Mūsā I of Mali: References & Edit History

Abderrahman es-Saʾdi, Tarikhe es-Soudan, written by a 17th-century Sudanese and trans. into French by Octave Houdas, 2 vol. (1898–1900, reprinted 1964), contains detail that provides a view of Mūsā and the Mali empire within the broader regional and historical context, including a useful account of the origin of the earlier Ghana empire and subsequent Sudanese history based on data now lost. Edward William Bovill and Robin Hallett, The Golden Trade of the Moors, 2nd ed. rev. (1968, reissued 1995), contains a chapter on Mansa Mūsā. J.C. de Graft-Johnson, African Glory: The Story of Vanished Negro Civilizations (1954, reissued 1986), gives a vivid account of the great empires flourishing in the western Sudan, including the Mali and Songhai empires. Al-ʿOmarī, Masālik el-Abṣār (1927), is a French translation of a work by a contemporary Arab scholar containing most of what is known about Mansa Mūsā’s memorable pilgrimage to Mecca.