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Mali Empire

Key Points

    • The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa from c. 1230 to 1670. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Musa Keita. The Manding languages were spoken in the empire. It was the largest empire in West Africa and profoundly influenced the culture of West Africa through the spread of its language, laws and customs.
    • The Rock art in the Sahara suggests that northern Mali has been inhabited since 10,000 BC, when the Sahara was fertile and rich in wildlife. By 300 BC, large organised settlements had developed, most notable near Djenné, one of West Africa's oldest cities. By the 6th century AD, the lucrative trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt and slaves had begun, facilitating the rise of West Africa's great empires.
    • Much of the recorded information about the Mali Empire comes from 14th-century North African Arab historian Ibn Khaldun, 14th-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta and 16th-century Moroccan traveller Leo Africanus. The other major source of information is Mandinka oral tradition, through storytellers known as griots.
    • The empire began as a small Mandinka kingdom at the upper reaches of the Niger River, centred around the town of Niani (the empire's namesake in Manding). During the 11th and 12th centuries, it began to develop as an empire following the decline of the Ghana Empire to the north. The conquest of Sosso in c. 1235 gave the Mali Empire access to the trans-Saharan trade routes.
    • The Mali Empire flourished because of its trade above all else. It contained three immense gold mines within its borders. The empire taxed gold, copper and salt that entered its borders. By the beginning of the 14th century, Mali was the source of almost half the Old World's gold exported from mines in Bambuk, Boure and Galam. Gold mines in Boure, which is located in present-day Guinea, were discovered sometime near the end of 12th century.
    • In 1307 Mansa Musa came to the throne after a series of civil wars and ruled for thirty years. During the peak of the kingdom, Mali was extremely wealthy. This was due to the tax on trade in and out of the empire, along with all the gold Mansa Musa had. Mali flourished especially when Timbuktu came under Mansa Musa’s control. Timbuktu was a place of trade, entertainment, and education. The city’s water supply was a leading cause to its successes in trade.
    • The Mali Empire maintained a semi-professional, full-time army in order to defend its borders. The entire nation was mobilised, with each clan obligated to provide a quota of fighting-age men. Historians who lived during the height and decline of the Mali Empire consistently record its army at 100,000, with 10,000 of that number being made up of cavalry. Swords and lances of local or foreign manufacture were the choice weapons of the cavalry. Spears and bows were the mainstay of the infantry. Bowmen formed a large portion of the field army as well as the garrison. Equipped with two quivers and a knife fastened to the back of their arm, Mandinka bowmen used barbed, iron-tipped arrows that were usually poisoned. They also used flaming arrows for siege warfare. Numerous sources attest that the inland waterways of West Africa saw extensive use of war canoes and vessels used for war transport where permitted by the environment. Most West African canoes were of single-log construction, carved and dug out from one massive tree trunk.
    • Imperial Malian architecture was characterised by Sudano-Sahelian architecture with a Malian substyle, which is exemplified by the Great Mosque of Djenne. This style is characterised by the use of mudbricks and an adobe plaster, with large wooden-log support beams that jut out from the wall face for large buildings such as mosques or palaces.
    • During the 17th century, the Mali empire faced incursions from the Bamana Empire. After unsuccessful attempts by Mansa Mama Maghan to conquer Bamana, in 1670 Bamana sacked and burned Niani, and the Mali Empire rapidly disintegrated and ceased to exist, being replaced by independent chiefdoms. The Keitas retreated to the town of Kangaba, where they became provincial chiefs.
Read more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_Empire






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References


Wikipedia contributors. (2019, February 2). Mali Empire. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:06, February 3, 2019, from Link