Mali Empire
The
Mali Empire (1235-1546) was an Empire of the
Mandinka, a
Mandé people in
West Africa, dating from the
13th to
16th centuries. The empire was founded by the king
Sundiata Keita, and was famous for the generosity and wealth of one of his successors, Mansa
Kankan Musa I, and for the fabled wealth of the city of
Timbuktu.
The
Mandinka Kingdom of Mali had already existed for several centuries as a small state just to the South of the
Ghana Empire. After the Ghana Empire had been weakened by the
Almoravides, the
Sosso Kingdom filled the power vacuum, and conquered many surrounding peoples, including the Mandinka, in the late 12th century.
There are various accounts on how Sundiata came to power. The most common scenario passed down by traditional oral historians claims he returned to Mali after being exiled with his mother and sisters. With the combined armies of the Mema and Wagadou kingdoms, Sundiata defeated the Sosso kingdom of
Kaniaga and united 12 kings into the Mali Empire. Another account claims the Sosso king,
Sumanguru Kante, executed his brother, the Mandinka king, and eleven of his twelve sons sparing Sundiata because of his feeble condition. Afterwards, Sundiata overcame his disability and grew into a great warrior leading the Mandinka revolt overthrowing the Sosso.
Battle of Kirina
The combined kingdoms of the Mandinka defeated the Sosso at the battle of Kirina (then known as Krina) causing the fall of the Kaniaga kingdom. After the victory, Sumanguru disapeared and the Mandinka stormed the last of the Sosso cities before electing Sundiata as mansa (king of kings). Following his victory, Sundiata developed the empire agriculturally to support the large populace.
In 1235, Sundiata formalized the government presenting an oral constitution called the
Kouroukan Fouga, which was preserved by court historians called djeli or griots. It divided the empire into 16 ruling clans, 5 marabout clans, 4 djeli clans and 4 nyamakala clans. The 12 kings that had allied or been subjugated by Sundiata were made governors (farba) of their expanded kingdoms which took on the form of provinces (tinkuru). These 12 provinces became known as the "12 Doors of mali of which only we (djeli) hold the key". The exact identities of all 12 doors are still unknown to those not of the djeli. The tinkuru were further divided into districts (kafo) which contained the cities (dougou). The kings of Mema and Wagadou kept their titles as kings in their own right. Combined with Sundiata's kingdom they composed the three freely allied states of the Mali Empire. According the constitution only Sundjata's clan (Keita) could rule and thus there kingdom was paramount over all others.
The Mali Empire maintained an impressive army in order to defend its borders. It kept two separate armies with one stationed in the north (Soura province, possibly a Mandinka deformation of the Arabic "Sarra" for desert) and one in the south (Sankaran province found in modern Guinea). Combined with the 12 doors, these accounted for the thirteenth and fourteenth provinces of the Mali Empire. Each military province was governed by a farin who controlled all forces in the region. It was the highest military office and appointed directly by the mansa. Below the farins were the Kele-tigui (war chiefs) and kun-tigui (political chiefs who when summoned led troops to battle). The army was divided into units of kulu (10-20 men on foot) and bolo (100-200 men on foot). These ground troops, called sofas, were armed with wooden shields and stabbing spears (tamba) or swords of local and foreign manufacture. The cavalry, of which they maintained some 10,000 were divided into units called sere (50 horsemen). Quilted armor,
chain mail, lances and swords were the weapons of Imperial Mali's cavalry.
Sundiata's son,
Mansa Wali Keita, succeeded him to the throne following his death (c.
1255). Mansa Wali Keita undertook the
Hajj, expanded the empire's borders and significantly increased agricultural production, but his brothers
Ouati Keita (r.
1270 -
1274) and
Khalifa Keita (r. 1274 -
1275) were weak kings and accomplished little. They were followed by Sundiata's grandson
Abu Bakr and former general
Sakura.
Sundiata's grandnephew,
Mansa Kankan Musa I or Musa I, ruled over the Mali Empire while it was the source of almost half the
Old World's
gold exported from mines in
Bambuk and
Boure. Musa was a devoted Muslim and Islamic scholarship flourished under his rule. With Musa as a benefactor,
Sankore University in
Timbuktu reached its height. Craftsmen and Islamic scholars came from all over the Muslim world to receive a free education at Sankore's
guilds and
madrasas. During this zenith, Mali contained some 400 towns and cities. Scholars of the era claim it took no less than a year to traverse the empire from east to west. Musa is most famous for his
hajj in
1324. On his pilgrimage to
Mecca, Musa gave gold away generously. When he passed through
Cairo, he gave out so much gold that the value of the commodity didn't recover for at least 12 years. Musa was so generous that he ran out of money and had to take out a
loan to be able to afford the journey home. Musa's
hajj, and especially his gold, caught the attention of both the Islamic and
Christian worlds. Consequently, the name of Mali and Timbuktu appeared on 14th century world maps.
The famous
Moroccan traveller
Ibn Battuta visited the Mali Empire in the years
1352 and
1353, and his detailed account is an important first-hand written description of this empire.
Not long after Musa's reign, the Empire of Mali went into decline. A civil war followed the 1360 death of Musa's brother
Suleyman and the nine-month reign of his son
Kassa. Musa's grandson,
Mari Diata II, is remembered by
Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun as a debauched, unpopular tyrant, and even the administrative skills of his son
Musa II failed to halt the decline.
The
Mossi of present-day
Burkina Faso began to make inroads into Malian territory in the south, while the
Tuaregs advanced from the
Sahara to the north. With an increasing lack of central control, a number of vassal states declared their independence, most notably the
Songhai of
Gao. This new state rapidly expanded into an
empire starting around 1460, claiming much of the territory of the crumbling Mali Empire and marking its effective end.
Mali continued to exist and exert some control over its heartland into the first half of the 16th century. They asked the Portuguese for military assistance in hope of saving their empire but to no avail. The city of Niani finally fell to Songhai forces in 1546.
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Sundiata Keita (1240-1255)
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Wali Keita (1255-1270)
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Ouati Keita (1270-1274)
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Khalifa Keita (1274-1275)
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Abu Bakr (1275-1285)
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Sakura (1285-1300)
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Gao (1300-1305)
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Mohammed ibn Gao (1305-1310)
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Abubakari II (1310-1312)
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Kankan Musa I (1312-1337)
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Maghan (1337-1341)
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Suleyman (1341-1360)
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Kassa (1360)
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Mari Diata II (1360-1374)
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Musa II (1374-1387)
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Magha II (1387-1389)
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Sandaki (1389-1390)
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Mahmud (1390-1400)
*Unknown Mansas (1400-1546)
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Jews of the Bilad el-Sudan (West Africa)*
African Jew*
Park Ethnography Program*
Introduction to the History of Reform*
histoire-afrique*
afrik.com*
Governance in Africa*
Princeton Online*
Metropolitan Museum on the Mali Empire*
Sundiata and Mansa Musa on the Web : Mali Empire*
Mali Empire bibliography by Brenda Randolph*
Early African Empires
