Mansa Musa Influence

Mansa Musa lived from 1280 - 1337 A.D. and ruled the West African Mali Empire from 1312-1337 for a total of 25 years. He redeemed the monarchy in the Mali Empire in the fourteenth century. The title “mansa” means king or lord. Not much is known about him before he gained the throne. His most notable achievement was his famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 that brought great wealth to the Mali Empire. He extended the Mali Empire to make it so big that it was said to take a whole year to travel across. Mansa Musa was responsible for the expansion of the empire which is illustrated by his conquest of the Ghana empire. The Mali Empire reached half a million square miles. From east to west the empire extended from the Atlantic ocean to the bend in

“Mansa Musa brought back with him an Arabic library, religious scholars, and most importantly the Muslim architect Al-Sahili who introduced into Mali a new development in architecture, especially in the buildings of mosques and palaces” (Source 3). The new style that became known throughout the empire was burnt bricks, flat roofs, and pyramidal minaret. All of Mansa Musa’s architectural design and advancement can be contributed to Al-Sahili. Al-Sahili’s most notable work was the Chamber at Niani. He redesigned the mosque at Gao which today still lies the foundation. He built the Jingaray Bar or the Fridays Prayers Mosque for 200 kg of gold from the king. Mansa Musa built many mosques during his regime. A notable mosque that he was responsible for was the Great Mosque, in Timbuktu. It is made of stone rubble with clay rendering and round, dried, mud

He succeeded in increasing the gold trade. The reason that he succeeded was because he strengthened trade with the Muslim world. There were several ways in which he was able to strengthen the trade with the Muslim world. One being Mansa Musa made Islam the official religion of the Mali empire. Another way was his pilgrimage to Mecca. “He started new trade routes and encouraged trade with Muslim traders by bringing back four sharifs (descendents of Muhammad) to live in Mali” (Source 5). By making Islam the official religion and bringing back four sharifs he really turned the Mali empire into an Muslim empire. Since he turned it into an Muslim empire more Muslim countries were open to trade with them. Since the Mali empire was made so big by Mansa Musa himself, there were many trade routes throughout the empire. Mansa Musa had to keep the trade routes safe so as a result he sent his army to protect the trade routes and keep them flowing