Mansa Musa

Mansa Musa^[a] (reigned c. 1312 – c. 1337^[b]) was the ninth^[4] Mansa of the Mali Empire, which reached its territorial peak during his reign. Musa's reign is often regarded as the zenith of Mali's power and prestige.

Musa I
Depiction of Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire in the 14th century, from the 1375 Catalan Atlas. The label reads: This Black Lord is called Musse Melly and is the sovereign of the land of the black people of Gineva (Ghana). This king is the richest and noblest of all these lands due to the abundance of gold that is extracted from his lands.^[1]
Mansa of Mali
Reign	c. 1312 – c. 1337 (approx. 25 years)
Predecessor	Muhammad^[2]
Successor	Magha
Born	Late 13th century Mali Empire
Died	c. 1337 Mali Empire
Spouse	Inari Kunate
House	Keita dynasty
Religion	Islam Maliki

He was extremely wealthy; it has been suggested that he was the wealthiest person in history,^[5] but the extent of his actual wealth is not known with any certainty. It is known from local manuscripts and travellers accounts that Mansa Musa's wealth came principally from the Mali Empire controlling and taxing the trade in salt from northern regions and especially from gold panned and mined in the gold-rich regions to the south: Bambuk, Wangara, Bure, Galam, Taghaza and other such kingdoms over many centuries. Over a very long period Mali had created a large reserve of gold. Mali is also suspected to have been involved in the trade in many goods such as ivory, slaves, spices, silks, and ceramics. However presently little is known about the extent or mechanics of these trades.^[6][7] At the time of Musa's ascension to the throne, Mali in large part consisted of the territory of the former Ghana Empire, which Mali had conquered. The Mali Empire consisted of land that is now part of Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, the Gambia, and the modern state of Mali.

Musa went on Hajj to Mecca in 1324, traveling with an enormous entourage and a vast supply of gold. En route, he spent time in Cairo, where his lavish gift-giving is said to have noticeably affected the value of gold in Egypt and garnered the attention of the wider Muslim world. Musa expanded the borders of the Mali Empire, in particular incorporating the cities of Gao and Timbuktu into its territory. He sought closer ties with the rest of the Muslim world, particularly the Mamluk and Marinid Sultanates. He recruited scholars from the wider Muslim world to travel to Mali, such as the Andalusian poet Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, and helped establish Timbuktu as a center of Islamic learning. His reign is associated with numerous construction projects, including part of Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu.

Name and titles

Mansa Musa's personal name was Musa (Arabic: موسى, romanized: Mūsá), the name of Moses in Islam.^[8] Mansa, 'ruler'^[9] or 'king'^[10] in Mandé, was the title of the ruler of the Mali Empire. In oral tradition and the Timbuktu Chronicles, Musa is further known as Kanku Musa.^[11][c] In Mandé tradition, it was common for one's name to be prefixed by their mother's name, so the name Kanku Musa means "Musa, son of Kanku", although it is unclear if the genealogy implied is literal.^[13] He is also called Hiji Mansa Musa in oral tradition because he made hajj.^[14]

Al-Yafii gave Musa's name as Musa ibn Abi Bakr ibn Abi al-Aswad (Arabic: موسى بن أبي بكر بن أبي الأسود, romanized: Mūsā ibn Abī Bakr ibn Abī al-Aswad),^[15] and ibn Hajar gave Musa's name as Musa ibn Abi Bakr Salim al-Takruri.^[16]

In the Songhai language, rulers of Mali such as Musa were known as the Mali-koi, koi being a title that conveyed authority over a region: in other words, the "ruler of Mali".^[17]

Historical sources

Much of what is known about Musa comes from Arabic sources written after his hajj, especially the writings of Al-Umari and Ibn Khaldun. While in Cairo during his hajj, Musa befriended officials such as Ibn Amir Hajib, who learned about him and his country from him and later passed on that information to historians such as Al-Umari.^[18] Additional information comes from two 17th-century manuscripts written in Timbuktu, the Tarikh Ibn al-Mukhtar^[d] and the Tarikh al-Sudan.^[20] Oral tradition, as performed by the jeliw (sg. jeli), also known as griots, includes relatively little information about Musa compared to some other parts of the history of Mali.^[20]

