Mali Empire

  General Description   After the gradual decline of the Ghana Empire, the power vacuum left in the Sudanese region was filled with several smaller successor states, including the Sosso Kingdom. ^[1] In the early 13th century CE, several Malinke chiefdoms from the Upper Niger region united against the Sosso and slowly aggregated into what would become the Mali Empire. ^[2] This polity, also known as the Mandingo Empire, ^[3] was the largest of the West African empires, and flourished from the early 13th to the late 14th/early 15th century, at which point it started to decline. ^{[4] [5]} The apogee of the Mali Empire corresponds to the reign of Musa I of the Keita dynasty, the mansa (emperor) who reigned over 24 cities and their surrounding territories from 1312 to 1337. ^[6] His empire extended from the Atlantic to Gao and the Niger Inland Delta, and from the southern Sahara to the tropical forest belt. ^[3] Musa I is also famed for his patronage of Islam in Mali and for his lavish distribution of gold when he set off on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325. ^[7]
Population and political organization
The kings of the Keita dynasty sat at the apex of a confederation incorporating smaller kingdoms such as Ghana and Mema. ^[8] At its height, the empire comprised 12 provinces made up of smaller, village-centred clan units. ^[9] The mansa (emperor) was thus a ’chief of chiefs’, assuming the mantle of a supreme patriarch, and he could dispense justice personally. ^[10] He received advice from the griot, chosen from the Kouyate clan, who was also his spokesman and the tutor of princes. ^[10]
The aristocracy formed around the Malinke warrior class, ^[11] including an elite corps of cavalry. ^[12] The empire maintained a strong army, with garrisons stationed in the main towns. ^[13] The merchant class, known as Dyula or Wangara, ^[14] formed settlements at the margins of the forest regions, such Kankan in modern-day Guinea, Bobo Dioulasso in modern Ivory Coast, and Begho in modern Ghana. ^[15]
The cities of Mali were cosmopolitan, inhabited by people of every occupation and from every province of the empire, ^[16] and prospering from their participation in Trans-Saharan trade networks and the export of gold, ivory, salt and slaves. ^[17] Their characteristic mudbrick architecture, known as banco, can still be admired today. ^[18] This distinctive architectural style is one of many signs of Mali’s legacy in the region, as its language, laws and customs spread through West Africa. In the 15th century, however, a long period of gradual decline began. Timbuktu was captured by the Tuareg in 1433, ^[19] and a few decades of internal political struggles made it difficult for the emperors to maintain control over such a large region, leading to the contraction of the empire’s territory. ^[20]
The empire was densely populated, with a reported 400 towns in the region and a compact net of villages near the trading city of Jenné. ^[21] When the Andalusi diplomat Leo Africanus visited Niani in the 16th century, he described a thriving city of ’six thousand hearths’. ^[22]

[1]: (Conrad 2005, 33) David C. Conrad. 2005. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts On File.

[2]: (Conrad 2005, 31) David C. Conrad. 2005. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts On File.

[3]: (Diop 1987, 93) Cheikh Anta Diop. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa, translated by Harold Salemson. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books.

[4]: (MacDonald et al. 2011, 52) K. C. MacDonald, S. Camara, S. Canós, N. Gestrich, and D. Keita. 2011. ’Sorotomo: A Forgotten Malian Capital?’ Archaeology International 13: 52-64. http://doi.org/10.5334/ai.1315.

[5]: (Lapidus 2012, 592) Ira M. Lapidus. 2012. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[6]: (Conrad 2010, 45) David C. Conrad. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. Revised Edition. New York: Chelsea House Publishers.

[7]: (Niane 1984, 148) Djibril Tamsir Niane. 1984. ’Mali and the Second Mandingo expansion’, in General History of Africa, Vol. 4: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century edited by D. T. Niane, 117-71. Paris: UNESCO.

[8]: (Niane 1984, 158-60) Djibril Tamsir Niane. 1984. ’Mali and the Second Mandingo expansion’, in General History of Africa, Vol. 4: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century edited by D. T. Niane, 117-71. Paris: UNESCO.

[9]: (Niane 1984, 161) Djibril Tamsir Niane. 1984. ’Mali and the Second Mandingo expansion’, in General History of Africa, Vol. 4: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century edited by D. T. Niane, 117-71. Paris: UNESCO.

[10]: (Niane 1984, 160) Djibril Tamsir Niane. 1984. ’Mali and the Second Mandingo expansion’, in General History of Africa, Vol. 4: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century edited by D. T. Niane, 117-71. Paris: UNESCO.

[11]: (Niane 1975, 36) Djibril Tamsir Niane. 1975. Le Soudan Occidental au temps des grands empires XI-XVIe siècle. Paris: Présence africai­ne.

[12]: (Niane 1984, 162) Djibril Tamsir Niane. 1984. ’Mali and the Second Mandingo expansion’, in General History of Africa, Vol. 4: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century edited by D. T. Niane, 117-71. Paris: UNESCO.

[13]: (Niane 1984, 164) Djibril Tamsir Niane. 1984. ’Mali and the Second Mandingo expansion’, in General History of Africa, Vol. 4: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century edited by D. T. Niane, 117-71. Paris: UNESCO.

[14]: (Davidson 1998, 42) Basil Davidson. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850. Routledge: London.

[15]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 64) Roland Anthony Oliver and Anthony Atmore. 2001. Medieval Africa, 1250-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[16]: (Niane 1984, 145) Djibril Tamsir Niane. 1984. ’Mali and the Second Mandingo expansion’, in General History of Africa, Vol. 4: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century edited by D. T. Niane, 117-71. Paris: UNESCO.

[17]: (Conrad 2005, 42) David C. Conrad. 2005. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts On File.

[18]: (Niane 1984, 150) Djibril Tamsir Niane. 1984. ’Mali and the Second Mandingo expansion’, in General History of Africa, Vol. 4: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century edited by D. T. Niane, 117-71. Paris: UNESCO.

[19]: (Ly-Tall 1984, 174) Madina Ly-Tall. 1984. ’The decline of the Mali empire’ in General History of Africa, Vol. 4: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century edited by D. T. Niane, 172-86. Paris: UNESCO.

[20]: (Conrad 2005, 46) David C. Conrad. 2005. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts On File.

[21]: (Niane 1984, 156) Djibril Tamsir Niane. 1984. ’Mali and the Second Mandingo expansion’, in General History of Africa, Vol. 4: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century edited by D. T. Niane, 117-71. Paris: UNESCO.

[22]: (Davidson 1998, 43) Basil Davidson. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850. Routledge: London.