The History Book

110

HE LEFT NO COURT EMIR

NOR ROYAL OFFICE HOLDER

WITHOUT THE GIFT OF A

LOAD OF GOLD

MANSA MUSA’S HAJJ TO MECCA (1324)

T

he Muslim West African

kingdom of Mali burst

onto the world stage with

a flourish in the early 14th century,

when its fabulously wealthy ruler,

Mansa Musa, made an unusually

extravagant hajj (pilgrimage) to

Mecca, supported by the huge

profits made by Mali’s control of the

trans-Saharan caravan trade. The

emperor’s year-long expedition

became legendary in the Muslim

world, and even in Europe, and

his subsequent promotion of

Islamic culture and learning in

his kingdom was symbolic of the

faith’s gradual infiltration of the

trading empires of West Africa.

African trade and Islam

States had begun to form on

the fringes of the Sahel region

(a semi-arid zone just south of the

Sahara) around the 5th century,

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Islam and trade

in West Africa

BEFORE

c.500 ce The Kingdom of

Ghana emerges.

1076 Ghana is conquered by

the Almoravids, who establish

an Islamic Empire from Spain

to the Sahel.

1240 Sundjata establishes

the Muslim Malian Empire,

capturing Ghana and gaining

control of its strategic salt,

copper, and gold mines.

AFTER

1433 Mali loses control

of Timbuktu, which is

incorporated into the

Songhai Empire of Gao.

1464 Sonni Ali, king of

Songhai, begins the expansion

of his empire, as Mali contracts

further still.

1502 Mali is defeated by

the Songhai Empire.

Islam spreads

into West Africa

from the 9th century,

in the wake of trans-

Saharan trade.

Mansa Musa’s

hajj showcases the

wealth and power

of the Muslim

Malian kingdom.

Muslim scholars from

other Islamic countries are

attracted to Mali and it

becomes a great center

of Islamic learning.

Islam continues to

take root throughout

West Africa, even

after the collapse

of Mali.

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111

See also: Muhammad receives the divine revelation 78–81 ■ The founding of Baghdad 86–93 ■

The conquests of Akbar the Great 170–71 ■ The formation of the Royal African Company 176–79 ■

The Slave Trade Abolition Act 226–27

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

beginning with the Kingdom of

Ghana, which became known as

“the land of gold,” a reference to the

source of its huge wealth. In the 7th

century, the Arab conquest of North

Africa gave a new impetus to trans-

Saharan trade—the Muslim states

had a huge appetite for West African

gold and slaves. As this trade grew,

Muslim merchants, and with them

Islam, were drawn to the area

between the headwaters of the

Niger and Senegal rivers.

However, peaceful trading was

soon followed by conquest. The

Almoravids, a Moroccan Berber

dynasty, swept south in 1076 and

sacked Ghana’s capital, shattering

its authority over the region.

Ghana’s reduced power opened

up a vacuum that was gradually

filled by Mali, a state founded around

the Upper Niger River, which began

to expand in the mid-13th century.

Under Mansa Musa (ruled 1312–37),

Mali reached its greatest extent and

power, having forged highly lucrative

caravan connections with Egypt

and other important trade centers in

North Africa. Gold, salt, and slaves

were taken north in exchange for

textiles and manufactured goods.

A center of scholarship

Mansa Musa was not the first

West African ruler to make a hajj

to Mecca, but the huge scale of

his entourage—more than 60,000

people, including 500 slaves who

bore staffs of pure gold—impressed

his observers, and was a potent

expression of his wealth.

The expedition had a purpose

beyond advertising Mali’s prestige

however, as the king invited Muslim

scholars and a great architect, Abu

Ishaq al-Sahili, to make the return

journey with him. The latter built

West Africa’s first mud-brick

mosques at Timbuktu and Gao,

trading posts recently captured

from the neighboring Songhai.

Under Mansa Musa’s guidance,

Timbuktu became Mali’s main

commercial hub—boosted by its

advantageous location at the

junction of the desert trade and the

maritime routes down the Niger—

and began its rise as the region’s

intellectual and spiritual capital.

A teaching center grew around

al-Sahili’s Sankore mosque, laying

the foundations for the celebrated

Sankore University and other

madrasas (Islamic schools).

After Mansa Musa’s death, Mali

initially thrived under his son, but

thereafter, weak rulers, external

aggression, and the need to keep

rebellious tribes in check sapped its

strength until it was eclipsed by the

Songhai Empire of Gao: by 1550 it

was no longer a major political entity.

Mansa Musa’s great empire—one

of the most prosperous states in

the 14th century—may have been

short-lived, but his celebrated hajj

had longer-lasting effects, helping

to spearhead the spread of Islamic

civilization in West Africa. ■

[Mansa Musa] flooded Cairo

with his benefactions... They

exchanged gold until they

depressed its value in Egypt

and caused its price to fall.

Chihab al-Umari

Arab historian (1300–1384)

Mansa Musa’s hajj attracted the

attention of Europe’s cartographers:

the emperor is depicted on this Catalan

Atlas of 1375, bearing a gold nugget

and a golden scepter.

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