Lineage and accession to the throne

	Nare Maghan^[f]
1. Sunjata			Abu Bakr
2. Uli			Faga Leye^[g]
7. Qu		9. Musa I		11. Sulayman
8. Muhammad		10. Magha I		12. Qanba
		13. Mari Jata II
	14. Musa II		15. Magha II

Genealogy of the mansas of the Mali Empire up to Magha II (d. c. 1389), based on Levtzion's interpretation of Ibn Khaldun.^[21] Numbered individuals reigned as mansa; the numbers indicate the order in which they reigned.^[e]

Musa's father was named Faga Leye^[14] and his mother may have been named Kanku.^[h] Faga Leye was the son of Abu Bakr, a brother of Sunjata, the first mansa of the Mali Empire.^[14][i] Ibn Battuta, who visited Mali during the reign of Musa's brother Sulayman, said that Musa's grandfather was named Sariq Jata.^[24] Sariq Jata may be another name for Sunjata, who was actually Musa's great-uncle.^[25] The date of Musa's birth is unknown, but he still appeared to be a young man in 1324.^[26] The Tarikh al-fattash claims that Musa accidentally killed Kanku at some point prior to his hajj.^[13]

Musa ascended to power in the early 1300s^[j] under unclear circumstances. According to Musa's own account, his predecessor as Mansa of Mali, presumably Muhammad ibn Qu,^[29] launched two expeditions to explore the Atlantic Ocean (200 ships for the first exploratory mission and 2,000 ships for the second). The Mansa led the second expedition himself, and appointed Musa as his deputy to rule the empire until he returned.^[30] When he did not return, Musa was crowned as mansa himself, marking a transfer of the line of succession from the descendants of Sunjata to the descendants of his brother Abu Bakr.^[31] Some modern historians have cast doubt on Musa's version of events, suggesting he may have deposed his predecessor and devised the story about the voyage to explain how he took power.^[32][33] Nonetheless, the possibility of such a voyage has been taken seriously by several historians.^[34][35][36]

According to the Tarikh al-Fattash, Musa had a wife named Inari Konte.^[37] Her jamu (clan name) Konte is shared with both Sunjata's mother Sogolon Konte and his arch-enemy Sumanguru Konte. ^[38]

Early reign

Musa was a young man when he became Mansa, possibly in his early twenties.^[39] Given the grandeur of his subsequent hajj, it is likely that Musa spent much of his early reign preparing for it.^[40] Among these preparations would likely have been raids to capture and enslave people from neighboring lands, as Musa's entourage would include many thousands of enslaved people; the historian Michael Gomez estimates that Mali may have captured over 6,000 people per year for this purpose.^[41] Perhaps because of this, Musa's early reign was spent in continuous military conflict with neighboring non-Muslim societies.^[41] In 1324, while in Cairo, Musa said that he had conquered 24 cities and their surrounding districts.^[42]

Pilgrimage to Mecca

Musa was a Muslim, and his hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca made him well known across North Africa and the Middle East. To Musa, Islam was "an entry into the cultured world of the Eastern Mediterranean".^[43] He would have spent much time fostering the growth of the religion within his empire. When Musa departed Mali for the Hajj, he left his son Muhammad to rule in his absence.^[44]

Musa made his pilgrimage between 1324 and 1325, spanning 2700 miles.^[45][46][47] His procession reportedly included 60,000 men, all wearing brocade and Persian silk, including 12,000 slaves,^{[48][better source needed]} who each carried 1.8 kg (4 lb) of gold bars, and heralds dressed in silks bearing gold staffs organized horses and handled bags.

