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empire in West Africa from c.1230 to 1670
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The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa from c. 1235 to 1610. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita (c. 1214 – c. 1255) and became renowned for the wealth of its monarchs, especially Mansa Musa (Musa Keita). At its peak, Mali was the largest empire in West Africa, widely influencing the culture of the region through the spread of its language, laws, and customs.
The empire began as a small Mandinka kingdom at the upper reaches of the Niger River, centered around the Manding region. It began to develop during the 11th and 12th centuries as the Ghana Empire, or Wagadu, declined and trade epicentres shifted southward. The history of the Mali Empire before the 13th century is unclear, as there are conflicting and imprecise accounts by both Arab chroniclers and oral traditionalists. The first ruler for which there is accurate written information is Sundiata Keita, a warrior-prince of the Keita dynasty who was called upon to free the local people from the rule of the king of the Sosso Empire, Soumaoro Kanté. The conquest of Sosso in c. 1235 marked the emergence of Mali as a major power, with the Kouroukan Fouga as its constitution.
Following the death of Sundiata Keita, in c. 1255, the kings or emperors of Mali were referred to by the title mansa. In 1285, Sakura, a former slave of the imperial family who had risen to the rank of general, carried out a military coup. After his death, the lineage of the Keita dynasty was restored with the accession of Mansa Gao (c. 1300–1305). Mansa Musa took the throne in c. 1312. He made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca from 1324 to 1326, where his generous gifts and his expenditure of gold caused significant inflation in Egypt. Maghan I succeeded him as mansa c. 1337, but was deposed by his uncle Suleyman in 1341. It was during Suleyman's 19-year reign that Ibn Battuta visited Mali. Suleyman's death marked the end of Mali's Golden Age and the beginning of a slow decline.
The Tarikh al-Sudan records that Mali was still a sizeable state in the 15th century. At that time, the Venetian explorer Alvise Cadamosto and Portuguese traders confirmed that the peoples who settled within Gambia River were still subject to the mansa of Mali. Upon Leo Africanus's visit at the beginning of the 16th century, his descriptions of the territorial domains of Mali showed that it was still a kingdom of considerable size. However, from 1507 onwards neighboring states such as Diarra, Great Fulo, Yatenga, and the Songhai Empire chipped away at Mali's borders. In 1544/45, the Songhai invaded the capital but were unsuccessful in conquering the empire. Mali made a brief comeback in the late 16th century and was poised to take advantage of Songhai's collapse after the 1593 Moroccan invasion, but a disastrous defeat outside Djenne in 1599 ended those hopes. After that, the empire rapidly disintegrated, being replaced by independent chiefdoms. The Keitas retreated to the town of Kangaba, where they became provincial chiefs.
Much of the recorded information about the Mali Empire comes from 14th century Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun, 14th century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta and 16th century Andalusian traveller Leo Africanus. The other major source of information comes from Mandinka oral tradition, as recorded by storytellers known as griots. Imperial Mali is also known through the account of Shihab al-'Umari, written in about 1340 by a geographer-administrator in Mamluk Egypt. His information about the empire came from visiting Malians taking the hajj, or pilgrim's voyage to Mecca. He had first-hand information from several sources, and from a second-hand source he learned of the visit of Mansa Musa. The traveller Ibn Battuta, who visited Mali in 1352 left the first account of a West African kingdom made directly by an eyewitness; the others are usually second-hand. The third great account is that of Ibn Khaldun, who wrote in the early 15th century. While the accounts are of limited length, they provide a fairly good picture of the empire at its height.
After Ibn Khaldun's death in 1406, there are no further Arab primary sources except for Leo Africanus, who wrote more than a century later. Arab interest in the Mali Empire declined after the Songhai conquered the northern regions of the empire which formed the primary contact between Mali and the Arab world. For the later period of the Mali Empire, the major written primary sources are Portuguese accounts of the coastal provinces of Mali and neighboring societies.
Mali, Mandé, Manden, Mande-Bissa, and Manding are all various pronunciations of the same word across different languages and dialects. The version recorded by medieval Arab geographers is Mali (Arabic: مالي, romanized: Mālī). Mali is the Fula form of the word. In the Manding languages, the modern descendants of the language spoken at the core of the Mali Empire, Manden or Manding is the name of the region corresponding to the heartland of the Mali Empire.
