Mansa Musa -- Mali

Musa I, commonly referred to as Mansa Musa, was the tenth mansa, ("king of kings" or "emperor"), of the Malian Empire.  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.  His leadership of Mali, a state that stretched across two thousand miles from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Chad, ensured decades of peace and prosperity in Western Africa.  

He was the wealthiest ruler of his day and perhaps the wealthiest ruler in human history.  Musa was referred to 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 names are Mali-koy Kankan Musa, Gonga Musa and the Lion of Mali.  What is known about the kings of the Malian Empire is taken from the writings of Arab scholars, Mansa Musa's grandfather was Abu-Bakr, a brother of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Malian Empire as recorded through oral histories.  

Abu-Bakr did not ascend to the throne, and his son, Musa's father, Faga Laye, has no significance in the History of Mali.  Mansa Musa came to the throne through a practice of appointing a deputy when a king goes on his pilgrimage to Mecca or some other endeavour, and later naming the deputy as heir.  Musa was appointed deputy of the king before him, who had embarked on an expedition to explore the limits of the Atlantic ocean and never returned.  The Arab-Egyptian scholar Al-Umari quotes Mansa Musa as follows:

The ruler who preceded me did not believe that it was impossible to reach the extremity of the ocean that encircles the earth (meaning the Atlantic).  He wanted to reach that (end) and was determined to pursue his plan.  So he equipped two hundred boats full of men, and many others full of gold, water and provisions sufficient for several years.  He ordered the captain not to return until they had reached the other end of the ocean, or until he had exhausted the provisions and water so they set out on their journey. 

They were absent for a long period, and, at last just one boat returned, when questioned the captain replied: 'O Prince, we navigated for a long period, until we saw in the midst of the ocean a great river which flowing massively.  My boat was the last one; others were ahead of me, and they were drowned in the great whirlpool and never came out again, I sailed back to escape this current' but the Sultan would not believe him.  He ordered two thousand boats to be equipped for him and his men, and one thousand more for water and provisions.  Then he conferred the regency on me for the term of his absence, and departed with his men, never to return nor to give a sign of life.

Musa's son and successor, Mansa Magha, was appointed deputy during Musa's pilgrimage, Musa was a devout Muslim and his pilgrimage to Mecca, made him well-known across northern Africa and the Middle East.  To Musa, Islam was the foundation of the "cultured world of the Eastern Mediterranean". Musa made his pilgrimage in 1324, a four thousand mile journey, his procession was reported to include 70,000 men, who all carried 4-lb gold bars, heralds dressed in silks who bore gold staffs, organised transportation.  Musa provided all necessities for the procession, feeding the entire company of men and animals, in the train were 80 camels, which carried between 50 and 300 pounds of gold dust each.  He gave away gold to the poor he met along his route, Musa not only gave to the cities he passed on the way to Mecca, including Cairo and Medina, but also traded gold for souvenirs. Furthermore, it has been recorded that he built a mosque each and every Friday.

He is known to have visited with the Mamluk sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad of Egypt in July 1324.  Musa's generous actions, 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, to stabilise 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.  

During his long return journey from Mecca in 1325, Musa heard news that his army recaptured Gao, Sagmandia one of his generals, had led the expedition.  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 to the city where he received, the two sons of the Gao king as hostages, Ali Kolon and Suleiman Nar. He returned to Niani with the two boys and later educated them at his court.

When Mansa Musa returned, he brought back many Arabian scholars and architects, Musa embarked on a large building program, raising mosques and madrasas in Timbuktu and Gao.  The famous ancient centre of learning Sankore Madrasah or University of Sankore was constructed during his reign.  In Niani, he built the Hall of Audience, a building connected by an interior door to the royal palace.  Its 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. 

There was an advanced level of urban living in the major centres of the Mali, Sergio Domian, an Italian art and architecture scholar, wrote "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." It is recorded that Mansa Musa travelled 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, and Cairo to build his grand palace in Timbuktu and the great Djinguereber Mosque that still stands today.

Timbuktu soon became a center of trade, culture and Islam, the markets brought in merchants from Nigeria, Egypt, and other African kingdoms, a university was founded in the city and in the Malian cities of Djenné and Ségou.  Islam was spread through the markets and university, making Timbuktu a new area for Islamic scholarship.  News of the Malian empire’s city of wealth travelled across the Mediterranean to southern Europe, where traders from Venice, Granada, and Genoa soon added Timbuktu to their maps for trade in manufactured goods for gold.  The University of Sankoré in Timbuktu had new jurists, astronomers, and mathematicians under Musa's reign.  

The university became a centre of learning and culture, drawing Muslim scholars from all 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, he placed a standing army, to protect the city from any future invaders.  While Musa’s palace has since vanished, the university and mosque still stand in Timbuktu today.

One account declares Musa planned to abdicate the throne to his son Maghan, but he died in 1325.  However, 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.  Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca brought Mali to the attention of Europe, and for the next two centuries Italian, German, and Spanish cartographers produced maps of the world which showed Mali and which often referenced Mansa Musa, the first of these maps appeared in Italy in 1339 with Mansa Musa’s name and likeness.

There is gathering evidence that in 1312 Abubakari II landed on the coast of Brazil in the place known today as Recife, its other name is Purnanbuco.  Christopher Columbus on his arrival in the Americas recorded seeing black traders already present, he also recorded seeing a building which looked like a mosque.  It is said that Columbus was accompanied by an African, Pedro Alonso Nino also known as El Negro, who helped him to navigate the Atlantic Ocean. 

There are numerous archaeological sites in America that attest to a Malian presence.  Early Spanish explorers and pirates recorded abandoned cities in Brazil that had inscriptions identical to the language of the Mandinka.  Other inscriptions in the Mandinka language were found in the United States near the Mississippi River.