[40], Various sources cite several other cities as capitals of the Mali Empire, some in competition with the Niani hypothesis and others addressing different time periods. [114] However, the Songhai do not maintain their hold on the Malian capital. It was cut into pieces and spent on goods with close to equal buying power throughout the empire. His reign saw the first in a string of many great losses to Mali. [81] He was replaced by Abu Bakr, a son of Sunjata's daughter. This was due to the tax on trade in and out of the empire, along with all the gold Mansa Musa had. Side by side with the encouragement of trade and commerce, learning and the arts received royal patronage. The child of this marriage received the first name of his mother (Sogolon) and the surname of his father (Djata). The three states warred with each other as much, if not more, than they did against outsiders, but rivalries generally stopped when faced with invasion. Geography, Human Geography, Social Studies, Ancient Civilizations, World History. [126], The Kouroukan Fouga also put in place social and economic reforms including prohibitions on the maltreatment of prisoners and slaves, installing documents between clans which clearly stated who could say what about whom. [136] One particular source of salt in the Mali Empire was salt-mining sites located in Taghaza. [79][80], Musa's reign is commonly regarded as Mali's golden age, but this perception may be the result of his reign being the best recorded by Arabic sources, rather than him necessarily being the wealthiest and most powerful mansa of Mali. [100], Arabic writers, such as Ibn Battuta and Abdallah ibn Asad al-Yafii, praised Musa's generosity, virtue, and intelligence. In this lesson, students read one recent blog post about Musa I of Mali's wealth, followed by two historical documents from the fourteenth-century, to answer the question: Was Mansa Musa the richest person ever? Musa I (c. 1280 - 1337), better known as Mansa Musa, was the ninth mansa of the Mali Empire.Widely considered to have been the wealthiest person in known history (some sources measuring his wealth at around $400 billion adjusted to inflation), his vast wealth was used to attract scholars, merchants and architects to Mali, establishing it as a beacon of Islamic trade, culture and learning. Three bowmen supporting one spearman was the ratio in Kaabu and the Gambia by the mid-16th century. Who would native Malians have considered their greatest ruler? Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton. 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. Khalifa would shoot arrows at his subjects, so he was overthrown and killed. [99] Mosques were built in Gao and Timbuktu along with impressive palaces also built in Timbuktu. His leadership of Mali, a state which stretched across two thousand . He brought a large entourage with him which impressed people everywhere they went. [93] Dyamani-tiguis had to be approved by the mansa and were subject to his oversight. Ibn Battuta, who visited the capital city from 1352 to 1353, called it Mali. He describes it as being north of Mali but under its domination implying some sort of vassalage for the Antasar, Yantar'ras, Medussa and Lemtuna Berber tribes. Mansa Souleyman Keita (or Suleiman) took steep measures to put Mali back into financial shape, thereby developing a reputation for miserliness. Free warriors from the north (Mandekalu or otherwise) were usually equipped with large reed or animal hide shields and a stabbing spear that was called a tamba. [59], On his return journey, Musa met the Andalusian poet Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, whose eloquence and knowledge of jurisprudence impressed him, and whom he convinced to travel with him to Mali. Musa and his entourage gave and spent freely while in Cairo. [60] She was a hunchback from the land of Do, south of Mali. He ruled oppressively and nearly bankrupted Mali with his lavish spending. It may have been located close to modern Kangaba. Like two mansolu (rulers of Mali) before him, Ms I undertook the hajj as an act of devotion in line with Islamic tradition. During his reign, Mali was one of the richest kingdoms of Africa, and Mansa Musa was among the richest individuals in the world. [131] Mansa Musa placed a heavy tax on all objects that went through Timbuktu. [26][17] Ibn Khaldun said that he "was an upright man and a great king, and tales of his justice are still told."