Medieval sources are divided over whether Mali is the name of a town or a region. Ibn Battuta who visited the capital city from 1352 to 1353, called it Mali. The 1375 Catalan Atlas portrayed a "city of Melly" (Catalan: ciutat de Melly) in West Africa. Leo Africanus said that the capital city was called Melli. However, Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari gives Mali as the name of the capital province and Ibn Khaldun refers to Mali as a people, with each giving different names for the capital city itself. Whether Mali originated as the name of a town or region, the name was subsequently applied to the entire empire ruled from Mali.
Another hypothesis suggests that the name Mali is derived from Mandé mali "hippopotamus", an animal that had special significance to the Keitas, and that Mandé means "little manatee". A legend claims that Sunjata transformed into a hippopotamus. However, these hypotheses have been rejected by locals and are inconsistent with the apparent cognate status of Mali and Mandé.
The first Mande people entered the Manding region during the period of the Ghana Empire. The Manden city-state of Ka-ba (present-day Kangaba) served as the capital and name of the province. From at least the beginning of the 11th century, Mandinka kings ruled Manden from Ka-ba in the name of the Ghanas. The ruler was elected from among the heads of the major clans, and at this time had little real power. Wagadou's control over Manden ended in the 12th century. The Kangaba province, free of Soninké influence, splintered into twelve kingdoms with their own faama.
In approximately 1140 the Sosso Empire, often called Kaniaga, another former vassal of Wagadou, began conquering the lands of its old rulers. In 1203, the Sosso king and sorcerer Soumaoro Kanté came to power and reportedly conquered much of Manden.
Sundiata Keita, born during the rise of Kaniaga, was the son of Niani's faama, Nare Fa (also known as Maghan Kon Fatta, meaning the handsome prince). Upon his father's death, he was forced into exile along with his mother and two sisters. After many years in exile, Sundiata led the combined armies of Mema, Wagadou and the Mandinka city-states in a revolt against the Kaniaga Kingdom around 1234. The combined forces of northern and southern Manden defeated the Sosso army at the Battle of Kirina in approximately 1235. Maghan Sundiata was declared mansa over all the 12 kingdoms in an alliance that became the Mali Empire. During his reign, Sundiata's generals continued to expand the empire's frontiers, reaching from Kaabu in the west, Takrur, Oualata and Audaghost in the north, and the Soninke Wangara goldfields in the south.
The transfer of power following Sunjata's death is unclear, but there was evidently a power struggle of some kind involving the gbara or great council and donson ton or hunter guilds. Some oral traditions agree with Ibn Khaldun in indicating that a son of Sunjata, named Yerelinkon in oral tradition and Wali in Arabic, took power as Sunjata's successor. Two more of Sundiata's sons would reign, as well as a grandson, before a former slave Sakura, seized power. He was able to stabilize the political situation in Mali. Under his leadership, Mali conquered new territories and trade with North Africa increased.
After Sakura's death, power returned to the line of Sunjata, with Qu taking the throne. He was succeeded by his son Muhammad, who launched two voyages to explore the Atlantic Ocean. After the loss of the first expedition, Muhammad led the second expedition himself. He left his cousin Kanku Musa in charge during his absence. Eventually, due to Muhammad's failure to return, Musa was recognized as mansa in approximately 1312.
The reign of Kankan Musa, better known as Mansa Musa, is considered the golden age of Mali. A devout and well-educated Muslim, he took an interest in the scholarly city of Timbuktu, which he peaceably annexed in 1324, and transformed Sankore from an informal madrasah into an Islamic university. Mansa Musa Keita's crowning achievement was his famous 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca. Accounts of how many people and how much gold he spent vary. All of them agree that he took a very large group of people; the mansa kept a personal guard of some 500 men, and he gave out so many alms and bought so many things that the value of gold in Egypt and Arabia depreciated for twelve years. When he passed through Cairo, historian al-Maqrizi noted "the members of his entourage proceeded to buy Turkish and Ethiopian slave girls, singing girls and garments, so that the rate of the gold dinar fell by six dirhams." In addition to his famous hajj, Musa built mosques and palaces in Timbuktu and Gao, and took control of the valuable salt mine of Taghazza.
