Mali Empire (1230-1600)

Ibn Battuta

• IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Ibn Battuta

  • Islamic traveler and scholar who journeyed to Mali in 1350, he has biases

  • Praised Mali’s security and justice systems

  • Criticized local customs like the lack of gender segregation and the king’s disrespectful treatment of his subjects

Causes of rise and decline

• Causes of Rise

  • After the Ghana empire, there was an era of fragmentation and competition

  • Sundiata (Sunjata) verse epic about the founding of Mali, Sundiata Keita was a real person but some parts of the epic are fictional

• Causes of Decline

  • Issues of accession following the death of Musa.

  • Decline in the success of trans-saharan trade due to the emergence of the coastal trade systems.

  • Internal fragmentation

  • Songhai expanisionism

Government

• Capital of Timbuktu - Cultural legacy

• Same broker kingdom pattern as Ghana, centered more eastward

• Much larger than Ghana

• Ruler was the overlord of a diverse society

• Each state kept some power 

• Mansa’s (King’s) power checked by governors

• New Mansa about every 10 years

• Roles:

  • Queen - ranked equal to emperor (Mansa)

  • Na’ib - deputy of Mansa

  • Royal guard - Egyptian slaves aka Mamluks

  • Griots - storytellers

  • Farba - governors 

  • Farariyya - civil administration and military officers

  • Qadis - judges

  • Mushrif/Manshaju - Market regulators

  • Faqiha - consistency representatives

• Dual governance

  • Local oversight officials called Koi in vassal states, governors called farba

Social, economic, and administrative reforms

• Had access to both the Bure and Bambuk goldfields

• Advanced ironworking

• Urban spaces

  • Cities as a locus of power

  • Mansa Musa claimed to have 24 cities and about 400 towns 

  • Ethnically Mande core with peripheral ethnicities

• What flowed to the center of power 

  • Sons of vassal states were sent to the capital 

  • Tax and tribute 

  • Coerced labor

• City of Jenne 

  • Located on a major gold trade route on the Niger river 

  • Mali attacked it 99 times 

  • Coerced relationship with Mali, probably because of control of trade routes 

    • Likely didn’t fully submit

• The Sankore Madrassa was established by Mansa Musa and was the biggest library in Africa, had a massive regional pull

Military organization

• Had a large cavalry that was key to power projection 

• Cavalry with infantry and archers, poison-tipped arrows

• North had a desert-based military, protected trade routes 

• South was to prevent vassal rebellions

Importance of Islam

• Mansa Musa was a devout Muslim

• In 1324, 60k-80k people accompanied him on his iconic hajj to Mecca

• 100 camels with gold on the hajj 

• Sent scholars and diplomats to Morocco 

• Established schools to study the Quran 

• Arabic was the main language 

• Imported architects to make mosques

Trade

• Epicenter of the trans-Saharan trade

• Had plentiful access to gold

• Over 1/2 of gold in Europe in the 13th-14th centuries came from the Sahel