Question

After the reign of Mansa Musa, the history of Mali-Songhai continued, but eventually the region was conquered and suffered decline. How did the riches of the region and of the great city of Timbuktu serve to summon its own destruction? What sources are used to trace the rise and fall of Mali-Songhai?

Answer 1

Mansa Musa (1280-1337) was the ruler of the Mali Empire After the death of his father in 1312 he became the ruler of Mali and Mansa was added to his name Musa, Mansa means king. He made his holy pilgrimage to Mecca traveling four thousand miles with his devoted escorts and introduced himself to the rulers of Europe and the Middle East. He became the first African king known to the Western world. He was a learned person and had a good knowledge of the Arabic language. He was a generous person and on his way to Mecca he generously donated at various locations and in Cairo, he distributed a large amount of Gold that resulted in the prices of Gold remaining low in Cairo for many years. He was a devoted Muslim he made schools, mosques, and universities based on Islamic teachings. He brought artisans on his way back and built beautiful palaces and mosques in his country.

He ruled for 25 years and conquered many cities leading to its height of power wealth and fame. He died in 1337 and after his death, his son Meghan Musa became the ruler of the Mali Empire. He was not as strong and able as his father.

By the 15 century, the Mali Empire saw civil war the ill-defined law of succession led to internal conflicts between the family members. With the opening in the new trade routes, many countries that Mansa Musa had conquered looked at the other allies, and many rival kingdoms started their trade with strong Songhai.

With the fall of the Mali Empire, the Western world especially the Portuguese started sailing down the West coast giving tough competition to the traders from Mali to the Mediterranean.

In 1433 CE Mali was attacked by Mossi people who were from Niger Nigeria a part of the Mali Empire in the Mansa Musa's era, it had rebelled against the king. In 1468 CE, King Sunni Ali of the Songhai empire attacked Mali and conquered a large part of Mali, and reduced the once Mali empire to a small western pocket of its once great territory that had stretched across 2000 miles.

Timbuktu was a great city and famous for his Islamic culture during the Mali Empire, and famous trading post, during 14 the century it was a famous and important post for salt and gold trade. After the internal conflicts and civil wars, the city was attacked by Songhai and Sunni Ali. It was subsequently captured by the Moroccan ruler in 1591. With this the city started declining, the scholars were arrested and many were killed, the Moroccan escaped to Morocco and the one who was there to protect the city was unable to protect it against rebels and with repeated attacks from enemies, it was destroyed.

The ruins of Timbuktu and many of the information about the Mali Empire and its prosperity are known from the writings of Ibn Khaldun who was a North African Arab historian in 14th century and Moroccan traveler ibn Batuta who has written about all the details of wealth and history of Mali Empire. The other sources are the mouth to mouth stories of the glorious period and its fall by the storytellers.