Musa provided all necessities for the procession, feeding the entire company of men and animals.^[43] Those animals included 80 camels, which each carried 23–136 kg (50–300 lb) of gold dust. Musa gave the gold to the poor he met along his route. Musa not only gave to the cities he passed on the way to Mecca, including Cairo and Medina, but also traded gold for souvenirs. It was reported that he built a mosque every Friday.^[27] Shihab al-Din al-'Umari, who visited Cairo shortly after Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca, noted that it was "a lavish display of power, wealth, and unprecedented by its size and pageantry".^[49] Musa made a major point of showing off his nation's wealth.

Musa and his entourage arrived at the outskirts of Cairo in July 1324. They camped for three days by the Pyramids of Giza before crossing the Nile into Cairo on 19 July.^[k][50][51] While in Cairo, Musa met with the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, whose reign had already seen one mansa, Sakura, make the Hajj. Al-Nasir expected Musa to prostrate himself before him, which Musa initially refused to do. When he did finally bow, he said he was doing so for God alone.^[52]

Despite this initial awkwardness, the two rulers got along well and exchanged gifts. Musa and his entourage gave and spent freely while in Cairo. Musa stayed in the Qarafa district of Cairo and befriended its governor, ibn Amir Hajib, who learned much about Mali from him. Musa stayed in Cairo for three months, departing on 18 October^[l] with the official caravan to Mecca.^[50][53]

Musa's generosity continued as he traveled onward to Mecca, and he gave gifts to fellow pilgrims and the people of Medina and Mecca. While in Mecca, conflict broke out between a group of Malian pilgrims and a group of Turkic pilgrims in the Masjid al-Haram. Swords were drawn, but before the situation escalated further, Musa persuaded his men to back down.^[54]

Musa and his entourage lingered in Mecca after the last day of the Hajj. Traveling separately from the main caravan, their return journey to Cairo was struck by catastrophe. By the time they reached Suez, many of the Malian pilgrims had died of cold, starvation, or bandit raids, and they had lost many of their supplies.^[55][56] Having run out of money, Musa and his entourage were forced to borrow money and resell much of what they had purchased while in Cairo before the Hajj, and Musa went into debt to several merchants such as Siraj al-Din. However, Al-Nasir Muhammad returned Musa's earlier show of generosity with gifts of his own.^[57]

On his return journey, Musa met the Andalusi poet Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, whose eloquence and knowledge of jurisprudence impressed him, and whom he convinced to travel with him to Mali.^[58] Other scholars Musa brought to Mali included Maliki jurists.^[59]

According to the Tarikh al-Sudan, the cities of Gao and Timbuktu submitted to Musa's rule as he traveled through on his return to Mali.^[60] According to one account given by ibn Khaldun, Musa's general Saghmanja conquered Gao. The other account claims that Gao had been conquered during the reign of Mansa Sakura.^[61] Both of these accounts may be true, as Mali's control of Gao may have been weak, requiring powerful mansas to reassert their authority periodically.^[62]

Later reign

Construction in Mali

Musa embarked on a large building program, raising mosques and madrasas in Timbuktu and Gao. Most notably, the ancient center of learning Sankore Madrasah (or University of Sankore) was constructed during his reign.^[63]

In Niani, Musa built the Hall of Audience, a building communicating by an interior door to the royal palace. It was "an admirable Monument", surmounted by a dome and adorned with arabesques of striking colours. The wooden window frames of an upper storey were plated with silver foil; those of a lower storey with gold. Like the Great Mosque, a contemporaneous and grandiose structure in Timbuktu, the Hall was built of cut stone.

