West African History Before 1600 The Mali Empire

West African History Before 1600: The Mali Empire, Background and Approaches Toby Green King’s College London

Outline of Background and Key Facts of Mali’s History Overview of Presentation Key Contexts for the History of the Mali Empire Approaches and Resources for teaching Mali’s History More resources

The Catalan Atlas, Abraham Cresques, c. 1375: Early globalization, trade, and plural cultures and societies in medieval West Africa

Mali and Surrounding Kingdoms

Sites of Mali: Tombouctou, Djinguereber Mosque

Djenne

Mopti: Architecture

The Niger River: Songo and the Niger River

• 1200 s: Rise of the Mali Empire under Sunjata Keita (c. 1230), who defeats Sumanguru Kante of the Soso • C. 1310 s, the 9 th Mansa of Mali, Abu Baqr II, may have equipped an expedition to the Americas • 1324 -5: Mansa Musa of Mali goes on pilgrimage to Mecca Mali History: brief overview • 1325: Work begins on the mosque of Djinguereber built at Timbuktu, in which an architect from Al-Andalus (Es-Sahili) was involved • 1336: Timbuktu accepts Mali’s rule • Early 1400 s: Songhay begins to break away from Mali • 1433 -4: Mali loses control of Timbuktu to the Tuareg • 1464 -92: Sonni Ali’s reign, Ruler of Songhay • 1468: Songhay takes Timbuktu from Mali • 1472: Songhay takes Djenné from Mali • 1493: Askia Mohammed takes power of Songhay and inaugurates the Askia title of Songhay • 1591: Songhay overthrown by an army from Morocco

The Empire of Mali: KEY CONTEXTS 1 • Mali emerges from a previous history of empires with control of trans-Saharan trading routes, previously Ghāna (also known as Wagadu; fl. 8 th century to 12 th century), whose capital was at Koumbi Saleh in what is now Mauritania

The Empire of Mali: Key Contexts 2: Mali is a society which has extensive production of sources written by West Africans in the medieval period. This connects to the long history of Islam in West Africa, and connects to Ghāna’s history: Ghāna had a plural society with Islamic traders and rulers who observed African religions, with separate quarters for each. In 1076 the rise of the Almoravid movement of religious reform saw this balance overthrown and Islam became the religious of choice for Ghāna’s rulers and then Mali’s. As a result there are written sources and works of science, law and philosophy dating to the medieval period. See eg: https: //www. loc. gov/exhibits/mali-exhibit. html http: //www. tombouctoumanuscripts. org/libraries/ahmed_baba_institute_of_higher_learning_and_isla mic_research_iheri-ab/

• 3: Connection to the Dar Al-Islam, and the globalisation that this was part of. The Empire of Mali: Key Contexts • Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca (1324 -5): so much gold was brought that it caused huge inflation in Egypt. • So much was spent that Mansa Musa had to borrow money to finance the return to Mali when back in Cairo, which led to a relationship of debt, and expanding gold production in the 14 th century – as well as increased globalisation • Scholars from Mali worked in Medina, and there were hostels for pilgrims from Mali in Cairo and Medina by the 14 th century • Traders from Basra came to the oasis termini of the trans -Saharan trade that Mali controlled.

The Empire of Mali: Key Contexts • 4: Mixture of indigenous African legal and cultural forms with Islam – cosmopolitanism/Afropolitanism – cf Trevor’s work on African cosmopolitanism in the later period (1700 -1850)! • This sets a pattern for many future kingdoms in West Africa in the 15 th-17 th centuries, where rulers would often profess both Islam and African religions and accommodated plural faiths in cosmopolitan and multilingual societies s— peaking to their subjects and to the trans-Saharan Islamic traders • Only in the 18 th century does this really begin to change in the Sahel, as itinerant Islamic preachers critique the hybrid practices of these “Muslim” rulers.

The Empire of Mali: Key Contexts • (5) Influence on subsequent polities – relations to kingdoms such as Kano, Mossi, and Fuuta Tooro (Senegambia) – cf map • Kano rises in the 15 th century, and is influenced by Wangara traders from Mali • Mossi rises in the 15 th century as well, while Futa Tooro is founded by Fulani herdsman who have migrated from Mali. • IE, the patterns and relations of Mali have a profound impact on subsequent West African history

• https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=9 zf. AYKy. Dh. AA (Toumani Diabate) Approaches and Resources: Music and Mali Jelis and griots – criado – and the role of the griot Reinventing history for each generation, and singing it Segu and griots: a new kingdom in the 18 th century in Mali; revolution and the role of Segu’s griots – kernel of modern kora music

Music and History https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=RKVC 5 P p. TTDQ The Kankurang/Mama Djombo: From 11’ 54 to 14’ 34 The role of the Balafon: from 17’ 45

Approaches and Resources: Architecture and History • Back to some of the slides we started with: follow a building such as Djinguereber mosque and think about how it speaks to so many aspects of Mali’s past: • Islam, globalisation, literacy, law, and pluralism • Just following a piece of history of a piece of music (eg Sunjata Epic) can provide a completely different point of view

Sources: John O Hunwick (ed. ), Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sa’dī’s Ta’rīkh al-sudān down to 1613 and Other Contemporary Documents (Leiden: Brill, 1999). N. Levtzion and JFB Hopkins (eds. ), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000) Mali: A brief bibliography Secondary literature: Michael Gomez, A New History of Empire in Early Medieval West Africa (Princeton, 2018) N. Levtzion, Ancient Ghana and Mali (London: Methuen, 1973) Ghislaine Lydon, On Trans-Saharan Trails (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) OCR Textbook, Chapter on Songhay

Over to Trevor!