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Mansa Musa

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Musa depicted holding a gold nugget from the 1375 Catalan Atlas.

HI!! 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.

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]

Lineage and ascension to the throne

What is known about the kings of the Malian Empire is taken from the writings 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]

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.

Musa made his pilgrimage in 1324, his procession reported to include 60,000 men, 12,000 slaves, heralds dressed in silks who bore gold staffs, organized horses and handled bags. Musa provided all necessities for the procession, feeding the entire company of men and animals.[7] Also in the train were 80 camels, which varying reports claim carried anywhere from 50 to 300 pounds of gold dust each. Musa not only gave to the cities he passed on the way to Mecca, including Cairo and Medina, but also for souvenirs. Furthermore, it has been recorded that he built a mosque each and every Friday, in whichever city his caravan happened to be staying in on that particular day.

Musa's journey was documented by several eyewitnesses along his route, who were in awe of his wealth and extensive procession, and records exist in a variety of sources, including journals, oral accounts and histories. Musa is known to have visited with the Mamluk sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad of Egypt in July of 1324.[8]

Musa's generous actions, however, inadvertently devastated the economy of the region. In the cities of Cairo, Medina and Mecca, the sudden influx of gold devalued the metal for the next decade. Prices on goods and wares super inflated in an attempt to adjust to the newfound wealth that was spreading throughout local populations. 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]

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.

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]

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.

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]

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]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Goodwin 1957, p. 109
  2. ^ Hunwick 1999, p. 9
  3. ^ Bell 1972, pp. 224–225
  4. ^ Levtzion 1963, pp. 341–347
  5. ^ Levtzion 1963, p. 347
  6. ^ Goodwin 1957, p. 110
  7. ^ Goodwin 1957, p. 110
  8. ^ Bell 1972, pp. 224
  9. ^ Goodwin 1957, p. 110
  10. ^ Mansa Musa, African History Restored, 2008, retrieved 2008-09-29
  11. ^ De Villiers, Marq and Hirtle, Sheila. Timbuktu: Sahara’s Fabled City of Gold. Walker and Company: New York. 2007. Pp. 70.
  12. ^ Ibid, pp. 74.
  13. ^ Ibid, pp. 87-88.
  14. ^ Goodwin 1957, p. 111
  15. ^ De Villiers, Marq and Hirtle, Sheila, pp. 80-81.
  16. ^ Levtzion 1963, pp. 349–350
  17. ^ Bell 1972, p. 224
  18. ^ Levtzion 1963, pp. 349–350
  19. ^ Bell 1972, pp. 224–225
  20. ^ Sid Meier's Civilization IV, IGN Entertainment

Bibliography

Preceded by Mansa of the Mali Empire
1312–1337 		Succeeded by
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