Mansa Musa

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Mansa MusaTemplate:Efn (reigned Template:Circa Template:Efn) was the ninth<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> 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, although he features less in Mandinka oral traditions than his predecessors.

He was exceptionally wealthy<ref name="natgeo">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to an extent that he was described as being inconceivably rich by contemporaries; Time magazine reported: "There's really no way to put an accurate number on his wealth."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> It is known from local manuscripts and travellers' accounts that Mansa Musa's wealth came principally from the Mali Empire's control and taxing of the trade in salt from northern regions and especially from gold panned and mined in Bambuk and Bure to the south. Over a very long period Mali had amassed a large reserve of gold. Mali is also believed 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.<ref name="natgeo" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> At the time of Musa's ascension to the throne, Mali consisted largely of the territory of the former Ghana Empire, which had become a vassal of Mali. The Mali Empire comprised 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 titlesEdit

Mansa Musa's personal name was Musa (Template:Langx), the name of Moses in Islam.Template:Sfn Mansa, 'ruler'<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> or 'king'<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>Template:Efn In Mandé tradition, it was common for one's name to be prefixed by his mother's name, so the name Kanku Musa means "Musa, son of Kanku", although it is unclear whether the genealogy implied is literal.Template:Sfn Al-Yafii gave Musa's name as Musa ibn Abi Bakr ibn Abi al-Aswad (Template:Langx),Template:Sfn and ibn Hajar gave Musa's name as Musa ibn Abi Bakr Salim al-Takruri (Template:Langx).Template:Sfn

Musa is often given the title Hajji in oral tradition because he made hajj.Template:Sfn 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".<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Historical sourcesEdit

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 that knowledge to historians such as Al-Umari.Template:Sfn Additional information comes from two 17th-century manuscripts written in Timbuktu, the Tarikh Ibn al-MukhtarTemplate:Efn and the Tarikh al-Sudan.Template:Sfn Oral tradition, as performed by the jeliw (Template:Singular jeli), also known as griots, includes relatively little information about Musa relative to some other parts of the history of Mali, with his predecessor conquerors receiving more prominence.Template:Sfnm

LineageEdit

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According to Djibril Tamsir Niane, Musa's father was named Faga LeyeTemplate:Sfn and his mother may have been named Kanku.Template:Efn Faga Leye was the son of Abu Bakr, a brother of Sunjata, the first mansa of the Mali Empire.Template:Sfn Ibn Khaldun does not mention Faga Leye, referring to Musa as Musa ibn Abu Bakr. This can be interpreted as either "Musa son of Abu Bakr" or "Musa descendant of Abu Bakr." It is implausible that Abu Bakr was Musa's father, due to the amount of time between Sunjata's reign and Musa's.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>Template:Sfn

Ibn Battuta, who visited Mali during the reign of Musa's brother Sulayman, said that Musa's grandfather was named Sariq Jata.Template:Sfn Sariq Jata may be another name for Sunjata, who was actually Musa's great-uncle.Template:Sfn This, along with Ibn Khaldun's use of the name 'Musa ibn Abu Bakr' prompted historian Francois-Xavier Fauvelle to propose that Musa was in fact the son of Abu Bakr I, a grandson of Sunjata through his daughter. Later attempts to erase this possibly illegitimate succession through the female line led to the confusion in the sources over Musa's parentage.Template:Sfn Hostility towards Musa's branch of the Keita dynasty would also explain his relative absence from or scathing treatment by oral histories.Template:Sfn

Early life and accession to powerEdit

The date of Musa's birth is unknown, but he appears to have been a young man in 1324.Template:Sfn The Tarikh al-fattash claims that Musa accidentally killed Kanku at some point prior to his hajj.Template:Sfn

Musa ascended to power in the early 1300sTemplate:Efn under unclear circumstances. According to Musa's own account, his predecessor as Mansa of Mali, presumably Muhammad ibn Qu,<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> launched two expeditions to explore the Atlantic Ocean (200 ships for the first exploratory mission and 2,000 ships for the second). The Mansa led the second expedition himself and appointed Musa as his deputy to rule the empire until he returned.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> When he did not return, Musa was crowned as mansa himself, marking a transfer of the line of succession from the descendants of Sunjata to the descendants of his brother Abu Bakr.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Some modern historians have cast doubt on Musa's version of events, suggesting he may have deposed his predecessor and devised the story about the voyage to explain how he took power.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Nonetheless, the possibility of such a voyage has been taken seriously by several historians.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Early reignEdit

