Musa I of Mali was the tenth mansa, meaning "king of kings", of the Malian Empire who came to the throne in 1307 and reigned for over twenty years, though the exact date of his death is unknown. At the time of Mansa Musa's rise to the throne, the Malian Empire consisted of territory formerly belonging to the Ghana Empire and Melle (Mali) and immediate surrounding areas, and Musa held many titles, including Emir of Melle, Lord of the Mines of Wangara, and conqueror of Ghanata, Futa-Jallon, and at least another dozen states.^[1] Perhaps the wealthiest ruler of his day, he is credited with the Golden Age of Mali.

Contents 1 Nomenclature 2 Lineage and ascension to the throne 3 Islam and pilgrimage to Mecca 4 Later reign 4.1 Construction in Mali 4.2 Influence in Timbuktu 5 Death 6 In popular culture 7 See also 8 Notes 9 Bibliography 10 External links

[edit] Nomenclature

Musa was referred to by a wide range of alternate names, and is most commonly found as Mansa Musa in Western manuscripts and literature. His name also appears as Kankou Musa, Kankan Musa or Kanku Musa which means "Musa, son of Kankou", where Kankou is the name of his mother. Other alternatives go on as Mali-koy Kankan Musa, Gonga Musa and the Lion of Mali.^[2][3]

[edit] Lineage and ascension to the throne

What is known about the kings of the Malian Empire is taken from the write of Arab scholars who traveled through and lived in the area, including Al-Umari, Abu-sa'id Uthman ad-Dukkali, Ibn Khaldun, and Ibn Battuta. According to Ibn-Khaldun's comprehensive history of the Malian kings, Mansa Musa's grandfather was Abu-Bakr (the Arabic equivalent to Bakari or Bogari, original name unknown), a brother of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Malian Empire as recorded through oral histories. Abu-Bakr did not ascend the throne, and his son, Musa's father, Faga Laye, has no significance in the history of Mali.^[4]

Mansa Musa came to the throne through a practice of appointing a deputy when a king goes on his pilgrimage to Mecca, and later naming the deputy as heir. Musa was appointed deputy of the king before him and later took the throne. The next Malian king, Mansa Magha, Musa's son, was also appointed deputy during Musa's pilgrimage.^[5]

[edit] Islam and pilgrimage to Mecca

Musa was a devout Muslim and his pilgrimage to Mecca, a command ordained by Allah (God) according to core teachings of Islam, made him well-known across northern Africa and the Middle East. He believed the religion of Islam to be deep and certainly more than repetition of Qur'anic verses and prayer. To Musa, Islam was the foundation of the “cultured world of the Eastern Mediterranean.”^[6] He would spend much time fostering the growth of Islam in his empire.

Mansa Musa made his pilgrimage in 1324, his procession including an estimated 60,000 slaves who bore staffs, organized horses and camels, handled bags, and fed the entire procession.^[7] On the camels, Musa took gold that he not only gave to the cities he passed on the way to Mecca, including Cairo and Medina, but also for souvenirs.

His journey was documented by several eyewitnesses, in awe of his wealth and extensive procession, and records exist in a variety of sources, including journals, oral accounts, and histories. Further, it has been recorded that Musa built a mosque every Friday in the city his caravan stayed in and visited the Mamluk sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad of Egypt in July of 1324.^[8]

Mansa Musa's recorded lavish actions, however, did more harm than good in the cities he spent so much gold in. In the cities of Cairo, Medina, and Mecca, gold was much rarer. Prices soon skyrocketed and the people were paying with the gold that had decreased in value due to its sudden large influx. To rectify the gold market, Musa borrowed all the gold he could carry from money-lenders in Cairo, at high interest. This is the only time recorded in history that one man directly controlled the price of gold in the Mediterranean.^[9]

[edit] Later reign

During his long return journey from Mecca in 1325, Musa heard news that his army recaptured Gao. Sagmandia, one of his generals, led the endeavor. The city of Gao had been within the empire since before Sakura's reign and was an important, though often rebellious, trading center. Musa made a detour and visited the city where he received as hostages the two sons of the Gao king, Ali Kolon and Suleiman Nar. He returned to Niani with the two boys and later educated them at his court.

[edit] Construction in Mali

Musa embarked on a large building program, raising mosques and madrasas in Timbuktu and Gao. Most famously the ancient center of learning Sankore Madrasah or University of Sankore was constructed during his reign. In Niani, he built the Hall of Audience, a building communicated by an interior door to the royal palace. It was "an admirable Monument" surmounted by a dome, adorned with arabesques of striking colours. The windows of an upper floor were plated with wood and framed in silver foil, those of a lower floor were plated with wood, framed in gold. Like the Great Mosque, a contemporaneous and grandiose structure in Timbuktu, the Hall was built of cut stone.