[101]. Umari also describes the empire as being south of Marrakesh and almost entirely inhabited except for few places. Gold dust had been weighed and bagged for use at least since the time of the Ghana Empire. UsefulCharts, . While Mansa Musa's grandfather, Abu-Bakr, was a nephew of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Malian Empire, neither he nor his descendants had a strong claim to the throne. The Malian and Moroccan armies fought at Jenne on 26 April, the last day of Ramadan, and the Moroccans were victorious thanks to their firearms and Bukar's support, but Mahmud was able to escape. Mansa Musa was the great nephew of Sundiata Keita, who was founder . [70], The number and frequency of conquests in the late 13th century and throughout the 14th century indicate the Kolonkan mansas inherited and/or developed a capable military. [117], The swan song of the Mali Empire came in 1599, under the reign of Mansa Mahmud IV. In the early 15th century, Mali was still powerful enough to conquer and settle new areas. He did however, maintain contacts with Morocco, sending a giraffe to King Abu Hassan. He had so much gold that during his hajj to Mecca, the Mansa passed out gold to all the poor along the way. [citation needed] The northern region on the other hand had no shortage of salt. [119], It would be the Mandinka themselves that would cause the final destruction of the empire. Musa expanded the borders of the Mali Empire, in particular incorporating the cities of Gao and Timbuktu into its territory. The third great account is that of Ibn Khaldun, who wrote in the early 15th century. [113], In 1544 or 1545,[f] a Songhai force led by kanfari Dawud, who would later succeed his brother Askia Ishaq as ruler of the Songhai Empire, sacked the capital of Mali and purportedly used the royal palace as a latrine. They tell of his hardships as a boy before he came to the throne. This can be interpreted as either "Musa son of Abu Bakr" or "Musa descendant of Abu Bakr." In oral tradition and the Timbuktu Chronicles, Musa is known as Kanku Musa. However, his riches are only one part of his legacy, and he is also remembered for his Islamic faith, promotion of scholarship, and patronage of culture in Mali. Upon stabbing their spears into the ground before Sundiata's throne, each of the twelve kings relinquished their kingdom to the Keita dynasty. [102], The Songhai settlement effectively shook off Mali's authority in 1375. From 1389 onwards Mali gained a host of mansas of obscure origins. Sadly for Sundjata, this did not occur before his father died. Despite the faama of Niani's wishes to respect the prophecy and put Sundiata on the throne, the son from his first wife Sassouma Brt was crowned instead. In search of a status discourse for Mande". [88], Mansa Musa is renowned for his wealth and generosity. Much of the history is oral, given by professional "historians". Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. [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. Embedded by Arienne King, published on 17 October 2020. As a result of this the empire fell. Mahmud Keita, possibly a grandchild or great-grandchild of Mansa Gao Keita, was crowned Mansa Maghan Keita III in 1390. And so the name Keita became a clan/family and began its reign.[70]. Mansa Sandaki Keita, a descendant of kankoro-sigui Mari Djata Keita, deposed Maghan Keita II, becoming the first person without any Keita dynastic relation to officially rule Mali. When Musa departed Mali for the hajj, he left his son Muhammad to rule in his absence. [47], According to Jules Vidal and Levtzion, citing oral histories from Kangaba and Keyla, another onetime capital was Manikoro or Mali-Kura, founded after the destruction of Niani. [70] Little is known of him except that he only reigned two years. The army of the Mali Empire used of a wide variety of weapons depending largely on where the troops originated. Mansa Musa (died 1337), king of the Mali empire in West Africa, is known mostly for his fabulous pilgrimage to Mecca and for his promotion of unity and prosperity within Mali. Mansa means (King or Emperor) and he was ruling the Mali kingdom from C.E 1312 to 1337 for around 25 years. The Wangara, an Old Soninke Diaspora in West Africa? However, Al-Nasir Muhammad returned Musa's earlier show of generosity with gifts of his own. [26] Sariq Jata may be another name for Sunjata, who was actually Musa's great-uncle. harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKi-ZerboNiane (, sfn error: no target: CITEREFLevztionHopkins2000 (. He recruited scholars from the wider Muslim world to travel to Mali, such as the Andalusian poet Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, and helped establish Timbuktu as a center of Islamic learning. [122] Their forces marched as far north as Kangaba, where the mansa was obliged to make a peace with them, promising not to attack downstream of Mali. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. [125] Farin was a general term for northern commander at the time. 6. 