Mali Empire
The medieval empire of Mali (on Mandinka: almonds Kurufa ) was the largest West African empire in history.
State people were the Malinke ( " people of Mali " ) and main source of income was the gold trade. Within its boundaries, it corresponded roughly to the present Mali. In its greatest extent, the Mali Empire reached much further than that from the Atlantic Ocean to the Aïr mountain ranges in central Niger.
Source location
Since in almost all African kingdoms - so in today's Mali - were long time no tradition of historiography in the Western sense, the tradition was carried out by oral narratives. Other sources are the details of Arab geographers and historians who rely on the reports of Berber and Arab traders and Malian Mecca pilgrims. During the colonial period the history of the medieval Mali empire was processed systematically for the first time due to source studies.
Founding of the Mali Empire
After the collapse of the late Islamized big Ghana Empire it came to expansion of the Muslim empire Malal the pre- Almoravid period from Niger Lakes region (southwest of Timbuktu ) to the southwest in the first half of the 13th century. At the headwaters of the Niger army commander of Sundiata Keïta marched supported by troops of the small king of Mema against the powerful king of Soso Forge Sumanguru edge. He defeated him at the Battle of Kirina, took over his rule attributes and founded the Mali Empire succession of Muslim Malal. He then conquered the northern part of the empire, also sold there, the Soso and made Mali so that the expanded successor kingdom of Ghana.
Pilgrimages to Mecca ruler of Mali
His successor Mansa Wali could therefore undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca, without having to cross the territory of a neighboring state in the Sahel. At the beginning of the 14th century also broke Mansa Sakura, an obviously not on the Keïta associated "client of the Kings of Mali ", to Mecca. Undoubtedly, the most important pilgrimage of all West African kings but did Mansa Musa in 1324. Several Egyptian chroniclers agree that much gold came through the purchases of the king of Mali and his companions on the market of Cairo, the price of gold fell drastically. The price fall must have been about 25 % according to modern calculations.
Local customs and practices - practices of Islam
When Ibn Battuta 1352-1353 the Mali Empire traveled, there was no longer Mansa Musa, but his brother Mansa Sulayman. The traveler had the impression that even at that time the inhabitants of the country were deeply influenced by Islam. According to his observations, the residents of the capital Niani work done regularly the five daily prayers, they participated in many of the Islamic festivals, parents were keen that their children memorize the Koran learned disputes were partially regulated by Kadis and not by the political authorities. There were, however, customs, a devout Muslim as Ibn Battuta shocked: slaves served their masters completely undressed and also appeared as the public; to welcome the king, the people of sand and ashes scattered on her head, a homage which is more than adequate according to Allah Muslim understanding, but not a human; grotesque and inappropriate it is also the price of songs published in honor of the king, in which the bard appeared in a strange disguise. These individual symptoms do not change the fact that Islam was practiced in Mali Empire of the urban population already the middle of the 14th century with great sympathy and devotion. As Ibn Battuta also emphasizes praise, ruled peaceful and secure conditions in the entire sphere of the Keïta. After the traveler Ibn Battuta un provides the historian Ibn Khaldun 1394 valuable news about the rise, expansion and the beginning of the disintegration of the Mali Empire. His and al - Umaris figures indicate that the Mali empire extended in the time of his greatest power development in the east to the mountains of the Air.
Collapse of the Mali Empire
In the late 14th century, show the first signs of decay in the Mali Empire. The main reason for this was the dynastic conflicts which Ibn Khaldun drops an eloquent testimony: Within 30 years, reigned six kings - a son of Sulayman, three descendants of Musa, a usurper, and ultimately a descendant Sundiatas from the line of his son Wali. Then there was the de facto rule of a powerful minister who the rightful king took for some time in custody and who had the power in his place. It is hard to believe that this development in the following years could be undone, because 1433 had to give up the Keïta Timbuktu. The Mema province in the lakes region of the Niger and the trading town of Djenné they could no longer hold under the pressure of the expanding Songhai eich the mid-15th century. The demise of the great Mali Empire is confirmed indirectly by the Portuguese. After their explorations in Senegambia there was a great king Mali somewhere inside the country. This namely the Mandinka kings of the Gambia in subjection, but he lived retired at the headwaters of the Niger. He had long lost control of the trans- Saharan gold trade.