Kingdom of Mali
Document 1
At its peak (1200-1300), the Mali Empire covered an area that encompassed
significant portions of the present-day country of Mali, southern and western Mauritania
and Senegal. Note that the old kingdom of Mali is not the present-day country of Mali.
The few written accounts about ancient Mali were recorded by Arab travelers and
scholars. One of the most famous travelogues is Rihlah by the African-born Ibn Battuta,
a great Arab traveler of the time. Although other written accounts of the ancient West
African empires exist, Ibn Battuta is one of the few who actually traveled to this area
and wrote from personal experience.
Oral sources of African history include the epic poem "Sundiata" which chronicles the
life of Sundiata Keita, the son of the king who defeated the Ghana king Sumanguru and
founded the empire of Mali.
The acceptance of Islam by the rulers of Mali encouraged trade between the empires
and North Africa. The introduction of Islam also instituted more cosmopolitan social
structures, such as universities, world religions and, especially, centralized state systems
and military forces.
At its peak, the Mali Empire extended across West Africa to the Atlantic Ocean and
incorporated an estimated 40 to 50 million people. The administration of such an
enormous territory was formidable and relied on the establishment of a government
sensitive to the diversity of the land, population and cultures and accepting of the
indigenous rulers and their customs. What distinguished the empires of West Africa, was
their ability to centralize political and military power while allowing the local rulers to
maintain their identities alongside Islam.
The wealth of the Mali Empire is illustrated by the Mali emperor Mansa Musa's
pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. His entourage reportedly included thousands of soldiers,
officials and attendants, 100 camels each carrying 300 pounds of gold, and 500 maids
and slaves to serve Mansa Musa's senior wife. Once in Egypt, Mansa Musa paid homage
to the sultan with gifts of gold. He distributed so much gold that its value was decreased
by 10 to 25 percent.
Commerce promoted the development of public works, including the building of
social and religious structures. The imperial rulers ordered mosques constructed and
palaces converted into mosques. Mosques were often identified with the cities where
they were built and the rulers who commissioned their construction.
Using established building techniques, architects and builders increased the size of
the mosques to accommodate a larger Muslim population and underscore the
importance of Islam. The cities of Gao, Djenne and Timbuktu boasted large mosques.
Mosques were constructed from specially prepared mixtures of mud. The annual
maintenance of the mosque requires thousands of men climb the walls and replaster the
cracks in the walls. Left unattended, the mosque would deteriorate rapidly.
Article titled “Mali Empire” from the Smithsonian Institution (Africa.si.edu). No author listed
Document 2
Mali was a trading empire that flourished in West Africa from the 13th to the 16th century.
The Mali empire developed from the state of Kangaba, on the Upper Niger River east of the Fouta
Djallon, and is said to have been founded before AD 1000. The Malinke inhabitants of Kangaba acted
as middlemen in the gold trade during the later period of ancient Ghana. Their dislike of the Susu
chief Sumanguru’s harsh but ineffective rule provoked the Malinke to revolt, and in 1230 Sundiata,
the brother of Kangaba’s fugitive ruler, won a decisive victory against the Susu chief.
In extending Mali’s rule beyond Kangaba’s narrow confines, Sundiata set a precedent for successive
emperors. Imperial armies secured the gold-bearing lands of Bondu and Bambuk to the south,
subdued the Diara in the northwest, and pushed along the Niger as far north as Lac Débo. Under
Mansa Mūsā (1307–32?) Mali rose to the apogee of its power. He controlled the lands of the Middle
Niger, absorbed into his empire the trading cities of Timbuktu and Gao, and imposed his rule on such
south Saharan cities as Walata and on the Taghaza region of salt deposits to the north. He extended
the eastern boundaries of his empire as far as the Hausa people, and to the west he invaded Takrur
and the lands of the Fulani and Tukulor peoples. In Morocco, Egypt, and elsewhere he sent
ambassadors and imperial agents and on his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca (1324) established
Egyptian scholars in both Timbuktu and Gao.
By the 14th century the Dyula, or Wangara, as the Muslim traders of Mali came to be called, were
active throughout West Africa. The tide that had carried Mali to success, however, impelled it also to
decline. The empire outgrew its political and military strength: Gao rebelled; the Tuareg seized
Walata and Timbuktu (1431); the peoples of Takrur and their neighbours (notably the Wolof) threw off
their subjection; and the Mossi (in what is now Burkina Faso) began to harass their Mali overlord. By
about 1550 Mali had ceased to be important as a political entity.
From article titled “Mali” from Encyclopedia Britannica (www.britannica.com). No author listed.
Document 3
The Mali Empire flourished because of trade above all else. It contained three immense gold mines
within its borders – unlike the Ghana Empire, which was only a transit point for gold. The empire
taxed every ounce of gold or salt that entered its borders. By the beginning of the fourteenth century,
Mali was the source of almost half the Old World's gold. There was no standard currency throughout
the realm, but several forms were prominent by region.
The most common measure for gold within the realm was the ambiguous mithqal (4.5 grams of gold).
This term was used interchangeably with dinar, though it is unclear if coined currency was used in the
empire. Gold dust was used all over the empire, but was not valued equally in all regions.
The next great unit of exchange in the Mali Empire was salt. Salt was as valuable, if not more
valuable, than gold in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was cut into pieces and spent on goods with close to
equal buying power throughout the empire. While it was as good as gold in the north, it was even
better in the south. The people of the south needed salt for their diet, but it was extremely rare. The
northern region on the other hand had no shortage of salt. Every year merchants entered Mali via
Oualata with camel loads of salt to sell in Niani. According to historians of the period, a camel load of
salt could fetch ten dinars worth of gold in the north and 20 to 40 in the south.
Copper was also a valued commodity in imperial Mali. Copper, traded in bars, was mined from
Takedda in the north and traded in the south for gold. Contemporary sources claim 60 copper bars
traded for 100 dinars of gold.
The Mali Empire maintained a professional, full-time army in order to defend its borders. The entire
nation was mobilized with each tribe obligated to provide a quota of fighting age men. Contemporary
historians present during the height and decline of the Mali Empire consistently record its army at
100,000 with 10,000 of that number being made up of cavalry. With the help of the river tribes, this
army could be deployed throughout the realm on short notice.
By 1350, the empire covered approximately 439,400 square miles. The empire ruled over 400 cities,
towns and villages of various religions and ethnicities. Scholars of the era claim it took no less than a
year to traverse the empire from east to west. During this period only the Mongol Empire was larger.
The legacy of the Mali Empire is that of a sophisticated polity with institutions that were at least the
equal of any elsewhere in the world at the time. Timbuktu was a flourishing center of learning to which
scholars traveled and whose graduates taught elsewhere in the Muslim world. It was a sisteracademy of those in Fez, Cairo and Cordoba. The Mali Empire possessed a vibrant economy and
may even have sent ships across the Atlantic to engage in trade. At a time when few such institutions
existed elsewhere, it had a representative assembly that played a vital and significant role in the
Empire's governance. At a time when many of the world's emperors ruled with absolute, unchecked
power, a system of checks and balances existed in this African polity.
"Mali Empire." New World Encyclopedia, posted 11 Sep 2014, www.newworldencyclopedia.org
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Portrayal of Mansa Musa in the Catalan Atlas.