Ibn Battuta who visited the capital city from 1352 to 1353, called it Mali. Medieval sources are divided over whether Mali is the name of a town or a region. 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. The version recorded by medieval Arab geographers is Mali ( Arabic: مالي, romanized: Mālī). Mali, Mandé, Manden, and Manding are all various pronunciations of the same word across different languages and dialects. 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. 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. While the accounts are of limited length, they provide a fairly good picture of the empire at its height.Īfter Ibn Khaldun's death in 1406, there are no further Arab primary sources except for Leo Africanus, who wrote over a century later. The third great account is that of Ibn Khaldun, who wrote in the early 15th century. 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. He had first-hand information from several sources, and from a second-hand source he learned of the visit of Mansa Musa. His information about the empire came from visiting Malians taking the hajj, or pilgrim's voyage to Mecca. Imperial Mali is also known through the account of Shihab al-'Umari, written in about 1340 by a geographer-administrator in Mamluk Egypt. The other major source of information comes from Mandinka oral tradition, as recorded by storytellers known as griots. 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 Keitas retreated to the town of Kangaba, where they became provincial chiefs. The Mali Empire rapidly disintegrated, being replaced by independent chiefdoms. During the 17th century, the Mali Empire faced incursions from the Bamana Empire, who ultimately sacked and burned the capital in 1670. In 1542, the Songhai invaded the capital but were unsuccessful in conquering the empire. However, from 1507 onwards neighboring states such as Diarra, Great Fulo and the Songhai Empire chipped away at Mali's borders. 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. 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. The Tarikh al-Sudan records that Mali was still a sizeable state in the 15th century. Suleyman's death marked the end of Mali's Golden Age and the beginning of a slow decline. It was during Suleyman's 19-year reign that Ibn Battuta visited Mali. Maghan I succeeded him as mansa in 1337, but was deposed by his uncle Suleyman in 1341. 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. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca during the reign of Mamluk Sultan An-Nasir Muhammad (r. 1285 Sakoura, a former royal court slave, became emperor and was one of Mali's most powerful rulers, greatly expanding the empire's territory. 1255, the kings of Mali were referred to by the title mansa. 1235 marked the emergence of Mali as a major power.įollowing the death of Sundiata Keita, in c. 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 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. It began to develop during the 11th and 12th centuries as the Ghana Empire, or Wagadu, declined and trade routes shifted southward. The empire began as a small Mandinka kingdom at the upper reaches of the Niger River, centered around the Manding region. 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. 1255) and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa (Musa Keita). The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita ( c. The Mali Empire ( Manding: Mandé or Manden Arabic: مالي, romanized: Mālī) was an empire in West Africa from c.
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