Mansa Musa's son Maghan I ruled for only a few years before being succeeded (or overthrown) by his uncle Sulayman. Sulayman's reign continued Mali's golden age, as attested by the writer Ibn Battuta who arrived in Mali in July 1352, and he made a successful hajj, kept up correspondence with Morocco and Egypt.
Upon Sulayman's death in 1360, the empire was ruled by a string of short-lived, cruel, or incompetent rulers. The kankoro-sigui held increasing influence as a power behind the throne. During this period the Jolof Empire was founded, and soon dominated all of northern Senegambia. In the 1370s a war between Mali imperial forces and Berber Tuareg forces from Takedda devastated the city of Gao. The area around it became independent of Malian control around this time. Still, by the time of Mansa Musa Keita II's death in 1387, Mali was financially solvent and in control of all of its previous conquests except Gao and Dyolof. Forty years after the reign of Mansa Musa Keita I, the Mali Empire still controlled some 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi) of land.
The late 14th century again saw a series of short reigns, often ending in palace coups. While maintaining a firm grip in the south and west, and even expanding in some areas, imperial control of their northernmost provinces was slipping, as attested by the Mossi raids on Macina. In 1433–1434, the Empire lost control of Timbuktu to the Tuareg, led by Akil Ag-Amalwal. Three years later, Oualata also fell into their hands. The rising Songhai Empire conquered Mema, one of Mali's oldest possessions, in 1465. It then seized Timbuktu from the Tuareg in 1468 under Sunni Ali Ber. In 1477, the Mossi emperor Naba Nasséré made yet another raid into Macina, this time conquering it and the old province of BaGhana (Wagadou).
In an attempt to stem the tide, Mansa Mahmud Keita II opened diplomatic relations with Portugal, receiving the envoys Pêro d'Évora and Gonçalo Enes in 1487. In 1493 he sent another envoy proposing an alliance against the threat of Tenguella, but this came to nothing. Songhai forces under the command of Askia Muhammad I defeated the Mali general Fati Quali Keita in 1502 and seized the province of Diafunu. In 1514, the Denianke dynasty was established in Tekrour and it was not long before the new kingdom of Great Fulo was warring against Mali's remaining provinces.
In 1544 or 1545, a Songhai force led by kanfari Dawud, who later succeeded his brother Askia Ishaq as ruler of the Songhai Empire, sacked the capital of Mali and purportedly used the royal palace as a latrine. However, the Songhai did not maintain their hold on the Malian capital.
Mali's fortunes seem to have improved in the second half of the 16th century. Around 1550, Mali attacked Bighu in an effort to regain access to its gold. Songhai authority over Bendugu and Kala declined by 1571, and Mali may have been able to reassert some authority over them. The breakup of the Wolof Empire allowed Mali to reassert authority over some of its former subjects on the north bank of the Gambia, such as Wuli, by 1576.
The end of the Mali Empire came in 1599, under the reign of Mansa Mahmud IV. The Songhai Empire had fallen to the Saadi Sultanate of Morocco eight years earlier, and Mahmud sought to take advantage of their defeat by trying to capture Jenne. Mahmud sought support from several other rulers, including the governor of Kala, Bukar. Bukar professed his support, but believing Mahmud's situation to be hopeless, secretly went over to the Moroccans. The Malian and Moroccan armies fought at Jenne on 26 April, the last day of Ramadan, and the Moroccans were victorious thanks to their firearms and Bukar's support, but Mahmud was able to escape. Around 1610, Mahmud Keita IV died. Oral tradition states that he had three sons who fought over Manden's remains. No single Keita ever ruled Manden after Mahmud Keita IV's death, resulting in the end of the Mali Empire.
As founded by Mari Djata, it was composed of the "three freely allied states" of Mali, Mema and Wagadou plus the Twelve Doors of Mali.
The Twelve Doors of Mali were a coalition of conquered or allied territories, mostly within Manden, with sworn allegiance to Sundiata and his descendants. Upon stabbing their spears into the ground before Sundiata's throne, each of the twelve kings relinquished their kingdom to the Keita dynasty. In return for their submission, they became "farbas", a combination of the Mandinka words "farin" and "ba" (great farin). Farin was a general term for northern commander at the time. These farbas would rule their old kingdoms in the name of the mansa with most of the authority they held prior to joining the empire.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Mali Empire”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.