Mansa Musa and the Empire of Mali Read online

  Ibn Khaldun – The greatest of the Arab historians (1332 – 1406), he wrote a chronicle of the empires of the Western Sudan using information he gathered from written records, interviews and, importantly, from the oral traditions of many different Sudanese peoples. Because Ibn Khaldun, alone among the Arab writers, included information from the oral traditions, he was better able to connect specific events and place them in context. According to Nehemia Levtzion (Ancient Ghana and Mali), this allowed him to write a history of West Africa’s great empires that moved across the centuries in a dynamic, living way. His work is, therefore, an important link between the written records and the oral traditions of West Africa.

  Ināri Kunāte – Mansa Musa’s senior wife. She accompanied him on his pilgrimage to Mecca.

  Islam – The world religion founded by the Prophet Muhammad.

  Kaaba / Ka’ba / Ka’bah – The Islamic shrine in Mecca that contains the Sacred Black Stone.

  King Assibai – The Songhai king whom Mali’s forces defeated and from whom Mansa Musa received a statement of submission.

  Kola nuts – Gathered from the kola trees that grew wild in the equatorial forests of southern West Africa, kola nuts were a valuable export during the Middle Ages. They are rich in stimulating alkaloids such as caffeine and have a bitter taste that relieves thirst. Highly prized in Arab communities, they were an important symbol of hospitality throughout the Sahel, the Sahara, North Africa and beyond. As with gold, Mali benefited financially from its role as middleman in the kola nut trade.

  By the late 1900s, kola nuts had found their way around the world as an ingredient in Coca-Cola. However, the 1998 Encyclopedia Britannica states that “American and European soft-drink manufacturers do not use the kola nut; instead, they manufacture synthetic chemicals that resemble the flavour of the kola nut.”

  Koran / Qur’an – The Muslim holy book. It is revered as the Word of God and accepted by Muslims as the foundation of Islamic culture, law, commerce, political practices and religious beliefs.

  Koranic schools – Traditionally, a first school for children in Islamic societies. The school teaches reading, writing, and sometimes arithmetic, but its emphasis is on studying and memorizing the Koran. In order to complete the school’s curriculum, a child must memorize the entire Koran.

  Lhote, Henri – A French explorer and ethnologist who, in 1956, discovered the Tassili n’ Ajjer rock paintings and oversaw a group of artists who spent 16 months camped atop the Tassili Plateau meticulously reproducing the rock paintings.

  Mandingo / Mandinka / Malinke – The founders and core population of the Empire of Mali.

  Mansa – A Sudanese word meaning “emperor.” It is sometimes translated as “king” or “sultan.”

  Mansa Kankan Musa – The Empire of Mali’s greatest and most famous emperor. He ruled for 25 years from 1307 – 1332 (or 1312 - 1337).

  Mansa Maghan – Mansa Musa’s son and his successor to the throne of Mali.

  Mansa Sulayman – Mansa Musa’s brother. He became the Emperor of Mali following the death, often thought to be the result of foul play, of Mansa Maghan.

  Mecca / Makkah – The holy city of Islam. Mecca is the destination of all Muslim pilgrims and the place toward which Muslims face when they pray. It is the site of the Kaaba, the Mount of Mercy, and other important religious sites.

  Medina / Madinah – The city’s name means “City of the Prophet.” Muhammad fled to, governed, and gained a large following in Medina. Most pilgrims include a visit to Medina, which is located only 250 or so miles from Mecca, and its famous Mosque of the Prophet in their pilgrimage plans.

  Moor – A member of a Muslim people of mixed Berber and Arab descent. During the time of Mansa Musa, there were many Moors, like his friend As-Sāhilī, living in Spain.

  Mosque – An Islamic place of public worship.

  Mosque of Sankoré – The mosque Mansa Musa commissioned As-Sāhilī to build in Timbuktu. It became the first home of the University of Sankoré.

  Mud Architecture – There are only three standard methods of building with mud—pisé de terre, coursing or puddling, and building with sun-dried mud bricks—but there are a great many architectural styles used.