During this period, there was an advanced level of urban living in the major centers of Mali. Sergio Domian, an Italian scholar of art and architecture, wrote of this period: "Thus was laid the foundation of an urban civilization. At the height of its power, Mali had at least 400 cities, and the interior of the Niger Delta was very densely populated."^[64]

Economy and education

 

The Djinguereber Mosque, commissioned by Mansa Musa in 1327

It is recorded that Mansa Musa traveled through the cities of Timbuktu and Gao on his way to Mecca, and made them a part of his empire when he returned around 1325. He brought architects from Andalusia, a region in Spain, and Cairo to build his grand palace in Timbuktu and the great Djinguereber Mosque that still stands.^[65]

Timbuktu soon became the center of trade, culture, and Islam; markets brought in merchants from Hausaland, Egypt, and other African kingdoms, a university was founded in the city (as well as in the Malian cities of Djenné and Ségou), and Islam was spread through the markets and university, making Timbuktu a new area for Islamic scholarship.^[66] News of the Malian empire's city of wealth even traveled across the Mediterranean to southern Europe, where traders from Venice, Granada, and Genoa soon added Timbuktu to their maps to trade manufactured goods for gold.^[67]

The University of Sankore in Timbuktu was restaffed under Musa's reign with jurists, astronomers, and mathematicians.^[68] The university became a center of learning and culture, drawing Muslim scholars from around Africa and the Middle East to Timbuktu.

In 1330, the kingdom of Mossi invaded and conquered the city of Timbuktu. Gao had already been captured by Musa's general, and Musa quickly regained Timbuktu, built a rampart and stone fort, and placed a standing army to protect the city from future invaders.^[69] While Musa's palace has since vanished, the university and mosque still stand in Timbuktu.

Death

 

The Mali Empire at the time of Musa's death

The date of Mansa Musa's death is not certain. Using the reign lengths reported by Ibn Khaldun to calculate back from the death of Mansa Suleyman in 1360, Musa would have died in 1332.^[70] However, Ibn Khaldun also reports that Musa sent an envoy to congratulate Abu al-Hasan Ali for his conquest of Tlemcen, which took place in May 1337, but by the time Abu al-Hasan sent an envoy in response, Musa had died and Suleyman was on the throne, suggesting Musa died in 1337.^[71] In contrast, al-Umari, writing twelve years after Musa's hajj, in approximately 1337,^[72] claimed that Musa returned to Mali intending to abdicate and return to live in Mecca but died before he could do so,^[73] suggesting he died even earlier than 1332.^[74] It is possible that it was actually Musa's son Maghan who congratulated Abu al-Hasan, or Maghan who received Abu al-Hasan's envoy after Musa's death.^[75] The latter possibility is corroborated by Ibn Khaldun calling Suleyman Musa's son in that passage, suggesting he may have confused Musa's brother Suleyman with Musa's son Maghan.^[76] Alternatively, it is possible that the four-year reign Ibn Khaldun credits Maghan with actually referred to his ruling Mali while Musa was away on the hajj, and he only reigned briefly in his own right.^[77] Nehemia Levtzion regarded 1337 as the most likely date,^[71] which has been accepted by other scholars.^[78][79]

Legacy

Musa's reign is commonly regarded as Mali's golden age, but this perception may be the result of his reign being the best recorded by Arabic sources, rather than him necessarily being the wealthiest and most powerful mansa of Mali.^[80] The territory of the Mali Empire was at its height during the reigns of Musa and his brother Sulayman, and covered the Sudan-Sahel region of West Africa.^[81]

Musa is less renowned in Mandé oral tradition as performed by the jeliw.^[82] He is criticized for being unfaithful to tradition, and some of the jeliw regard Musa as having wasted Mali's wealth.^[83][84] However, some aspects of Musa appear to have been incorporated into a figure in Mandé oral tradition known as Fajigi, which translates as "father of hope".^[85] Fajigi is remembered as having traveled to Mecca to retrieve ceremonial objects known as boliw, which feature in Mandé traditional religion.^[85] As Fajigi, Musa is sometimes conflated with a figure in oral tradition named Fakoli, who is best known as Sunjata's top general.^[86] The figure of Fajigi combines both Islam and traditional beliefs.^[85]

The name "Musa" has become virtually synonymous with pilgrimage in Mandé tradition, such that other figures who are remembered as going on a pilgrimage, such as Fakoli, are also called Musa.^[87]

