Mansa Musa
Mansa Musa[a] (reigned c. 1312 – c. 1337[b]) was the ninth[4] Mansa of the Mali Empire, which reached its territorial peak during his reign. Musa's reign is often regarded as the zenith of Mali's power and prestige.
Musa I
He was extremely wealthy; it has been suggested that he was the wealthiest person in history,[5] but the extent of his actual wealth is not known with any certainty. It is known from local manuscripts and travellers accounts that Mansa Musa's wealth came principally from the Mali Empire controlling and taxing the trade in salt from northern regions and especially from gold panned and mined in the gold-rich regions to the south: Bambuk, Wangara, Bure, Galam, Taghaza and other such kingdoms over many centuries. Over a very long period Mali had created a large reserve of gold. Mali is also suspected to have been involved in the trade in many goods such as ivory, slaves, spices, silks, and ceramics. However presently little is known about the extent or mechanics of these trades.[6][7] At the time of Musa's ascension to the throne, Mali in large part consisted of the territory of the former Ghana Empire, which Mali had conquered. The Mali Empire consisted of land that is now part of Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, the Gambia, and the modern state of Mali.
Musa went on Hajj to Mecca in 1324, traveling with an enormous entourage and a vast supply of gold. En route, he spent time in Cairo, where his lavish gift-giving is said to have noticeably affected the value of gold in Egypt and garnered the attention of the wider Muslim world. Musa expanded the borders of the Mali Empire, in particular incorporating the cities of Gao and Timbuktu into its territory. He sought closer ties with the rest of the Muslim world, particularly the Mamluk and Marinid Sultanates. 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. His reign is associated with numerous construction projects, including a portion of Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu.
Name and titles[edit]
Mansa Musa's personal name was Musa (Arabic: موسى, romanized: Mūsá), the name of Moses in Islam.[8] Mansa, 'ruler'[9] or 'king'[10] in Mandé, was the title of the ruler of the Mali Empire. In oral tradition and the Timbuktu Chronicles, Musa is further known as Kanku Musa.[11][c] In Mandé 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.[13] He is also called Hiji Mansa Musa in oral tradition because he made hajj.[14]
Al-Yafii gave Musa's name as Musa ibn Abi Bakr ibn Abi al-Aswad (Arabic: موسى بن أبي بكر بن أبي الأسود, romanized: Mūsā ibn Abī Bakr ibn Abī al-Aswad),[15] and ibn Hajar gave Musa's name as Musa ibn Abi Bakr Salim al-Takruri.[16]
In the Songhai language, rulers of Mali such as Musa were known as the Mali-koi, koi being a title that conveyed authority over a region: in other words, the "ruler of Mali".[17]
Historical sources[edit]
Much of what is known about Musa comes from Arabic sources written after his hajj, especially the writings of Al-Umari and Ibn Khaldun. While in Cairo during his hajj, Musa befriended officials such as Ibn Amir Hajib, who learned about him and his country from him and later passed on that information to historians such as Al-Umari.[18] Additional information comes from two 17th-century manuscripts written in Timbuktu, the Tarikh Ibn al-Mukhtar[d] and the Tarikh al-Sudan.[20] Oral tradition, as performed by the jeliw (sg. jeli), also known as griots, includes relatively little information about Musa compared to some other parts of the history of Mali.[20]
Early reign[edit]
Musa was a young man when he became Mansa, possibly in his early twenties.[39] Given the grandeur of his subsequent hajj, it is likely that Musa spent much of his early reign preparing for it.[40] Among these preparations would likely have been raids to capture and enslave people from neighboring lands, as Musa's entourage would include many thousands of slaves; the historian Michael Gomez estimates that Mali may have captured over 6,000 slaves per year for this purpose.[41] Perhaps because of this, Musa's early reign was spent in continuous military conflict with neighboring non-Muslim societies.[41] In 1324, while in Cairo, Musa said that he had conquered 24 cities and their surrounding districts.[42]
Later reign[edit]
Construction in Mali[edit]
Musa embarked on a large building program, raising mosques and madrasas in Timbuktu and Gao. Most notably, the ancient center of learning Sankore Madrasah (or University of Sankore) was constructed during his reign.[63]
In Niani, Musa built the Hall of Audience, a building communicating by an interior door to the royal palace. It was "an admirable Monument", surmounted by a dome and adorned with arabesques of striking colours. The wooden window frames of an upper storey were plated with silver foil; those of a lower storey with 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 Mali. Sergio Domian, an Italian scholar of art and architecture, wrote of 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."[64]