  One and a half billion20 of the world’s people live in houses made of mud. Stretching from the high deserts of China, through India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, across the Middle East and west across the great Sahara and Sahel of Africa is an enormous expanse of very dry land. After leaping over the Atlantic, this huge crescent-shaped swath of desert continues on across northern Mexico and into the United States’ Southwest.

  A stylish red mud house in Mali

  A small mosque in Mali

  Small huts connected so as to create a communal courtyard and protective exterior wall

  An ivory-colored mud house in Mali

  The walls of a well-built mud house are thick, up to two feet thick. During a long, scorchingly hot day, the interior of the house stays cool because it takes so many hours for the sun’s heat to penetrate the thick walls. At night, when the thin desert air becomes cold, the now thoroughly warm walls slowly release their heat into the home. So, although the temperature outside the home swings wildly, the temperature inside the house remains “remarkably constant.”21

  The Great Mosque of Djenné is the largest and most famous mud building in existence. Its construction features two spiral staircases that reach from the ground to the roof (about 40 feet), over one hundred equally tall columns, three massive towers, and tremendous, thick, side walls—all of which are made of mud. Thousands of sun-dried bricks, tons of thick mud for mortar, hundreds of gallons of finer mud for plastering, and very fine mud (clay) to make kiln fired items such as drainage pipes were used to construct this immense mosque.

  Muhammad – The founder of Islam.

  Muslim – A believer in Islam. The word means “one who surrenders to God.”

  Nasir, al-Malik an- / An-Nasir Muhammad/Al-Nasir Muhammad – The Sultan of Egypt whom Mansa Musa met in Cairo. He is remembered as one of the greatest of the Mamluk sultans.

  Niani – The capital of the Empire of Mali and an important cultural and commercial center. It was close to the early gold fields, had the fertile plains of the Sankari River as its agricultural base, and enough iron ore in its soil to supply a number of iron-smelting furnaces. In addition, the city was located deep within Mali on a site that was easy to defend.

  Niger River – A long, important river that flowed through the heart of Mali’s Empire. It was the principal artery of Mali’s east-west trade and communication systems and was vital to the empire’s agricultural and fishing interests. Long ago, this almost horse-shoe-shaped river was, in fact, two rivers. One river flowed north and east into the Sahara; its upper portion probably traveled along much the same route as the upper portion of the Niger River does today. (This river emptied into a lake that, when it evaporated, created a great salt mine.) The other river originated in the Sahara and flowed south and west; its lower portion traveling along much the same route as the lower Niger does today. When the Sahara dried up, the two rivers merged creating a great inland delta that covers nearly 12,000 square miles.

  For half the year the delta area is basically a “flat, featureless, treeless, grassless plain baking in the noonday sun.”22 Then, just before the floodwaters arrive, farmers plant hundreds of acres of rice on the flat delta land. As the slow moving floodwaters rise, the rice grows and matures. When the rice is mature, the farmers paddle out in their canoes to harvest it. Fish that have lain semi-dormant for six months somewhere in a narrow river channel or an isolated pond suddenly spring to life when the nutrient-rich flood waters reach them. Gulping down great quantities of food, they grow rapidly and spawn. In just two days most of their eggs hatch and their young, millions of them, join in the feeding craze. Then, when the floodwaters begin to recede, men, large carnivorous fish, and thousands upon thousands of birds flock to the delta to fish. A recent study states that in a typic
al year the inland delta’s 50,000 fishermen sell 99,000 tons of fish.23

  Sagmandia / Sagaman-dir – Mansa Musa’s general. Under his direction, Mali’s forces defeated the Songhai.

  Sahara – Derived from the Arabic word for desert, our word Sahara also means desert. Therefore, the world’s largest desert is most correctly called the Sahara, and not the Sahara Desert. The Sahara stretches all the way across Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and covers an area about the size of the entire United States of America.

  Interestingly, 7,000 years ago the Sahara was lush and green. Before that, 15,000 years ago, it was drier than it is today and 25,000 years ago wetter than it was only 7,000 years ago. These huge, slow, recurring changes in the Sahara’s climate are due to long-term, cyclical variations in the Earth’s orbit, tilt, and the precession of the equinoxes. These oscillations have been going on for millions of years.24

  Amazingly, some of the guides who led caravans across the Sahara were blind. Unlike most guides, they depended upon the feel of the sun upon their face, their sense of smell, and perhaps the presence of a tuft of grass. Leo Africanus writes about a caravan that was “saved by a blind guide who ‘riding foremost on his camel, commanded some sand be given to him at every mile’s end by the smell whereof he declared the situation of the place.’”25 Ibn Batutta told of a similar event, as have several other writer-travelers.