4. While in Mecca, conflict broke out between a group of Malian pilgrims and a group of Turkic pilgrims in the Masjid al-Haram. In the first millennium BC, early cities and towns were created by Mande peoples related to the Soninke people, along the middle Niger River in central Mali, including at Dia which began from around 900 BC, and reached its peak around 600 BC,[52] and Djenne-Djenno, which lasted from around 250 BC to 900 AD. CREDITS: Chart/Narration: Matt Baker Research/Artwork: From Nothing Team Editing: Jack Rackam Intro animation: Syawish Rehman Intro music: "Lord of the Land" by Kevin MacLeod and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution license 4.0. [62] According to one account given by Ibn Khaldun, Musa's general Saghmanja conquered Gao. [17] Whether Mali originated as the name of a town or region, the name was subsequently applied to the entire empire ruled from Mali. If the mansa didn't believe the dyamani-tigui was capable or trustworthy, a farba might be installed to oversee the province or administer it outright. [93] He did not, however, hold the power of previous mansas because of the influence of his kankoro-sigui. [40] Seemingly contradictory reports written by Arab visitors, a lack of definitive archaeological evidence, and the diversity of oral traditions all contribute to this uncertainty. While Musa's palace has since vanished, the university and mosque still stand in Timbuktu today. King of Kings in the Mandinka language a reference to a great ruler in the Mali Empire of ancient Africa. According to Musa's own account, his predecessor as Mansa of Mali, presumably Muhammad ibn Qu,[31] launched two expeditions to explore the Atlantic Ocean (200 ships for the first exploratory mission and 2,000 ships for the second). The Camara (or Kamara) are said to be the first family to have lived in Manding, after having left, due to the drought, Ouallata, a region of Wagadou, in the south-east of present-day Mauritania. The earliest document mentioning the mosque is Abd al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan, which gives the early history, presumably from the oral tradition as it existed in the mid seventeenth century. The House of Saud is ruled by the descendants of King Abdulaziz, who founded and unified Saudi Arabia in 1932. Mansa Musa Family Tree | Empire of Mali Server Costs Fundraiser 2023 Running a website with millions of readers every month is expensive. Musa was a very successful military leader. Stride, G. T., & C. Ifeka: "Peoples and Empires of West Africa: West Africa in History 10001800". [86] Qu was succeeded by his son Muhammad, who launched two voyages to explore the Atlantic Ocean. The entire nation was mobilised, with each clan obligated to provide a quota of fighting-age men. Several of the names are spelled in a variety of ways in different manuscripts. According to Ibn Battuta who visited Mali in the mid-14th century, one camel load of salt sold at Walata for 810 mithqals of gold, but in Mali proper it realised 2030 ducats and sometimes even 40. [111] This envoy from the Portuguese coastal port of Elmina arrived in response to the growing trade along the coast and Mali's now urgent request for military assistance against Songhai. The new Songhai Empire conquered Mema,[93] one of Mali's oldest possessions, in 1465. It was this pilgrimage that awakened the world to the stupendous wealth of Mali. [91] Historians such as Hadrien Collet have argued that Musa's wealth is impossible to accurately calculate. [124] Following this disastrous set of events, Mansa Mama Maghan abandoned the capital of Niani. [70] These men had to be of the horon (freemen) caste and appear with their own arms. Timbuktu became a major Islamic university center during the 14th century due to Mansa Musas developments. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. At both Gao and Timbuktu, a Songhai city almost rivalling Gao in importance, Mansa Ms commissioned Ab Isq al-Sil, a Granada poet and architect who had travelled with him from Mecca, to build mosques. This is one of the main factors to the fall of the kingdom. Mansa Musa (1280-1337) Mansa Musa, fourteenth century emperor of the Mali Empire, is the medieval African ruler most known to the world outside Africa. He could read and write Arabic and took an interest in the scholarly city of Timbuktu, which he peaceably annexed in 1324. During this period, trade routes shifted southward to the savanna, stimulating the growth of states such as Bono state. The Mandinka went on to form the powerful and rich Mali Empire, which produced the richest Black man who ever lived, King Mansa Musa. He had first-hand information from several sources, and from a second-hand source, he learned of the visit of Mansa Musa. [14], Medieval sources are divided over whether Mali is the name of a town or a region. [43] Djibril Tamsir Niane, a Guinean historian, has been a forceful advocate of this position in recent decades. Mansa Mahmud Keita II's rule was characterised by more losses to Mali's old possessions and increased contact between Mali and Portuguese explorers along the coast. But the Mali Empire built by his predecessors was too strong for even his misrule and it passed intact to Musa's brother, Souleyman Keita in 1341. The Joma area, governed from Siguiri, controlled the central region, which encompassed Niani. . 