even earlier than 1332. Equipped with two quivers and a knife fastened to the back of their arm, Mandinka bowmen used barbed, iron-tipped arrows that were usually poisoned. [26][17] Ibn Khaldun said that he "was an upright man and a great king, and tales of his justice are still told."[101]. It was this pilgrimage that awakened the world to the stupendous wealth of Mali. Musa Keita I (c. 1280 - c. 1337), or Mansa Musa, was the ninth Mansa of the Mali Empire, one of the most powerful West African states.