- Date:
- c. 1000 - c. 1600
- Key People:
- Ibn Battuta
- Musa I of Mali
- Sundiata Keita
- Related Topics:
- Malinke
- Related Places:
- Guinea
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Kangaba
Mali
Who founded the Mali empire and when?
What was Mali’s Mansa Mūsā known for during his reign?
How did the Mali empire maintain its wealth and power?
What led to the decline of the Mali empire?
Mali, trading empire in western Africa from the 13th to the 16th century. Founded by Sundiata c. 1235, Mali’s access to gold and other valued commodities, as well as its strategic position along trans-Saharan trade routes, underpinned the empire’s power and wealth and contributed to a strong economic base from which it was able to fund expansion efforts over neighboring states. Mali peaked under the 14th-century reign of Mūsā I, who is remembered for his famously opulent pilgrimage to Mecca and under whom the city of Timbuktu began to develop into an important center of trans-Saharan commerce, Islamic scholarship, and cultural exchange.
Origins
The Mali empire developed from the state of Kangaba, on the upper Niger River east of the Fouta Djallon, which is said to have been founded before 1000 ce. 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 c. 1235 Sundiata, the brother of Kangaba’s fugitive ruler, won a decisive victory against the Susu chief. (The name Mali absorbed the name Kangaba at about this time.)
Empire
Much of what is known of the Mali empire is derived from oral tradition, preserved by griots (male and female troubadour-historians who preserved oral traditions of the empire) and, later, from contemporary Arab chroniclers, such as al-ʿUmarī, Ibn Battuta, Ibn Khaldūn, and Leo Africanus. These sources, while valuable, are not infallible, and there are discrepancies among the various oral and written accounts.
The empire was headed by the king (mansa). For administrative assistance, the mansa relied upon a mix of hereditary nobility and enslaved people. The role of a griot (also called dyeli, djeli, and jeli) was also a hereditary position, and griots served not only as the keepers of the empire’s history and oral traditions but also as spokespeople for the mansa. The empire was divided into provinces and also extended its influence over vassal states. Mali maintained a large military, including a cavalry, which it used to expand its borders as well as defend against attacks and preserve order.
The gradual spread of Islam, which had begun in western Africa via the trans-Saharan trade routes before the founding of Mali, continued after the empire’s establishment. Sundiata and the emperors that followed him tended to embrace syncretism, or mixing, of Islamic and traditional beliefs and customs, keeping the latter in part to retain legitimacy in their role as ruler over the non-Muslim population of the empire.
Much of Mali’s wealth and power stemmed from its control over trans-Saharan trade routes that linked sub-Saharan western Africa with North Africa, particularly as it related to the trade of gold from western Africa and salt from the Sahara, and the empire’s taxation of exchanged goods. Other traded items included ivory and foodstuffs; enslaved people were also traded. The empire received tribute from the regions under its control. Mali’s vast wealth allowed for the purchase of weapons and horses from North Africa, which were larger than local breeds and which supported its military campaigns and territorial expansion.
Development under Sundiata
Sundiata named Niani as the capital of his empire. 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 Bambuk to the south, subdued the Diara in the northwest, and pushed along the Niger as far north as Lac Débo. By the 14th century the Dyula, or Wangara, as the Muslim traders of Mali came to be called, were active throughout western Africa.
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Apogee under Mūsā I
Mali rose to the apogee of its power under Mansa Mūsā (1307–32?). 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.
Mūsā is perhaps best known for the extravagant nature of his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. The lavish amount of gold that he brought with him and spent on his journey illustrated Mali’s staggering level of wealth to the world beyond western Africa. Many European countries and kingdoms in North Africa now realized the commercial importance of Mali. Mūsā’s notoriety endured; the Catalan Atlas (1375), by European cartographer Abraham Cresques, included a map of northwest Africa that depicts Mūsā seated on a throne and holding a gold nugget.
Under Mūsā, who supported scholarship and the arts, Timbuktu began to develop into an important node on trans-Saharan trade routes as well as a prominent cultural hub and center of Islamic learning. On his return from Mecca, Mūsā established Muslim scholars in both Timbuktu and Gao.
Decline
From the late 14th century Mali’s power began to decline as some annexed territories or vassal states asserted independence and neighboring groups challenged the empire for control over trade centers and other lucrative areas. Gao rebelled (c. 1400); the Tuareg seized Walata and Timbuktu (1433); the peoples of Takrur and their neighbors (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 and had largely dissolved by the 17th century.