Wealth

Mansa Musa is renowned for his wealth and generosity. Online articles in the 21st century have claimed that Mansa Musa was the richest person of all time.^{[88] [citation needed]} Historians such as Hadrien Collet have argued that Musa's wealth is impossible to accurately calculate.^[88][84] Contemporary Arabic sources may have been trying to express that Musa had more gold than they thought possible, rather than trying to give an exact number.^[89] Furthermore, it is difficult to meaningfully compare the wealth of historical figures such as Mansa Musa, due to the difficulty of separating the personal wealth of a monarch from the wealth of the state and the difficulty of comparing wealth in highly different societies.^[90] Musa may have brought as much as 18 tons of gold on his hajj,^[91] equal in value to over US$957 million in 2022.^[92] Musa himself further promoted the appearance of having vast, inexhaustible wealth by spreading rumors that gold grew like a plant in his kingdom.^[93]

According to some Arabic writers, Musa's gift-giving caused a depreciation in the value of gold in Egypt. Al-Umari said that before Musa's arrival, a mithqal of gold was worth 25 silver dirhams, but that it dropped to less than 22 dirhams afterward and did not go above that number for at least twelve years.^[94] Though this has been described as having "wrecked" Egypt's economy,^[84] the historian Warren Schultz has argued that this was well within normal fluctuations in the value of gold in Mamluk Egypt.^[95]

The wealth of the Mali Empire did not come from direct control of gold-producing regions, but rather trade and tribute.^[96] The gold Musa brought on his pilgrimage probably represented years of accumulated tribute that Musa would have spent much of his early reign gathering.^[40] Another source of income for Mali during Musa's reign was taxation of the copper trade.^[97]

According to several contemporary authors, such as Ibn Battuta, Ibn al-Dawadari and al-Umari, Mansa Musa ran out of money during his journey to Mecca and had to borrow from Egyptian merchants at a high rate of interest on his return journey. Al-Umari and Ibn Khaldun state that the moneylenders were either never repaid or only partly repaid. Other sources disagree as to whether they were eventually and fully compensated.^{[98][99][100]}

Character

Arabic writers, such as Ibn Battuta and Abdallah ibn Asad al-Yafii, praised Musa's generosity, virtue, and intelligence.^[24][15] Ibn Khaldun said that he "was an upright man and a great king, and tales of his justice are still told."^[101]

Footnotes

1. Arabic: منسا موسى, romanized: Mansā Mūsā
2. The dates of Musa's reign are uncertain. Musa is reported to have reigned for 25 years, and different lines of evidence suggest he died either c. 1332 or c. 1337, with the 1337 date being considered more likely.^[3]
3. The name is transcribed in the Tarikh al-Sudan as Kankan (Arabic: كنكن, romanized: Kankan), which Cissoko concluded was a representation of the Mandinka woman's name Kanku^[12]
4. The Tarikh Ibn al-Mukhtar is a historiographical name for an untitled manuscript by Ibn al-Mukhtar. This document is also known as the Tarikh al-Fattash, which Nobili and Mathee have argued is properly the title of a 19th-century document that used Ibn al-Mukhtar's text as a source.^[19]
5. The sixth mansa, Sakura, is omitted from this chart as he was not related to the others. The third and fourth mansas (Wati and Khalifa), brothers of Uli, and fifth (Abu Bakr), a nephew of Uli, Wati, and Khalifa, are omitted to save space.
6. Name from oral tradition
7. Name from oral tradition
8. Musa's name Kanku Musa means "Musa son of Kanku", but the genealogy may not be literal.^[22]
9. Arabic sources omit Faga Leye, referring to Musa as Musa ibn Abi Bakr. This can be interpreted as either "Musa son of Abu Bakr" or "Musa descendant of Abu Bakr." It is implausible that Abu Bakr was Musa's father, due to the amount of time between Sunjata's reign and Musa's.^[23]
10. The exact date of Musa's accession is debated. Ibn Khaldun claims Musa reigned for 25 years, so his accession is dated to 25 years before his death. Musa's death may have occurred in 1337, 1332, or possibly even earlier, giving 1307 or 1312 as plausible approximate years of accession. 1312 is the most widely accepted by modern historians.^[27][28]
11. 26 Rajab 724
12. 28 Shawwal

