Who would native Malians have considered their greatest ruler? From 1389 onwards Mali gained a host of mansas of obscure origins. 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. [45] Those animals included 80 camels which each carried 23136kg (50300lb) of gold dust. Kankan Musa, better known as Mansa Musa probably took power in approximately 1312, although an earlier date is possible. It was reported that he built a mosque every Friday. These conflicts also interrupted trade. The 1375 Catalan Atlas portrayed a "city of Melly" (Catalan: ciutat de Melly) in West Africa. 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. Forty years after the reign of Mansa Musa Keita I, the Mali Empire still controlled some 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000sqmi) of land throughout Western Africa.[103][9]. By the time they reached Suez, many of the Malian pilgrims had died of cold, starvation, or bandit raids, and they had lost many of their supplies. Editing: Jack Rackam. [98] Musa's hajj, and especially his gold, caught the attention of both the Islamic and Christian worlds. Salt was as valuable, if not more valuable, than gold in sub-Saharan Africa. Nobody lived in the area except the Musafa servants who worked to dig the salts and lived on dates imported from Sijilmasa and the Dar'a valley, camel meat and millet imported from the Sudan. A Golden Age: King Mansa Musa's Reign. "Mansa Musa Family Tree | Empire of Mali." Mansa Musa eventually gained the throne owing to a strange sequence of events that turned in his favor. To Musa, Islam was "an entry into the cultured world of the Eastern Mediterranean". The Twelve Doors of Mali were a coalition of conquered or allied territories, mostly within Manden, with sworn allegiance to Sundiata and his descendants. Still, when Ibn Battuta arrived at Mali in July 1352, he found a thriving civilisation on par with virtually anything in the Muslim or Christian world. [115], Mali's fortunes seem to have improved in the second half of the 16th century. Under his leadership, Mali conquered new territories and trade with North Africa increased. 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. Musa stayed in the Qarafa district of Cairo, and befriended its governor, Ibn Amir Hajib, who learned much about Mali from him. Hunters from the Ghana Empire (or Wagadou), particularly mythical ancestors Kontron and Sanin, founded Manding and the Malink and Bambaras hunter brotherhood. [78] Nehemia Levtzion regarded 1337 as the most likely date,[72] which has been accepted by other scholars. Most West African canoes were of single-log construction, carved and dug out from one massive tree trunk.[144]. Rather, authority would rest with the mansa and his court, wherever he went. Provinces picked their own governors via their own custom (election, inheritance, etc.). The only Mandinka power spared from the campaign was Kangaba. [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. Side by side with the encouragement of trade and commerce, learning and the arts received royal patronage. [54] Despite this initial awkwardness, the two rulers got along well, and exchanged gifts. Mansa Musa, also known as Musa Keita I of Mali, was the tenth Sultan of the Mali Empire. No single Keita ever ruled Manden after Mahmud Keita IV's death, resulting in the end of the Mali Empire. [citation needed]. What did Ms I do when he returned to Mali? His riches came from mining significant salt and gold deposits in the Mali kingdom. The organization and smooth administration of a purely African empire, the founding of the University of Sankore, the expansion of trade in Timbuktu, the architectural innovations in Gao, Timbuktu, and Niani and, indeed, throughout the whole of Mali and in the subsequent Songhai empire are all testimony to Mansa Mss superior administrative gifts. Mansa Musa came from his country with 80 loads of gold dust (tibr), each load weighing three qintars. In 1534, Mahmud III, the grandson of Mahmud II, received another Portuguese envoy to the Mali court by the name of Pero Fernandes. Masuta performs many of the same attacks as his original incarnation (though he yells a quote prior to using his abilities), but does not summon thrashing waters or create . Mansa Musa was a devout Muslim. They camped for three days by the Pyramids of Giza, before crossing the Nile into Cairo on 19 July. He had so much gold that during his hajj to Mecca, the Mansa passed out gold to all the poor along the way. They founded the first village of the Manding, Kirikoroni, then Kirina, Siby, Kita. It may have been located close to modern Kangaba. Upon stabbing their spears into the ground before Sundiata's throne, each of the twelve kings relinquished their kingdom to the Keita dynasty. Regardless of their title in the province, they were recognised as dyamani-tigui (province-master) by the mansa. Ibn Battuta comments on festival demonstrations of swordplay before the mansa by his retainers including the royal interpreter. In the 17th year of his reign (1324), he set out on his famous pilgrimage to Mecca. Your email address will not be published. Sundiata, according to the oral traditions, did not walk until he was seven years old. And so the name Keita became a clan/family and began its reign.[70]. Mansa Musa's reign itself was 25 years long. In 1324 Musa embarked on a hajj, a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, traveling with an entourage that included 8,000 courtiers, 12,000 servants and 100 camel loads of . UsefulCharts, . Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Khalifa would shoot arrows at his subjects, so he was overthrown and killed. Online articles in the 21st century have claimed that Mansa Musa was the richest person of all time. He was an extremely successful military leader The Catalan Atlas, published in 1375, depicts the richest man of his day: Mansa Musa, the emperor of 14th-century Mali. Mansa Musa Keita's crowning achievement was his famous pilgrimage to Mecca, which started in 1324 and concluded with his return in 1326. Mansa Musa was the great-great-grandson of Sunjata, who was the founder of the empire of Mali. [11][b] In Mand tradition, it was common for one's name to be prefixed by their mother's name, so the name Kanku Musa means "Musa, son of Kanku", although it is unclear if the genealogy implied is literal. Mansa Mari Djata Keita II became seriously ill in 1372,[93] and power moved into the hands of his ministers until his death in 1374. [72], According to Niane's version of the epic, during the rise of Kaniaga, Sundiata of the Keita clan was born in the early 13th century. While Musa's palace has since vanished, the university and mosque still stand in Timbuktu today. Wagadou's control over Manden came to a halt after internal instability lead to its decline. It is implausible that Abu Bakr was Musa's father, due to the amount of time between Sunjata's reign and Musa's. In the 17th year of his reign (1324), he set out on his famous pilgrimage to Mecca. Different oral traditions conflict with each other, as well as Ibn Khaldun, about the transfer of power following Sunjata's death. His skillful administration left his empire well-off at the time of his death, but eventually, the empire fell apart. A city called Dieriba or Dioliba is sometimes mentioned as the capital or main urban center of the province of Mande in the years before Sundiata, that was later abandoned. In Ibn Khaldun's account, Sundjata is recorded as Mari Djata with "Mari" meaning "Amir" or "Prince". In his lifetime and beyond, he was known for his extravagant wealth and spending, funded by his kingdom's vast salt and gold mines. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. After Ibn Khaldun's death in 1406, there are no further Arab primary sources except for Leo Africanus, who wrote over a century later. [81] The territory of the Mali Empire was at its height during the reigns of Musa and his brother Sulayman, and covered the Sudan-Sahel region of West Africa. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [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. [116] Songhai authority over Bendugu and Kala declined by 1571, and Mali may have been able to reassert some authority over them. [100], Arabic writers, such as Ibn Battuta and Abdallah ibn Asad al-Yafii, praised Musa's generosity, virtue, and intelligence. His leadership of Mali, a state which stretched across two thousand . This thread is archived Embedded by Arienne King, published on 17 October 2020. [83] This term was used interchangeably with dinar, though it is unclear if coined currency was used in the empire. [93] Gold mines in Boure, which is located in present-day Guinea, were discovered sometime near the end of the 12th century. The historian al-Umar, who visited Cairo 12 years after the emperors visit, found the inhabitants of this city, with a population estimated at one million, still singing the praises of Mansa Ms. His reign saw the first in a string of many great losses to Mali. 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". It then seized Timbuktu from the Tuareg in 1468 under Sunni Ali Ber. Its first meeting, at the famous Kouroukan Fouga (Division of the World), had 29 clan delegates presided over by a belen-tigui (master of ceremony). The ancient kingdom of Mali spread across parts of modern-day Mali, Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso. Mansa Ms, either the grandson or the grandnephew of Sundiata, the founder of his dynasty, came to the throne in 1307. [44] Niani's reputation as an imperial capital may derive from its importance in the late imperial period, when the Songhai Empire to the northeast pushed Mali back to the Manding heartland. At the age of 18, he gained authority over all the 12 kingdoms in an alliance that would become the Mali Empire. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited. On the return from Takedda to Morocco, his caravan transported 600 female servants, suggesting that indentured servitude was a substantial part of the commercial activity of the empire.[134]. [93] It is during his reign that Fula raids on Takrur began. A legend claims that Sunjata transformed into a hippopotamus. [27] His list does not necessarily accurately reflect the actual organization of the Mali Empire,[28] and the identification of the listed provinces is controversial. At its peak, Mali was the largest empire in West Africa, widely influencing the culture of the region through the spread of its language, laws and customs. Mali Emperors Family Tree | Mansa Musa - The Richest Man in World History 71,113 views Nov 27, 2019 1.8K Dislike Share Save UsefulCharts 1.08M subscribers Watch the map animation on From. This trend would continue into colonial times against Tukulor enemies from the west.[121]. This enabled him to rule over a realm larger than even the Ghana Empire in its apex. [123] Segou, defended by Bitn Coulibaly, successfully defended itself and Mama Maghan was forced to withdraw. Using the reign lengths reported by Ibn Khaldun to calculate back from the death of Mansa Suleyman in 1360, Musa would have died in 1332. During the height of Sundiata's power, the land of Manden (the area populated by the Mandinka people) became one of its provinces. [82], Musa is less renowned in Mand oral tradition as performed by the jeliw. One of the five pillars of Islam states that Muslims should embark on a pilgrimage known as Hajj, to the holy city of Mecca.. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. [52][55], Musa's generosity continued as he traveled onwards to Mecca, and he gave gifts to fellow pilgrims and the people of Medina and Mecca. King Mansa Musa is famous for his Hajj journey, during which he stopped off in Egypt and gave out so much gold that the Egyptian economy was ruined for years to come. [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. 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. [7] Maghan I succeeded his father as mansa in 1337, but was deposed by his uncle Suleyman in 1341. Dates: 4001591 C. E.", "Is Mansa Musa the richest man who ever lived? Among these are references to "Pene" and "Malal" in the work of al-Bakri in 1068,[53][54] the story of the conversion of an early ruler, known to Ibn Khaldun (by 1397) as Barmandana,[55] and a few geographical details in the work of al-Idrisi.