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. The architectural crafts in Granada had reached their zenith by the fourteenth century, and its extremely unlikely that a cultured and wealthy poet would have had anything more than a dilettante's knowledge of the intricacies of contemporary architectural practice. 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. Trade was a significant factor to the rise and success of Mali. All gold was immediately handed over to the imperial treasury in return for an equal value of gold dust. Omissions? This is the first account of a West African kingdom made directly by an eyewitness; the others are usually second-hand. [8] Mansa, 'ruler'[9] or 'king'[10] in Mand, was the title of the ruler of the Mali Empire. Kangaba, the de facto capital of Manden since the time of the last emperor, became the capital of the northern sphere. [77] Alternatively, it is possible that the four-year reign Ibn Khaldun credits Maghan with actually referred to his ruling Mali while Musa was away on the hajj, and he only reigned briefly in his own right. Rather, authority would rest with the mansa and his court, wherever he went. [80] Ibn Khaldun regarded Wali as one of Mali's greatest rulers. The Catalan Atlas, created in 1375 C.E. One of the five pillars of Islam states that Muslims should embark on a pilgrimage known as Hajj, to the holy city of Mecca.. The final incarnation of the Gbara, according to the surviving traditions of northern Guinea, held 32 positions occupied by 28 clans. [92] He was one of the first truly devout Muslims to lead the Mali Empire. [130] Farbas were picked by the mansa from the conquering farin or family members. Barring any other difficulties, the dyamani-tigui would run the province by himself collecting taxes and procuring armies from the tribes under his command. World History Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. National Geographic Society is a 501 (c)(3) organization. so the name Kanku Musa means "Musa, son of Kanku", although it is unclear if the genealogy implied is literal. What made this possible was the decentralised nature of administration throughout the state. They also used flaming arrows for siege warfare. The growing trade in Mali's western provinces with Portugal witnessed the exchange of envoys between the two nations. [74] The combined forces of northern and southern Manden defeated the Sosso army at the Battle of Kirina (then known as Krina) in approximately 1235. 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. 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. the descendants of the nearly 1,000-year-old objects made in Africa. [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. These oral stories . World History Encyclopedia. 05 Mar 2023. Mansa Ms, either the grandson or the grandnephew of Sundiata, the founder of his dynasty, came to the throne in 1307. A dknsi performed the same function except with slave troops called sofa ("guardian of the horse") and under the command of a farimba ("great brave man"). He ruled the nation for nearly 25 years until his death in 1337 and is . Mansa Musa returned from Mecca with several Islamic scholars, including direct descendants of the prophet Muhammad and an Andalusian poet and architect by the name of Abu Es Haq es Saheli, who is . [40] In fact, there is a conspicuous absence of archaeological samples of any kind from Niani dated to the late 13th through early 15th centuries, suggesting that Niani may have been uninhabited during the heyday of the Mali Empire. There was also a palace conspiracy to overthrow him hatched by the Qasa (the Manding term meaning Queen) Kassi and several army commanders. Following the death of Sundiata Keita in c. 1255, the kings of Mali were referred to by the title mansa. Under his leadership, Mali conquered new territories and trade with North Africa increased. [89] This claim is often sourced to an article in CelebrityNetWorth,[89] which claims that Musa's wealth was the equivalent of US$400 billion. [20] Arab interest in the Mali Empire declined after the Songhai conquered the northern regions of the empire which formed the primary contact between Mali and the Arab world. Ibn Battuta observed the employment of servants in both towns. . [41] Given the grandeur of his subsequent hajj, it is likely that Musa spent much of his early reign preparing for it. The kingdom of Mali was relatively unknown outside of West Africa until this event. Updates? There are a few references to Mali in early Islamic literature. The 14th-century traveller Ibn Baah noted that it took about four months to travel from the northern borders of the Mali empire to Niani in the south. [140], The Mali Empire maintained a semi-professional, full-time army in order to defend its borders. Well after his death, Mansa Musa remained engrained in the imagination of the world as a symbol of fabulous wealth.
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