Mansa Musa

4. Mansa Musa took over 14 provinces and 24 cities during his 25 year reign and he had the largest army which consisted of 100,000 troops and 10,000 cavalrymen.

The “Qur’an” had a great importance to Mansa Musa as it states “God loves the charitable” (Document D). When Mansa Musa was giving gold away, he was following 2:195 of the “Qur’an” which is also known as the holy Muslim book. If Mansa Musa was going to establish trading partners, he would take the trade route all the way to Mecca which he didn't because he

The writing states that “Mansa Musa also increased the wealth of Mali, exporting the gold and salt trade and encouraging copper trade with Egypt.” (Background Essay) While king, Mansa Musa utilized trade routes that allowed him to keep

There were about 14 provinces within his empire. Each province was run by a governor. This distribution of his workload was significantly reduced by this system. This type of administration that he formed by having governors allowed him to only worry about the large issues present in his empire. All the small issues would be dealt with by the governors so Mansa Musa would not have to worry as much about everything. However, Mansa Musa was very attentive to any complaints and appeals against oppression by governors. This showed how involved he was within his empire. The next thing that Mansa Musa brought the Mali empire was their strong cavalry. While he was reigning, he was able to bring his forces up to about 100,000 soldiers in size. Mansa Musa put this force to work by guarding the Trans-Sahara Trade route that passed through his empire. This allowed for the Mali empire to control the westernmost Trans-Sahara Trade

The journey of Mansa Musa on his hajj made everyone wonder if he went on the journey simply for his religion, or if there were other underlying factors for his journey. Mansa Musa traveled along his journey through Africa for his religion. Mansa Musa was a muslim Mali empire who went on a trek through Africa to complete one of the five pillars, which his religion obligated him to do.

A map created from numerous sources suggests Mansa Musa took a different route on his hajj to visit Taghaza compared to previous routes taken by past kings. Compared to these other routes, Musa’s was about a quarter longer (Doc B). Since Mansa Musa went completely off track to visit Taghaza, Musa’s main drive behind taking the long route to Taghaza was to show the people what a special ruler he was. Because of the extremely different route taken, Musa’s main focus of his hajj was to expand his

According to the Mansa Musa film and the Catalan Atlas, Mansa Musa developed cities like Timbutu. Within Timbuktu's walls there were universities that pulled scholars from other areas, mosques that helped the spread of Islam, and it also was a massive center for the Trans-Saharan gold and salt trade. These reasons make them more urbanized and wealthy. Mansa Musa's reign brought Mali attention worldwide, which ultimately put them on the map. Source H and the chart state that Sundiata Keita was a skilled warrior and expanded Mali through conquests and battle.

West Africa has experienced migration, because of the cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups it contains, and because of the minerals, and goods it can produce. Around the ninth century C.E., in the trans- Saharan route, slave trade became popular. These slaves were used by the Arabs for military service, administration, domestic service, and concubinage. Extensive trade in the region led to urbanization, as well as the introduction of Islam. Muslim Berbers contributed to the expansion of Islam, by controlling the trade routes in Africa, and becoming conduits for economic activities, by the tenth century. During the mid-11th century, cities like Gao and Timbuktu had Muslim scholars traveling the routes, because of the intrusion of the Almoravids, and this resulted in turning these cities into hotspots for study and trade. The eleventh century brought the acceptance of the Islamic culture, and led to conversion of the elites, so they can have legal, political, administrative, cultural, and economic benefits. The Islamic culture did not disrupt indigenous African shamanist and animist beliefs, it united ethnic groups, and led to the development of Islamic states throughout Africa. (Africa, 3000 B.C.-A.D. 1500 / West African Trade /

Mali became a site of cultural exchange because of the gold- salt trade. The gold -salt trade allowed many

Lastly between the brothers: Siga who is sent with Tiekoro as protection to Timbuktu who becomes forgotten by his own brother as they refuse him because he is not Muslim. And Naba, who loses his role model, and grieves on his behalf. As Islam continues to spread and conquer more and more lands, the more families become split as parents send their children to schools to learn how to write and speak Arabic. When Tiekoro left for Timbuktu the Troare family continued to divide and separate due to continuous forces by foreign expansion and hunger for riches. As a son of a slave woman who had drowned herself, Siga isn’t regarded with nearly as high as prestige as Tiekoro is, despite them only being a couple hours apart in age. After being banished away for not being Muslim, Siga adjusted to his environment with the help of a kind boy and, after being a donkey boy for a while, decides to go into trade. Trade goes completely against the respectable income of a Bambara nobleman, which can be made through cultivating agriculture because the Troare family “owned plenty of good land planted with millet, cotton, and fonio, worked by hundreds of slaves” (Conde 4). Especially because the Mali Empire had been on fertile land where many different kinds of crops such as ones of sorghum, millet, and fonio could be maintained and the domestication of animals like sheep, goats, and cattle had been strong (Africa 141). Although the way of a Bambara had been agriculture,

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Abdallah Ibn Battuta was one of the most recognized of medieval travelers. His Rihla, or book of travels tells the story of his travels throughout Africa, Indonesia, Central Asia, India, the Middle East, Russia, and China between 1325 and 1354. Said Hamdun and Noël King have translated those portions of the Rihla, that tells of Ibn Battuta’s travels to East Africa in 1329 or 1331 and his extended travels and visits in West Africa between 1352 and 1354. This small part of his Rihla, solidifies his influence and presents the only written account we have of the East African city-states or the empire of Mali in the fourteenth century.

I believe Mansa Musa had a social impact on africa because he had a good relationship with the people and did not want to meet the king. Some may argue Mansa Musa had a economic impact of africa because when he gave the people gold in cairo, they exchange gold to much and the value of gold depressed for 12 years. Even in Document A the personal account of AI-Umari it states ¨They exchange gold until they depressed its value in egypt and caused it price to fall.¨ However this does not prove Mansa Musa had a economic impact on Africa because it was the people of cairo fall because they used it too much.

Changes in political and cultural traditions during the post-classical period occurred in Africa because of intensive Islamic contact. When Arab conquerors introduced the Islamic faith into northern Africa, they expanded the region of commerce. Muslim merchants established trading centers for copper, iron, salts, and cotton textiles. The newly established trade affected traditional social and religious beliefs. After 1000 C.E., the kin-based social structure experienced difficult challenges. Increased conflict between peoples led to the creation of military forces for both offensive and defensive use. This led to the formation of chiefdoms exhibiting more formal structures of governing such as in the kingdoms of Kongo, Ghana, and Mali. Because most traders were Muslim, many African societies converted to Islam to improve their relations with the

Under Mansa Musa, Mali became the the largest and one of the most renown kingdoms in Africa. Gold was abundant and the empire was prosperous; what more could one ask for? Though as it turns out fame and prosperity can be fleeting. The empire