Primary Source: Kingdom of Mali



Primary Source: Kingdom of Mali

Global History and Geography I E. Napp

Name: ____________________ Date: __________

The following description of the visit to Cairo in 1324 by the King of Mali, Mansa Musa, was written by Al-Umari, who visited Cairo several years after Mansa Musa’s visit.

           

“From the beginning of my coming to stay in Egypt I heard talk of the arrival of this Mansa Musa on his Pilgrimage and found people eager to recount what they had seen of his spending.  I asked a person and he told me of the riches of Mansa Musa. 

The man said, “When I went out to meet him, he did me honor and treated me with the greatest courtesy.  He addressed me, however, only through an interpreter despite his perfect ability to speak in the Arabic tongue.  Then he gave away gold and other valuables.  I tried to persuade him to go up to meet the Sultan (the ruler of Cairo) but Mansa Musa said, “I came for the Pilgrimage and nothing else.  I do not wish to mix anything else with my Pilgrimage.”  I realized that Mansa Musa did not want to meet the Sultan because he would have to kiss the ground and the Sultan’s hand. Finally, Mansa Musa agreed. 

When we came into the Sultan’s presence, we said to him: ‘Kiss the ground!’ but he refused outright saying: ‘How may this be?’  Then an intelligent man who was with him whispered to him something we could not understand and he said: ‘I bow only to God who created me!’ then he reluctantly bowed and went forward to the Sultan.  The Sultan half rose to greet him and sat him by his side.  They conversed together for a long time, and then Musa went out.  The Sultan sent to Mansa Musa several horses. Mansa Musa flooded the royal office with the gift of a load of gold.  Mansa Musa exchanged so much gold that he depressed its value in Egypt and caused its price to fall.” …

            Gold was at a high price in Egypt until Mansa Musa came to town.  The price of gold fell with the arrival of Mansa Musa because he gave away so much gold. Generally, the more of an object that exists, the less value that object has.  This was the state of affairs for about twelve years after Mansa Musa came to town.

Questions:

What can you tell about Mansa Musa from the above account? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

How did he view himself? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What can you tell about the extent of his wealth?  ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sometimes history seems to repeat itself. The rise and fall of the West African kingdoms is an example of this. Mali and Songhai, as well as the smaller kingdom of Ghana before them, were once great trading kingdoms famous for their gold. Yet despite their greatness, they each declined for similar reasons.

The empire of Mali, which dated from the early thirteenth century to the late fifteenth century, rose out of what was once the empire of Ghana. Mali had been a state inside of the Ghanaian empire. After Ghana fell because of invading forces and internal disputes, Mali rose to greatness under the leadership of a legendary king named Sundiata, the "Lion King." Later, another great leader named Mansa Musa extended the empire. After his death, however, his sons could not hold the empire together. The smaller states it had conquered broke off, and the empire crumbled.

As Mali's power waned, Songhai asserted its independence and rose to power in the area. Songhai had been an important trade center within Mali's empire, just as Mali had once been ruled by Ghana. Great Songhai kings such as Sunni Ali Ber and Askia Mohammed Toure extended the Songhai kingdom farther than Ghana or Mali had before it and brought an organized system of government to the area. It was the largest and most powerful kingdom in medieval West Africa. The riches of the gold and salt mines drew invaders, though, and in the late sixteenth century a Moroccan army attacked the capital. The Songhai Empire, already weakened by internal political struggles, went into decline.

Questions:

1- What did the West African kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai have in common? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2- Why did the West African kingdoms decline? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3- What lessons can be learned from the West African kingdoms? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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