  For more information about blind guides, see Note 25.

  Sahel – The Arabic word for the Sahel means shore. The Sahel is the northern, semiarid portion of the Sudan. It is the transitional zone between the Sahara to the north and the wetter, more humid grasslands to the south. It extends across Africa from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the mountains of Ethiopia in the east.

  Sarāj al-Dīn ibn al-Kuwayk – The Egyptian merchant who loaned Mansa Musa the gold he needed in order to purchase supplies for his caravan. The high interest rate Sarāj al-Dīn charged (700 dinars to be repaid for every 300 borrowed) seems at least somewhat more reasonable when the difficulties he faced collecting on such a loan are considered. First, he sent an agent to collect his money, but the agent decided to stay in Mali. So, Sarāj al-Dīn and his son traveled across the Sahara from Cairo to Timbuktu where, unfortunately, Sarāj al-Dīn died. His son, after caring for his father, continued on to Niani, collected all that was due his father, both principal and interest, and returned to Cairo. There were, of course, many expenses as well as dangers inherent in making a trip across the Sahara. One source (The Cambridge History of Africa) states that one-third of the people and animals in Mansa Musa’s caravan died by the time the caravan returned to Niani—and the Mansa’s was a very large, well-provisioned and well-guarded caravan.

  Savanna – The long band of grasslands just south of the Sahara that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the mountains at the eastern edge of the African continent. The northernmost portion of the savanna, the Sahel, is the driest. Along its southern edge, the savanna is bordered by the equatorial rainforest, where it can rain up to 96 inches a year.

  Shurafā / Sharif / Sherif and other variant spellings – Descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.

  Sinai Peninsula – An extremely arid, triangular peninsula linking NE Africa with SW Asia. It is located at the north end of the Red Sea.

  Slave / servant / serf – With a change in time, place, or culture, the meaning of these words changes. In West Africa during Mansa Musa’s time, according to Basil Davidson and other modern experts on African history, slaves were generally people who had been captured in battle. Some, like those who worked in the salt mines at Taghaza, had a very hard life. Others, who worked for individuals or within Mali’s government, often lived lives of considerable comfort and responsibility. They could easily earn their freedom, mingle with and even marry the citizens of Mali. Since no one worked for money and land was owned in common, the lines between the different strata of society were quite blurred and people moved up and down the rungs of social power much more easily than in medieval Europe.26

  The origin of the word slave is Slav, because in the early Middle Ages so many Slavs had been captured and enslaved.

  Songhai / Songhay – The Songhai were conquered by Mansa Musa’s forces in 1325. Later on, they asserted their independence and slowly became the core peoples of West Africa’s third great commercial empire.

  Sudan – The Sudan is a vast tract of open grasslands that extends across Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the mountains of Ethiopia. Sudan and South Sudan are also the names of two countries in the northeastern part of Africa.

  Sulayman Nar – One of the Songhai king’s sons taken to Mali as guest-hostages by Mansa Musa. See Ali Koleni in this book’s Glossary.

  Sultan of Egypt – See Nasir, al-Malik an-.

  Sundiata / Mari-Djata – Founder of the Empire of Mali. He is remembered in the oral traditions of West Africa as a “great hero figure” (J. D. Fage in A History of West Africa) and as “a powerful man of magic and enchantment” (Basil Davidson in Africa In History). Against tremendous odds, he was victorious in a great battle with the oppressive ruler Sumanguru, and turned a small chiefdom into an empire.

  Taghaza – A small town in the Sahara where the salt mines controlled by the Empire of Mali were located. Long ago, the area around Taghaza was the site of a large lake. When the Sahara dried up, the lake’s water evaporated leaving behind thousands of tons of salt.

  Takedda – A busy “port” city located in the far-eastern portion of Mali’s Empire. In addition to trade, the city was famous for its copper mines. Cast in people’s homes, thousands of copper rods were produced and exported from Takedda each year.