Musa was a young man when he became Mansa, possibly in his early twenties.Template:Sfn Given the grandeur of his subsequent hajj, it is likely that Musa spent much of his early reign preparing for it.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Perhaps because of this, Musa's early reign was spent in continuous military conflict with neighboring non-Muslim societies.Template:Sfn In 1324, while in Cairo, Musa said that he had conquered 24 cities and their surrounding districts.<ref>Template:Harvnb, translated in Template:Harvnb</ref>

Pilgrimage to MeccaEdit

File:Mansa Moussa on the map of Angelino Dulcert.jpg

Mansa Moussa (Rex Melly) on the map of Angelino Dulcert (1339)

Musa was a Muslim, and his hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, made him well known across North Africa and the Middle East. To Musa, Islam was "an entry into the cultured world of the Eastern Mediterranean".<ref name=Goodwin110>Template:Harvnb.</ref> He would have spent much time fostering the growth of the religion within his empire. When Musa departed Mali for the Hajj, he left his son Muhammad to rule in his absence.<ref>Template:Harvnb, translated in Template:Harvnb</ref>

Musa made his pilgrimage between 1324 and 1325, spanning 2700 miles.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name= Bakewell>Template:Cite book</ref> His procession reportedly included upwards of 12,000 slaves, all wearing brocade and Yemeni silkTemplate:Sfn and each carrying Template:Convert of gold bars, with heralds dressed in silks bearing gold staffs organizing horses and handling bags.Template:Cn

Musa provided all necessities for the procession, feeding the entire company of men and animals.<ref name=Goodwin110 /> Those animals included 80 camels, which each carried Template:Convert of gold dust. Musa gave the 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. It was reported that he built a mosque every Friday.<ref name="Bell 1972"/> Shihab al-Din al-'Umari, who visited Cairo shortly after Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca, noted that it was "a lavish display of power, wealth, and unprecedented by its size and pageantry".<ref>The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa By Patricia McKissack, Fredrick McKissack Page 60</ref> Musa made a major point of showing off his nation's wealth.

Musa and his entourage arrived at the outskirts of Cairo in July 1324. They camped for three days by the Pyramids of Giza before crossing the Nile into Cairo on 19 July.Template:Efn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn While in Cairo, Musa met with the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, whose reign had already seen one mansa, Sakura, make the Hajj. Al-Nasir expected Musa to prostrate himself before him, which Musa initially refused to do. When Musa did finally bow he said he was doing so for God alone.Template:Sfn

Despite this initial awkwardness, the two rulers got along well and exchanged gifts. Musa and his entourage gave and spent freely while in Cairo. Musa stayed in the Qarafa district of Cairo and befriended its governor, ibn Amir Hajib, who learned much about Mali from him. Musa stayed in Cairo for three months, departing on 18 OctoberTemplate:Efn with the official caravan to Mecca.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Musa's generosity continued as he traveled onward to Mecca, and he gave gifts to fellow pilgrims and the people of Medina and Mecca. While in Mecca, conflict broke out between a group of Malian pilgrims and a group of Turkic pilgrims in the Masjid al-Haram. Swords were drawn, but before the situation escalated further, Musa persuaded his men to back down.Template:Sfn

Musa and his entourage lingered in Mecca after the last day of the Hajj. Traveling separately from the main caravan, their return journey to Cairo was struck by catastrophe. By the time they reached Suez, many of the Malian pilgrims had died of cold, starvation, or bandit raids, and they had lost much of their supplies.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Having run out of money, Musa and his entourage were forced to borrow money and resell much of what they had purchased while in Cairo before the Hajj, and Musa went into debt to several merchants such as Siraj al-Din. However, Al-Nasir Muhammad returned Musa's earlier show of generosity with gifts of his own.Template:Sfn

