Instructions- Read Document 1, and Only Read 2 If You Wish to Challenge Yourself and Further Your Understanding

Instructions- Read document 1, and only read 2 if you wish to challenge yourself and further your understanding.

Pay attention to the basic historical questions-Who, What, When, Where, and Why, and my favorite…. So What. Why should we remember/study this guy. Take some notes and be ready to discuss Mansa Musa.

DOCUMENT 1

Mali started as a small province in the kingdom of Ghana. In time, Mali took over.

Sundiata was Mali's young king. He was a great leader and very clever. Rather than simply trade with the people to the north and to the south, Sundiata expanded Mali so that Mali actually controlled some of the gold mines and some of the salt mines.

His son continued to expand Mali, when he took over as king.

But it was Sundiata's grandson, Mansa Musa, who has fascinated people for hundreds of years. Mansa Musa loved knowledge. He built a university in Timbuktu, one of the cities on the Trans- Sahara Trade Route. He established religious freedom. As for himself, he converted to Islam, and traveled extensively.

Modified from http://africa.mrdonn.org/mali.html

Mansa Musa and his adventures put the kingdom of Mali on the map.

When he took over as king, the empire of Mali had grown so big that Mansa Musa knew he could not hear all the concerns of all his people. One of the first things he did was to divide the empire into provinces. He put a governor in charge of each province. Each village had a mayor. Business that affected the empire was done by Mansa Musa and his advisors. The day to day problems were handled locally. Mansa Musa did not turn his back on his people. He made sure the local governments were operating fairly and effectively.

Mali was rich when Mansa Musa came to power. The army guarded the gold mines. They guarded sections of the trade routes. There were usually about 90,000 men on duty at any one time. Wealth in the form of gold poured into Mali. Traders always stopped at Mali. They knew they would be welcomed, fed, housed, and safe. Mansa Musa was generous. Trade with Mali was always good for the traders who had come so far.

Mansa Musa established religious freedom. Education was free and encouraged. He even established a university. People came from all over the world to study at this famous university. When Muslim scholars visited Mali, they were surprised at the people's clothes. They didn't look like Muslims. The women were unveiled. The clothes were colorful. But Mansa Musa was a great host and a devout Muslim. The scholars were understanding. They found their host delightful, if a bit unusual.

Mansa Musa knew his people needed him to act like a king. Every time he left his palace, he took about 300 guards and musicians and acrobats with him. It was quite a sight. The people loved it. They gathered as people would to watch a parade, which is exactly what it was. They would cry out, "Mansa Musa!"

As Mansa Musa wandered about, accompanied by his many guards and performers, he gave out presents. Some people were handed luxury goods. Others were given a small nugget of gold. The elders of every town received special gifts. No wonder the people loved him. He had so much wealth. He believed it should be shared.

Mansa Musa wanted to travel and see the holy city of Mecca. He felt safe leaving his empire and his people in the hands of his advisors and local officials. He was right. They did a great job during the year he was gone.

On his way to the city of Mecca, Mansa Musa did what he always did - he took people and camels with him, along with a great deal of gold. On the way, he shared his wealth with the people he met. By the time he reached Cairo, in Egypt, word of his wealth had spread. People were packed along the streets waiting for his arrival.

By the time he was ready to return home, he had given out so much gold that he needed to borrow some to get home. But many nobles were eager to loan the king whatever he needed. They had no doubt they would be repaid. And they were. He gave paid back everyone who had loaned him gold to get home, more gold than he had been given.

Mansa Musa put Mali on the map. After his trip to Mecca, there was almost no one in the African world who did not know the great king, Mansa Musa.

Modified from http://africa.mrdonn.org/mansamusa.html and

DOCUMENT 2

Mansa Musa

Mansa Musa was one of the greatest kings of Mali. He became popular in African history, not only for his contributions to imperial territorial expansion and development, but also for the international recognition he gained for the empire during his pilgrimage to Mecca during 1324-1325.

Not much is known of Mansa Kankan Musa's early life. He took the throne of Mali in 1307; mansa is the Mandingo word for "king." His reign marked the height of Mali's power and wealth. Mali under Mansa Musa drew its power and strength from the control of trading routes, which involved the sale of gold, salt, ivory, kola nuts, and slaves. He incorporated into the empire such important trading, mineral-producing, and Islamic cities as Gao, Jenne, Taghaza, Takedda, Takrur, Timbuktu, and Walata.