References

Citations

1. "The Cresques Project - Panel III". cresquesproject.net. from the original on 12 February 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2023.
2. Levtzion 1963, p. 346
3. Levtzion 1963, pp. 349–350.
4. Levtzion 1963, p. 353
5. Mulroy, Clare. "The richest person who ever lived had unimaginable wealth. Inside the world's wealthiest". USA Today. from the original on 27 December 2022. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
6. "Mansa Musa (Musa I of Mali)". National Geographic. National Geographic Society. from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
7. Rodriguez, Junius P. (1997). The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery. ABC-CLIO. p. 449. ISBN 978-0-87436-885-7. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
8. McKissack & McKissack 1994, p. 56.
9. Gomez 2018, p. 87
10. MacBrair 1873, p. 40
11. Bell 1972, p. 230
12. Cissoko 1969.
13. Gomez 2018, p. 109
14. Niane 1959.
15. Collet 2019, p. 115–116.
16. Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 358.
17. Gomez 2018, pp. 109, 129
18. Al-Umari, Chapter 10.
19. Nobili & Mathee 2015.
20. Gomez 2018, pp. 92–93.
21. Levtzion 1963.
22. Gomez 2018, pp. 109–110
23. Levtzion 1963, p. 347
24. Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 295.
25. Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 416.
26. Gomez 2018, p. 104
27. Bell 1972
28. Levtzion 1963, pp. 349–350
29. Fauvelle 2018
30. Al-Umari, Chapter 10
31. Ibn Khaldun
32. Gomez 2018
33. Thornton 2012, pp. 9, 11
34. Gomez 2018, p. 101.
35. Devisse & Labib 1984, p. 666.
36. Thornton 2012, p. 13.
37. Bühnen 1994, p. 12.
38. Bühnen 1994, p. 12–13.
39. Gomez 2018, p. 104.
40. Gomez 2018, p. 105.
41. Gomez 2018, p. 107.
42. Al-Umari, translated in Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 267
43. Goodwin 1957, p. 110.
44. Al-Umari, translated in Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 268
45. Gomez 2018, p. 4.
46. Pollard, Elizabeth (2015). Worlds Together Worlds Apart. New York: W.W. Norton Company Inc. p. 362. ISBN 978-0-393-91847-2.
47. Wilks, Ivor (1997). "Wangara, Akan, and Portuguese in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries". In Bakewell, Peter John (ed.). Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas. Aldershot: Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Limited. p. 7. ISBN 9780860785132.
48. de Graft-Johnson, John Coleman. . Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 21 April 2017.
49. The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa By Patricia McKissack, Fredrick McKissack Page 60
50. Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 355.
51. Gomez 2018, pp. 114, 117.
52. Gomez 2018, p. 116.
53. Collet 2019, p. 111.
54. Collet 2019, pp. 115–122.
55. Gomez 2018, p. 118.
56. Collet 2019, pp. 122–129.
57. Gomez 2018, pp. 118–120.
58. Hunwick 1990, pp. 60–61.
59. Al-Umari, translated in Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 261
60. al-Sadi, translated in Hunwick 1999, p. 10
61. Ibn Khaldun, translated in Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 334
62. Levtzion 1973, p. 75.
63. "The University of Sankore, Timbuktu". 7 June 2003.
64. "Mansa Musa". African History Restored. 2008. from the original on 2 October 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2008.
65. De Villiers & Hirtle 2007, p. 70.
66. De Villiers & Hirtle 2007, p. 74.
67. De Villiers & Hirtle 2007, p. 87–88.
68. Goodwin 1957, p. 111.
69. De Villiers & Hirtle 2007, p. 80–81.
70. Levtzion 1963, p. 349.
71. Levtzion 1963, p. 350.
72. Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, pp. 252, 413.
73. Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 268.
74. Bell 1972, p. 224.
75. Bell 1972, p. 225–226.
76. Bell 1972, p. 225.
77. Bell 1972, p. 226–227.
78. Sapong 2016, p. 2.
79. Gomez 2018, p. 145.
80. Canós-Donnay 2019.
81. Niane 1984, p. 152.
82. Gomez 2018, pp. 92–93
83. Niane 1984.
84. Mohamud 2019.
85. Conrad 1992, p. 152.
86. Conrad 1992, p. 153.
87. Conrad 1992, pp. 153–154.
88. Collet 2019, p. 106.
89. Davidson 2015b.
90. Davidson 2015a.
91. Gomez 2018, p. 106.
92. "Gold Price in US Dollars (USD/oz t)". YCharts. from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
93. Gomez 2018, p. 121.
94. Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 271.
95. Schultz 2006.
96. Gomez 2018, pp. 107–108.
97. Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 272.
98. Gomez 2018, pp. 119–120
99. Abbou, Tahar (2020). "Mansa Musa's Journey to Mecca and Its Impact on Western Sudan (Conference: 'Routes of Hajj in Africa', at International University of Africa, Khartoum)". With his lavish spending and generosity in Cairo, (Mansa Musa) ran out of money and had to borrow at high rates of interest for the return journey. Ibn Battuta says that Mansa Musa borrowed 50,000 dinars from Siraj al-Din ibn al-Kuwayk, a rich merchant from Alexandria, after he had spent all his wealth.
100. Whalen, Brett Edward, ed. (2011). Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages: A Reader. University of Toronto Press. p. 308. ISBN 9781442603844. [Mansa Musa] could not meet his expenses. He therefore borrowed money from the principal merchants. Among those merchants who were in his company were the Banu l-Kuwayk, who gave him a loan of 50,000 dinars. He sold to them the palace which the sultan had bestowed on him as a gift. He [the sultan] approved it. Siraj al-Din b. al-Kuwayk sent his vizier along with him to collect what he had loaned to him but the vizier died there. Siraj al-Din sent another [emissary] with his son. He [the emissary] died but the son, Fakhr al-Din Abu Jafar, got back some of it. Mansa Musa died before he [Siraj al-Din] died, so they obtained nothing more from him.
101. Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 334.

