Mansa Musa - c. 1280-1337

Malian Emperor

Mansa Musa, emperor of Mali in West Africa, was the first African ruler to become widely known throughout Europe and the Middle East. In particular, he was celebrated for his pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca, during which he lavished so much gold on his hosts in Cairo that he nearly wrecked the Egyptian economy.

The modern nation called Mali is poor and landlocked, but the medieval empire by that name, located to the southwest of present-day Mali, enjoyed considerable wealth, as well as access to the Atlantic. The source of Mali's wealth, like that of Ghana, an earlier kingdom in the region, was gold. The kings of Ghana had exerted tight control over the gold supply, and Mali's ruling dynasty, established c. 1235 by Sundiata Keita, was equally strong.

Mansa Musa—or rather, Musa, since "Mansa" was a title equivalent to highness—was either the grandson or the grandnephew of Sundiata, and became Mali's ninth ruler in about 1307. As for his early life, little is known, though it appears likely that he was educated in the Muslim religion. Though Islam had taken hold in Mali around 1000, a great number of Malian leaders maintained traditional African religions even in Musa's time. For the most part, however, Musa avoided serious conflicts over religion, primarily because he was a strong ruler and an effective administrator.

Musa's armies were constantly active, extending the power of Mali throughout the region. Even while he was away on his pilgrimage to Mecca, they captured a stronghold of the powerful Songhai nation to the east. Eventually his empire would control some 40 million people—a population two-fifths the size of Europe at the time—over a vast region nearly the size of the United States.

Undergirding Musa's power was his nation's wealth in gold, which owed something to events far away. For many centuries following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, Europe's economy had been weak; but beginning in about 1100—ironically, in part as a result of Europe's crusades against Islam—the European economy had begun growing again. This growth created a need for gold coins, which drove up gold prices and in turn increased Mali's wealth.

Gold wealth in turn spurred cultural advances under Musa's reign. Upon his return from Mecca, Musa brought with him an Arab architect who designed numerous mosques, as well as other public buildings. Some of those still stand in present-day Mali. Musa also encouraged the arts and education, and under his leadership, the fabled city of Timbuktu became a renowned center of learning.

Professors came from as far away as Egypt to teach in the schools there, but were often so impressed by the learning of Timbuktu's scholars that they remained as students. It was said that of the many items sold in the vast market at Timbuktu, none was more valuable than books.

In 1324, Musa embarked on his famous pilgrimage to Mecca, on which he was attended by thousands of advisors and servants dressed in splendid garments, riding animals adorned with gold ornaments. He stopped in Cairo, and spent so much gold that he caused an oversupply of the precious metal. As a result, the value of gold plummeted throughout much of the Middle East for several years.

Musa died in 1337 (some sources say 1332), and none of his successors proved his equal. Later kings found the vast empire difficult to govern, and they were plagued by religious and political conflicts. By the mid-fifteenth century the Songhai, who rejected Islam in favor of their tribal religions, broke away from Mali and established their own highly powerful state.

But even more powerful forces had been awakened far away. Europeans had some idea of the vast gold supplies in Mali, but when rumors from Egypt began spreading westward, Europeans' interest in sub-Saharan Africa increased dramatically.

Previously, European mapmakers had filled their maps of West Africa with fanciful illustrations, largely creations of their own imaginations; but beginning in 1375, maps showed Musa seated on a throne of solid gold. Eager to help themselves to the wealth of the distant land, Portuguese sailors began making their way southward. It was the beginning of the end of West Africa's brief flowering.