Through Mansa Musa's administrative reorganization and the appointment of provincial governors, or emirs, it was possible for Mali to maximize the benefits from regional trade, especially trans-Saharan trade with North African Berbers and Muslims. Some of the provincial administrators were given fiefs, horses, and clothes; others were paid annual salaries. Political stability and economic prosperity were sustained by Mansa Musa's establishment of a 100,000-strong standing army, including 10,000 horsemen. Although trade contributed significantly to Mali's wealth, the citizens were also involved in agriculture, fishing, cattle breeding, blacksmithing, weaving, and carving.

Mansa Musa was a Muslim, and like earlier kings, he made the great pilgrimage to Mecca, the hajj. It is a gauge of Mansa Musa's power that he was able to go on a hajj. From Mali, such a journey took well over a year to complete and would have been extremely expensive.

Before he left for Mecca, Mansa Musa collected a special contribution from his subjects to help pay for his pilgrimage. The pilgrimage caravan was enormous and included 60,000 porters and 500 slaves, each carrying a gold staff. Some 80 to 100 camels were each loaded with 300 pounds of gold dust. Legend says that the pilgrimage caravan was so huge that its van reached Timbuktu before the king left the royal palace at Niani, some 500 miles away (records indicate that Mansa Musa would not have passed through Timbuktu). The caravan likely continued by way of Wargla and after reaching the Mediterranean Sea, followed the coastline into Egypt and its capital of Cairo.

Mansa Musa's huge caravan amazed and impressed the sophisticated population of Cairo, but they were even more dazzled by the massive amounts of gold the Malians possessed. During their three-month stopover, Mansa Musa and his entourage expended vast amounts of gold on presents, alms, and living expenses—more than they should have, as the Cairene merchants mercilessly took advantage of the Malians' naïveté and grossly overcharged their guests.

So much Malian gold poured into the Cairene economy that it caused the value of gold to sag significantly. When the Muslim historian al-Umari visited Cairo 12 years later, the price of gold still had not recovered. Mansa Musa's golden cornucopia was not inexhaustible, and it had almost run out by the time he returned to Cairo on his way home from Mecca. Ironically, he was forced to borrow at exorbitant interest rates from the very Cairene merchants who had overcharged him in the first place.

Mansa Musa proclaimed to the Cairenes that his purpose for travel was purely religious, not political. Thus, he attempted to beg off having an audience with the Mamluk sultan. Canny Egyptian diplomats quickly recognized that his real reason for avoiding an audience was to forgo prostrating himself before another monarch. Pressured into attending a royal audience, Mansa Musa finally agreed to bow down but declared he was only making obeisance to God. After that episode, relations between the Mamluk sultan and Mansa Musa were quite cordial.

Mansa Musa's pilgrimage left a deep and lasting impression on the Egyptians. The early-16th-century Muslim historian Ibn al-Iyas referred to Mansa Musa's visit to Cairo as the outstanding event of 1324. According to oral tradition, Mansa Musa left a legacy of his piety by purchasing land and buildings in Cairo and Mecca to provide accommodation for future pilgrims from the Sudan. His pilgrimage also gave Mali an international reputation that grew to legendary proportions. Mansa Musa died around 1332, but his legend lived on.

For Europeans, Mansa Musa quickly came to symbolize the golden riches of Guinea. In 1339, Majorcan cartographer Angelino Dulcert placed a regal Mansa Musa on his map of Africa in the middle of the western Sahara with the caption "Rex Melly." A similar depiction appeared on Abraham Cresque's Catalan atlas of about 1375. On that map, Mansa Musa appeared seated, dressed in royal robes and crown, and holding a scepter in one hand and a gold nugget in the other. The accompanying legend reads, "This negro lord is called Musa Mali, Lord of the Negroes of Guinea. So abundant is the gold which is found in his country that he is the richest and most noble king in all the land." Some people even identified Mansa Musa with the legendary Prester John.

As the empire of Mali declined, so did Mansa Musa's reputation among the Europeans. When the Portuguese first contacted Mali in the 1450s, the kingdom was a faint shadow of its former greatness. As a result, the Mansa Musa depicted on the maps of the 1480s was a parody of European royalty—a naked savage with a crown. Still, the fabulous reputation of Mansa Musa and his wealthy realm certainly aroused European interest and helped spur the Portuguese explorations of the West African coast under Prince Henry the Navigator during the 15th century.