On his return journey, Musa met the Andalusi poet Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, whose eloquence and knowledge of jurisprudence impressed him, and whom he convinced to travel with him to Mali.Template:Sfn Other scholars Musa brought to Mali included Maliki jurists.<ref>Template:Harvnb, translated in Template:Harvnb</ref>

According to the Tarikh al-Sudan, the cities of Gao and Timbuktu submitted to Musa's rule as he traveled through on his return to Mali.<ref>Template:Harvnb, translated in Template:Harvnb</ref> It is unlikely, however, that a group of pilgrims, even if armed, would have been able to conquer a wealthy and powerful city.Template:Sfn According to one account given by ibn Khaldun, Musa's general Saghmanja conquered Gao. The other account claims that Gao had been conquered during the reign of Mansa Sakura.<ref>Template:Harvnb, translated in Template:Harvnb</ref> Mali's control of Gao may have been weak, requiring powerful mansas to reassert their authority periodically,Template:Sfn or it might simply be an error on the part of al-Sadi, author of the Tarikh.Template:Sfn

Later reignEdit

Construction in MaliEdit

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Bsn

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."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Better source needed

Economy and educationEdit

File:Djingareiber cour.jpg

The Djinguereber Mosque, commissioned by Mansa Musa in 1327

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.Template:Sfn

Timbuktu soon became the center of trade, culture, and Islam; markets brought in merchants from Hausaland, 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

The University of Sankore in Timbuktu was restaffed under Musa's reign with jurists, astronomers, and mathematicians.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref> 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, built a rampart and stone fort, and placed a standing army to protect the city from future invaders.Template:Sfn While Musa's palace has since vanished, the university and mosque still stand in Timbuktu.

DeathEdit

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The Mali Empire at the time of Musa's death

The date of Mansa Musa's death is uncertain. 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.Template:Sfn However, Ibn Khaldun also reports that Musa sent an envoy to congratulate Abu al-Hasan Ali for his conquest of Tlemcen, which took place in May 1337, but by the time Abu al-Hasan sent an envoy in response, Musa had died and Suleyman was on the throne, suggesting Musa died in 1337.Template:Sfn In contrast, al-Umari, writing twelve years after Musa's hajj, in approximately 1337,Template:Sfn claimed that Musa returned to Mali intending to abdicate and return to live in Mecca but died before he could do so,Template:Sfn suggesting he died even earlier than 1332.Template:Sfn It is possible that it was actually Musa's son Maghan who congratulated Abu al-Hasan, or Maghan who received Abu al-Hasan's envoy after Musa's death.Template:Sfn The latter possibility is corroborated by Ibn Khaldun calling Suleyman Musa's son in that passage, suggesting he may have confused Musa's brother Suleyman with Musa's son Maghan.Template:Sfn Alternatively, it is possible that the four-year reign Ibn Khaldun credits Maghan with actually referred to his ruling Mali while Musa was away on the hajj, and he only reigned briefly in his own right.Template:Sfn Nehemia Levtzion regarded 1337 as the most likely date,Template:Sfn which has been accepted by other scholars.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

LegacyEdit

Musa's reign is commonly regarded as Mali's golden age, but this perception may be the result of his reign being the best recorded by Arabic sources, rather than him necessarily being the wealthiest and most powerful mansa of Mali.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

Musa is less renowned in Mandé oral tradition as performed by the jeliw.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> He is criticized for being unfaithful to tradition, and some of the jeliw regard Musa as having wasted Mali's wealth.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn However, some aspects of Musa appear to have been incorporated into a figure in Mandé oral tradition known as Fajigi, which translates as "father of hope".Template:Sfn Fajigi is remembered as having traveled to Mecca to retrieve ceremonial objects known as boliw, which feature in Mandé traditional religion.Template:Sfn As Fajigi, Musa is sometimes conflated with a figure in oral tradition named Fakoli, who is best known as Sunjata's top general.Template:Sfn The figure of Fajigi combines both Islam and traditional beliefs.Template:Sfn

