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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 226–27THE 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.US_110-111_Mansa_Musa_Mecca.indd 111 15/02/2016 16:41