Outcomes of Mansa Musa's Decision

Lesson 6: Mansa Musa | Student Handout 3-1 OUTCOMES OF MANSA MUSA’S DECISION Short

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Economic and Political Decisions (Handout 1) Mansa Musa chose all the options (A–D). He set up an efficient system for collecting taxes, so people could not avoid paying. He taxed traders, farmers, and herders in Mali (Option A); he was careful, however, not to raise the taxes too high for fear of crippling the economy of Mali and hurting the empire in the long run. He also taxed non-Malians within the Mali Empire (Option B). These taxes were um ch higher than the taxes on Malians. Foreigners hated the taxes, but they were a conquered people and lacked the power to do anything about the policy. Most of the tax money went to the king, who used it as he saw fit. As a result of all this incoming tax money, Mansa Musa has been proclaimed by some historians to be the richest person in history. Map D:

C ATLANTIC a s l a c k S p B e ia a n

e OCEAN a

M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a Ghadanes Cairo TUAT Medina Tassili n’ Taghaza R Ajjer . R e e d SAHARA il Mecca

Mali Empire Mansa Musa’s route Desert

Mansa Musa’s route to Mecca and back

184 Map: © Nystrom Education Lesson 6: Mansa Musa | Student Handout 3-2 In another reform, Mansa Musa wrote one set of laws for the whole empire (Option C) and set up an efficient administration of law and order. Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan explorer who traveled to Mali around 1350, stated: “[The people] are seldom unjust, and have a greater horror of com injustice than other people. The sultan [ruler] shows no mercy to anyone who is guilty of the least act of it. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveler nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence” (Oliver 2013). The law and order came from the power of the army and the authority of the king. Mansa Musa used much of the tax money Note the gold nugget, crown, and wand that Mansa Musa has. to build one of the largest armies in the area (Option D), consisting of more than a hundred thousand soldiers and ten thousand cavalry. His power depended on his wealth (mostly from trade and taxes on gold), which both impressed people and paid for the army. The Malian army protected the trade routes and daily life in Mali. It also allowed Mali to continue expanding. Under Mansa Musa, Mali conquered twenty-four cities and their surrounding districts. The conquests ensured a steady supply of captives, who were enslaved to perform various kinds of work for the king and Mali in general. Mansa Musa also ensured that people respected him. In public, he sat on a large, ebony throne that rested on a raised platform with symbols of wealth, such as elephant tusks and gold nuggets, around him. He spoke only through a jeli (spokesman). Lesser rulers sat on each side of the throne area, waited on by thirty slaves. In short, though not a divine king, Mansa Musa was separated from and mysterious to his people. He was both feared and respected. Religious Decisions (Handout 2) In terms of religion, Mansa Musa picked Option C, allowing people to choose their religion without Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use only. ©2017 Social Studies School Service. 421-4246. (800) www.socialstudies. restriction. It was a difficult choice, as he wanted all his people to become Muslims. He and the other leaders, however, recognized that they would lose the support of many of their people if they forced Malians to convert to Islam (Option A) or made them pay higher taxes (Option B) based on their religion. Traditional beliefs were too important to the overwhelming majority of the population (most of whom were farmers) to try to make them change. In fact, many village leaders in Mali, who had themselves converted to Islam, continued to practice traditional religion as well in order to keep the support of people who believed in traditional religion. Leaders (even kings and other unelected

185 Image source: Close-Up of Catalan Atlas Page. By Cresques Abraham, 1375, National Library of France, Paris Lesson 6: Mansa Musa | Student Handout 3-3 com