The name "Musa" has become virtually synonymous with pilgrimage in Mandé tradition, such that other figures who are remembered as going on a pilgrimage, such as Fakoli, are also called Musa.Template:Sfn

WealthEdit

Mansa Musa is renowned for his wealth and generosity. While online articles in the 21st century have claimed that Mansa Musa was the richest person of all time,Template:Sfn historians such as Hadrien Collet have argued that Musa's wealth is impossible to calculate accurately.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Contemporary Arabic sources may have been trying to express that Musa had more gold than they thought possible, rather than trying to give an exact number.Template:Sfn Further, it is difficult meaningfully to compare the wealth of historical figures such as Mansa Musa, due both to the difficulty of separating the personal wealth of a monarch from the wealth of the state and to the difficulty of comparing wealth across highly different societies.Template:Sfn Musa may have taken as much as 18 tons of gold on his hajj,Template:Sfn equal in value to over US$1.397 billion in 2024.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Musa himself further promoted the appearance of having vast, inexhaustible wealth by spreading rumors that gold grew like a plant in his kingdom.Template:Sfn

According to some Arabic writers, Musa's gift-giving caused a depreciation in the value of gold in Egypt. Al-Umari said that before Musa's arrival a mithqal of gold was worth 25 silver dirhams, but that it dropped to less than 22 dirhams afterward and did not go above that number for at least twelve years.Template:Sfn Though this has been described as having "wrecked" Egypt's economy,Template:Sfn the historian Warren Schultz has argued that this was well within normal fluctuations in the value of gold in Mamluk Egypt.Template:Sfn

The wealth of the Mali Empire did not come from direct control of gold-producing regions, but rather trade and tribute.Template:Sfn The gold Musa brought on his pilgrimage probably represented years of accumulated tribute that Musa would have spent much of his early reign gathering.Template:Sfn Another source of income for Mali during Musa's reign was taxation of the copper trade.Template:Sfn

According to several contemporary authors, such as Ibn Battuta, Ibn al-Dawadari and al-Umari, Mansa Musa ran out of money during his journey to Mecca and had to borrow from Egyptian merchants at a high rate of interest on his return journey. Al-Umari and Ibn Khaldun state that the moneylenders were either never repaid or only partly repaid. Other sources disagree as to whether they were eventually and fully compensated.<ref>Template:Harvnb "When Mansa Musa first arrived in Cairo he ‘and his followers bought all kinds of things … they thought that their money was inexhaustible.’ By the time they left for Mali a year later, they had to borrow the very resources they initially spent, as Ibn al-Dawadari relates: ‘Then these people became amazed at the ampleness of this country and how their money had become used up. So they became needy and resold what they had bought at half its value, and people made good profits out of them. And God knows best.’ […] Abu l-Hasan Ali b. Amir Hajib, who had befriended Mansa Musa, told al-Umari the former was forced to borrow money from Egyptian merchants (at) ‘a very high rate’ … ‘Avaricious people lent to them in the hope of big profits on their return [that is, to Mali], but everything they borrowed fell back on the heads of the lenders and they got nothing back. Among these was our friend the shaykh and imam Shams al-Din b. Tazmart al-maghribi. He lent them gold of good form but none of it came back.’… Ibn Khaldun records that the ‘Banu l-Kuwaykh’, or his family, were among those who loaned money to Musa, in this case 50,000 dinars. In partial repayment, Musa sold to Siraj al-Din the ‘palace’ given to him by the sultan al-Nasir, but to recover the entire amount, Siraj al-Din sent agents to Mali, later followed by his son Fakhr al-Din Abu Jafar. Other moneylenders did the same, and the sources disagree as to whether they were all eventually and fully compensated."</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

CharacterEdit

Arabic writers, such as Ibn Battuta and Abdallah ibn Asad al-Yafii, praised Musa's generosity, virtue, and intelligence.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Ibn Khaldun said that he "was an upright man and a great king, and tales of his justice are still told."Template:Sfn

FootnotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

External linksEdit

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Mansa Musa I at World History Encyclopedia
Mansa Moussa: Pilgrimage of Gold (archived) at History Channel's History.com
Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa at Northwestern University's Block Museum of Art

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