During this period, there was an advanced level of urban living in the major centers of the Mali. Sergio Domian, an Italian art and architecture scholar, wrote the following about this period: "Thus was laid the foundation of an urban civilization. At the height of its power, Mali had at least 400 cities, and the interior of the Niger Delta was very densely populated." ^[10]

[edit] Influence in Timbuktu

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. He brought architects from Andalusia, a region in Spain, and Cairo to build his grand palace in Timbuktu and the great Djinguereber Mosque that still stands today.^[11]

Timbuktu lies near the Niger River, Mali’s connection to East Africa. Timbuktu soon became a center of trade, culture, and Islam; markets brought in merchants from Nigeria, Egypt, and other African kingdoms, a university was founded in the city (as well as in the Malian cities of Djenné and Ségou), and Islam was spread through the markets and university, making Timbuktu a new area for Islamic scholarship.^[12] News of the Malian empire’s city of wealth even traveled across the Mediterranean to southern Europe, where traders from Venice, Granada, and Genoa soon added Timbuktu to their maps to trade manufactured goods for gold.^[13]

The University of Sankoré in Timbuktu was restaffed under Musa's reign, with jurists, astronomers, and mathematicians.^[14] The university became a center of learning and culture, drawing Muslim scholars from around Africa and the Middle East to Timbuktu.

In 1330, the kingdom of Mossi invaded and conquered the city of Timbuktu. Gao had already been captured by Musa's general, and Musa quickly regained Timbuktu and built a rampart and stone fort, and placed a standing army, to protect the city from future invaders.^[15]

While Musa’s palace has since vanished, the university and mosque still stand in Timbuktu today.

[edit] Death

The death of Mansa Musa is highly debated among modern historians and the Arab scholars who recorded history of Mali. When compared to the reigns of his successors, son Mansa Maghan (recorded rule from 1332 to 1336) and older brother Mansa Suleyman (recorded rule from 1336 to 1360), and Musa’s recorded 25 years of rule, the calculated date of death is 1332.^[16] Other records declare Musa planned to abdicate the throne to his son Maghan, but he died soon after he returned from Mecca in 1325.^[17] Further, according to an account by Ibn-Khaldun, Mansa Musa was alive when the city of Tlemcen in Algeria was conquered in 1337, as he sent a representative to Algeria to congratulate the conquerors on their victory.^[18][19]

Whether or not any relevant sources can be relied upon, the existence of many disputing documentations leaves the question of Mansa Musa’s death up for continued debate.

[edit] In popular culture

Mansa Musa is featured as the leader for the Mali Empire in the computer game Civilization IV. His leader traits are Financial and Spiritual. The capital of the Malian Empire in the game is Timbuktu.^[20]

[edit] See also

• Keita Dynasty
• Mali Empire
• Timbuktu

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

• Bell, Nawal Morcos (1972), "The age of Mansa Musa of Mali: Problems in succession and chronology", International Journal of African Historical Studies 5: 221-234, http://www.jstor.org/pss/217515 . Link requires subscription to Jstor.
• Hunwick, John O. (1999), Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 9004112073 .
• Levtzion, Nehemia (1963), "The thirteenth- and fourteenth-century kings of Mali", Journal African History 4: 341-353, http://www.jstor.org/pss/217515 . Link requires subscription to Jstor.
• Levtzion, Nehemia (1973), Ancient Ghana and Mali, London: Methuen, ISBN 0841904316 .
• Levtzion, Nehemia; Hopkins, John F.P., eds. (2000), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa, New York, NY: Marcus Weiner Press, ISBN 1-55876-241-8 . First published in 1981.
• Goodwin, A. J. H., ed. (1957), "The Medieval Empire of Ghana", South African Archaeological Society 12: 108-112, http://jstor.org/stable/3886971 . Link requires subscription to Jstor.

[edit] External links

• History Channel: Mansa Moussa: Pilgrimage of Gold
• Al-Umari's description of Mansa Musa's 1324 visit to Cairo
• Sondiata and Mansa Musa on the Web web directory
• African Legends page
• African Events Mansa Musa page
• Mansa Musa, from Black History Pages

Preceded by Abubakari II

Mansa of the Mali Empire 1312–1337

Succeeded by Maghan