Mansa Musa Timeline

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Ghana Empire holds power in Mali.

Mansa Musa is a devout Muslim and becomes king of Mali. Under his rule, conversions to Islam greatly increased.

Mansa Musa comes to power in Mali!

1324 CE

In 1324, Musa made a pilgrimage to Mecca. He brought along with him:

• 60,000 men
• 12,000 slaves
• Heralds dressed in silks who bore gold staffs
• Organized horses and handled bags

Musa provided all necessities for all, feeding the entire company of men and animals. Also with him were 80 camels, which varying reports claim carried between 50 and 300 pounds of gold dust each.

• 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 has been recorded that he built a mosque each and every Friday.

He distributed so much gold that the price dropped for the next ten years.

• Stopping in Cairo, one of the greatest cities in the world of that era, he left a strong impression because of his generous gifts and expenditures.
• His massive spending caused the value of gold in Egypt to be devalued.
• Ibn al-Iyas, an Egyptian of the 16th century, mentioned Musa's visit to Cairo in 1324 as the most outstanding event of that year.

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.

Mansa Musa and Malian generals capture the city of Goa.

Mansa Musa Dies!

Mansa Musa died around 1337, leaving the throne to his son Maghan I. About this time the empire began to unravel...

Songhai, a province in the east, left the empire. Mansa Maghan spent excessive amounts of Mali's wealth, leaving a weakened empire at his death around 1341 to his uncle Mansa Sulayman. While several of Mansa Musa's famous mosques remain to this day, the empire of Mali lasted no longer than two centuries following his death. By 1400 Timbuktu had been conquered by the Tuaregs, and war had broken out between the emerging Songhai empire and Mali. Following the reign of several weak kings and civil wars, the empire of Mali fell to the Songhai empire in 1546.

By the 18th century Mali had completely disappeared...

• Mansa Musa is mostly remembered for his extravagant hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca.

• Timbuktu became a center of trade, culture, and Islam after Mansa Musa made it part of his Empire.
• Islam was spread through the markets and universites, making Timbuktu a new area for Islamic scholarship.
• 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.
• Mansa Musa essentially put Timbuktu and Africa in general "on the map"
• While Musa’s palace has since vanished, the university and mosque still stand in Timbuktu today...

1360 CE

Mansa Suleyman (older brother) ends his ruling period.

The End !

('-'*)ｵﾋｻ♪

Mansa Musa Timeline

1307 CE

(before mansa musa)

LEGACY...

600 CE

The Arab-Egyptian scholar Al-Umari quoted Mansa Musa:

The ruler who preceded me did not believe that it was impossible to reach the extremity of the ocean that encircles the earth (meaning the Atlantic). He wanted to reach that (end) and was determined to pursue his plan. So he equipped two hundred boats full of men, and many others full of gold, water and provisions sufficient for several years. He ordered the captain not to return until they had reached the other end of the ocean, or until he had exhausted the provisions and water. So they set out on their journey. They were absent for a long period, and, at last just one boat returned. When questioned the captain replied: 'O Prince, we navigated for a long period, until we saw in the midst of the ocean a great river which flowing massively. My boat was the last one; others were ahead of me, and they were drowned in the great whirlpool and never came out again. I sailed back to escape this current.' But the Sultan would not believe him. He ordered two thousand boats to be equipped for him and his men, and one thousand more for water and provisions. Then he conferred the regency on me for the term of his absence, and departed with his men, never to return nor to give a sign of life.

—Mansa Musa

1337 CE

1325 CE

1312 CE