[citation needed] A couple of generations after him, his great-nephew, Mansa Musa Keita I of Mali, made a celebrated pilgrimage to Mecca.
[citation needed] According to the Quran, Bilal ibn Rabah was a freed slave, possibly of Abyssinian descent,[3] who accepted Islam and became one of the Sahabahs of Muhammad.
[citation needed] It was common practice for griots in West Africa to invent Islamic ancestors for their royal clients, to enhance their prestige and legitimacy, and this is certainly the case for the Keita.
Historian Francois-Xavier Fauvelle has postulated a long-running dynastic competition between two branches of the dynasty, which he terms the Maridjatids and the Abubakrids after their founders.
The Maridjatids (descendants of Sundiata by the male line) are best remembered in oral tradition, while written accounts by Arab sources focus on the Abubakrids.