Primary sources

• Al-Umari, Masalik al-Absar fi Mamalik al-Amsar, translated in Levtzion & Hopkins 2000
• Ibn Khaldun, Kitāb al-ʿIbar wa-dīwān al-mubtadaʾ wa-l-khabar fī ayyām al-ʿarab wa-ʾl-ʿajam wa-ʾl-barbar, translated in Levtzion & Hopkins 2000
• al-Sadi, Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān, translated in Hunwick 1999

Other sources

• Bell, Nawal Morcos (1972). "The age of Mansa Musa of Mali: Problems in succession and chronology". International Journal of African Historical Studies. 5 (2): 221–234. doi:10.2307/217515. JSTOR 217515.
• Bühnen, Stephan (1994). "In Quest of Susu". History in Africa. 21: 1–47. doi:10.2307/3171880. ISSN 0361-5413. JSTOR 3171880. S2CID 248820704. from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
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Further reading

• Ibn Battuta; Ibn Juzayy. Tuḥfat an-Nuẓẓār fī Gharāʾib al-Amṣār wa ʿAjāʾib al-Asfār., translated in Levtzion & Hopkins 2000 and Hamdun & King 2009

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Musa I of Mali.

• Mansa Musa I at World History Encyclopedia
• (archived) at History Channel's History.com
• Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa at Northwestern University's Block Museum of Art

Regnal titles
Preceded by Muhammad ibn Qu	Mansa of the Mali Empire 1312–1337	Succeeded by Maghan