Mosque in Djenné leaders) understood that Malians believed that the gods and ancestors protected them from disaster and knew that they depended upon popular support as part of their authority. Additionally, allowing most people to continue to practice traditional religion while most leaders practiced Islam had an advantage. It meant that most people saw their leaders as somewhat mysterious because they did not understand Islamic practices. On the other hand, as shown in the following paragraphs, Mansa Musa made many decisions promoting Islam and made Mali a center of Islamic learning. In terms of the Hajj, Mansa Musa chose Option F, taking a large number of people and a huge amount of gold to Mecca. He took sixty thousand people with him, including eight thousand soldiers and twelve thousand servants, along with hundreds of camels and horses. Eighty of the camels were loaded with nothing but gold, 250 to 300 pounds on each camel. A few lucky people rode horses, but the vast majority walked all the way to Mecca and back—a distance of more than seven thousand miles, taking more than a year to traverse (Map D). Because of the oppressive heat in the Sahara Desert, most of the traveling occurred at night. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use only. ©2017 Social Studies School Service. 421-4246. (800) www.socialstudies. The trip succeeded in establishing friendly relations with rulers in North Africa and the Middle East. It also promoted North African, Middle Eastern, and European interest in Mali. Mansa Musa’s immense amounts of gold impressed the people in Cairo, Mecca, and several other cities. In fact, Mansa Musa and his caravan spent so much gold in Cairo that prices in the city increased by 25 percent for the next twelve years. While much of the gold went to leaders, some of it went to the poor. Charity to the poor, after all, is one of the five pillars (basic beliefs) of Islam.

186 Image source: Djenné Mosque. By iStock.com/Africanway Lesson 6: Mansa Musa | Student Handout 3-4 After the Hajj, people from many different places traveled to Mali to find uo t more about the empire and to open trade. Mali was recognized as a wealthy, powerful empire, as shown by this map produced in Europe about fifty years later that shows Mansa Musa as the focal point in West Africa.

com When he returned from the Hajj, Mansa Musa brought back new ideas, along with Islamic teachers, architects, legal experts, and scholars. He also had many mosques built around Mali; stone masons and ironworkers from Egypt settled in Timbuktu and other Malian cities. Mali became a center of Islamic education, especially the Islamic university in Timbuktu. The uM slim faith became much more important in Mali, which more closely connected the empire to the Muslim world. Not everything about the Hajj was positive, however. The Malians were cheated in Cairo. The Egyptian governor stated, “Merchants . . . have told me of the profits which they made from the Africans, saying that one of them might buy a shirt or cloak or other garment for five dinars when it was not worth one” (Palumbo 1991). Mansa Musa ran out of money on the way back and had to borrow, paying 233 percent interest. (For every $100 borrowed, he would have to pay $233 in interest at the end of each year in addition to the original $100.) All of the loans were eventually repaid, but the king was seen as easily swindled. Many people who traveled to Mali after the Hajj came to take advantage of the Malians, because they had been so easily cheated in Cairo. This European map includes Mali as a strong kingdom In addition, the king came perilously close to dying. On the way back from Mecca, Mansa Musa’s group was separated from the main caravan and was lost, without water. Anyone who strayed from that group was kidnapped by bandits and sold as a slave. Luckily, the group finally came to the Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use only. ©2017 Social Studies School Service. 421-4246. (800) www.socialstudies. Suez seashore and survived on fish until they were rescued. As many as one-third of the people and camels in the lost group perished. Finally, the whole idea of spending all this wealth on an extravagant journey to Mecca (as opposed to a small group of travelers) has been questioned. Some people (at the time and since) have seen the wasteful journey not as a sign of wealth but rather as a sign of excessive taxation by a greedy king. The thousands of pounds of gold collected in taxes could have been used to improve the lives of the people of Mali rather than be given away to leaders in Egypt and elsewhere. Supporters of Mansa Musa counter that some of the gold was given to benefit the poor. 187 Image source: Map of Europe and the Mediterranean. By Cresques Abraham, 1375, National Library of France, Paris Lesson 6: Mansa Musa | Student Handout 3-5 Did the benefits of the Hajj uo tweigh the costs? That is a subject of disagreement among historians. One point is not disputed, however. Mansa Musa’s journey was the most notable, extravagant Hajj ever taken. com

Travel was better at night, when it was cooler. QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS

1. Evaluate the decisions made by Mansa Musa. How well did he do on these decisions? 2. Evaluate the decisions you made. What did you do well or poorly in terms of decision making? 3. What is one thing you learned about decision making from these decisions made by Mansa Musa? Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use only. ©2017 Social Studies School Service. 421-4246. (800) www.socialstudies.

188 Image source: Picture of Camels. By iStock.com/hasachai