  Tassili n’ Ajjer – A vast, rugged, arid plateau located in the central portion of the Sahara. Surrounded by thousands of square miles of harsh desert, Tassili n’ Ajjer is the site of one of the world’s greatest, and most beautiful, collections of prehistoric art. The Tassili paintings of a lush and green land full of life, juxtaposed with the barrenness of their present surroundings, clearly document the Sahara’s most recent swing from lush and green to dry and desolate.

  The radical changes in the Sahara’s climate are not related to today’s “global-warming” debate. Instead, long-term, cyclical variations in the Earth’s tilt, orbit, and in the precession of its equinoxes cause huge, slow, recurring climatic changes. (Seven thousand years ago the Sahara was lush and green. Fifteen thousand years ago it was drier than it is today, and 25,000 years ago wetter than only 7,000 years ago, etc.24) These big, slow, climatic changes have been going on for millions of years. Thus, 8,000 years ago, Tassili artists were painting scenes of men in boats hunting hippos, while Europe was busy shrugging off the last vestiges of its latest Ice Age.

  The Tassili paintings are from 8,000 to 2,000 years old—the most recent being the most primitive, as were the last cultures to leave the Sahara as it dried up. Most of the Tassili paintings are beautifully drawn and richly colored. Some are fanciful: for example, there are Dr. Seuss-like drawings; elongated, gracefully flowing, almost stick-like figures; even outer-space-like alien figures. Most of the paintings, however, are realistic drawings of animals, both wild and domestic, and the people the artists lived among. They include scenes of musical instruments and costumed groups of dancers, of fashionable women riding on bullocks, of judges presiding, warriors in chariots, women harvesting, hunters giving chase, and so much more. The paintings show us a great many different styles of dress, headgear, and hairdos. They show us, too, that blonde as well as dark-haired whites and brown as well as black-skinned blacks shared the Sahara during its most recent lush and green period.

  Perhaps best of all, these often exquisite paintings give us a glimpse into the surprisingly complex lives of some of our very-long-ago ancestors.

  For more, see African Kingdoms, pp. 43-57; The Search for the Tassili Frescoes; and Henri Lhote in this book’s Glossary.

  Timbuktu – At its height, Timbuktu was one of the wealthiest and most cultured cit
ies in the world. Located just north of the Niger River’s Great Bend, at the southern edge of the Sahara, the medieval city of Timbuktu became a great commercial center. Traders came from every direction with merchandise piled high on boats, camels, and donkeys. Merchants and artisans, fishermen and farmers, all prospered. Thousands of students and scholars were also drawn to Timbuktu by the city’s famed university. Their books and manuscripts, tens of thousands of them, still exist. According to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in Wonders of the African World, about ten thousand are housed in the Ahmed Baba Center’s library and at least another 50,000 have been carefully squirreled away in dusty back rooms by proud members of some of Timbuktu’s leading families. These proud people, and the exceptionally dry desert air of Timbuktu, have protected and preserved these precious old manuscripts for hundreds of years.

  In 2008, the digitization of Timbuktu’s collections of fragile, old manuscripts was begun. More than 300 manuscripts are now available online. See The New York Times’ article “Project Digitizes Works From the Golden Age of Timbuktu”.

  Tribute – Payment in money or goods that is required of one country (or person) by a stronger country (or person).

  Tsetse fly – When a tsetse fly feeds on the blood (its only food) of a wild animal whose bloodstream contains trypanosomes, single-celled parasites, the tsetse fly ingests the trypanosomes and becomes a “host” fly. As a host fly, it will release trypanosomes into the bloodstream of every person and animal it bites from then on. Trypanosomes cause sleeping sickness in people, a dreaded disease that is often fatal. Cattle, horses, and camels—most species of domesticated animals—will almost always die if bitten by a host fly. The donkeys the traders used to carry goods south to the edge of the equatorial forest, tsetse fly country, were seldom harmed because donkeys have a natural tolerance to tsetse-transmitted parasites, and because their “job” involved only brief, light, and intermittent exposure to the flies. Neither the wild animals the tsetse flies generally feed on, nor the tsetse flies themselves are harmed by having trypanosomes in their blood.