History of the Mali Empire
The Keita dynasty ruled the Empire for its entire history, with the exception of the third mansa, Sakura, who was a freed slave who took power from one of Sundiata's sons.
His pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 became legendary for the vast sums of gold that he gave as gifts and alms, to the point where it created an inflationary crisis in Egypt.
Sunni Ali established the rival Songhai Empire and pushed the Malians out of the Niger bend region and back to their core territories in the south and west.
When the Songhai were destroyed by a Moroccan invasion in 1593, Mansa Mahmud IV saw an opportunity to restore Malian pre-eminence in the Niger bend, but a catastrophic defeat outside Jenne in 1599 crippled his prestige.
Niane's work, however, is not a literal translation of an original oral discourse, though it is surely largely based on tales told by a certain Mamadou Kouyate of Keyla.
By the 6th century AD, the lucrative trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt and slaves had begun in earnest, facilitating the rise of West Africa's great empires.
[citation needed] Archaeological work at the site of Niani, a possible later capital of Mali, has revealed the remains of a substantial town dating back as far as the 6th century.
[18] Historians have questioned the validity of these early conversion stories - the first, if true, presumably applied only to one of the local rulers of the balkanized pre-imperial Manding region, and the second is likely a later invention to enhance the ruling family's Islamic credentials.
[11] In al-Idrisi's account of 1154, he noted that the two towns of Daw and Malal had four days' travel between them, located in a river valley that joins the Nile (by which he meant the Niger).
[23] Through the oral tradition of griots, the Keita dynasty claims descent from Lawalo, one of the sons of Bilal,[24] the faithful muezzin of Islam's prophet Muhammad.
[24] After many years in exile, first at the court of Wagadou and then at Mema, a delegation from his home reached Sundjata and begged him to combat the Sosso and free the kingdoms of Manden.
Sakura was able to stabilize the political situation in Mali, leading historian Francois-Xavier Fauvelle to speculate that he may have been the regent for a weak Abu Bakr or an underage Qu.
[46][47] Ibn Khaldun gives conflicting information on his lineage, but his ascension clearly marks a shift in power from one branch of the royal family to another, which Fauvelle labels the Abubakrids, after Musa's father (or grandfather).
All of them agree that he took a very large group of people; the mansa kept a personal guard of some 500 men,[51] and he gave out so many alms and bought so many things that the value of gold in Egypt and Arabia depreciated for twelve years.
The mansa also made a successful hajj, kept up correspondence with Morocco and Egypt and built an earthen platform at Kangaba called the Camanbolon where he held court with provincial governors and deposited the holy books he brought back from Hedjaz.
[60] Ibn Khaldun recorded that in 776 A.H or 1374/1375 AD he interviewed a Sijilmasan scholar named Muhammad b. Wasul who had lived in Gao and had been employed in its judiciary.
[61] Despite the loss of Gao, by the time of Mansa Musa Keita II's death in 1387, Mali was financially solvent and still in control of all its core provinces.
Forty years after the reign of Mansa Musa Keita I, the Mali Empire still controlled some 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi) of land throughout Western Africa.
[70] Songhai forces under the command of Askia Muhammad I defeated the Mali general Fati Quali Keita in 1502, sacked a royal residence in Kaarta, and conquered the province of Diafunu.
Their raids threatened Mali's communication and trade lines with the critical gold-producing region of Bambuk and the vassal states of Kaabu, Wuli and Niani.
[77][78] Under Mansa Mahmud Keita II, diplomatic contacts were established with the Portuguese in an attempt to secure an alliance against the Fula, or at least to purchase weapons.
The recapture of the Futa Jallon ended the imperial crisis, leaving a Mali Empire that was cut off from their former vassals on the edge of the Sahara but still a powerful state.
[85] He may have still been on the throne in 1544 or 1545,[d] when a Songhai force led by kanfari Dawud sacked the Malian capital (at this point likely Niani) and used the royal palace as a latrine during a brief occupation.
[86] The Songhai imposed an onerous peace in 1558, pushing their control westwards to the Sansanding and Segou areas, and now-Askia Dawud married the Mansa's daughter.
Beginning in 1545, a group of Mande warriors invaded and occupied much of the southwestern coast, led by a Mandinka aristocracy and perhaps directly ordered by the Mansa.
The Kingdom of Wuli became the principal Malian vassal in the region thanks to its strategic position at the head of navigation on the Gambia river and the presence of the thriving market of Sutuko.
[87] The 1590 Moroccan invasion of the Songhai Empire and their subsequent victory at the Battle of Tondibi completely overturned the political balance of West Africa.
With Mali weakened and the Arma administration only able to hold the cities, Bambara and Fula war bands marauded through the countryside, eventually sacking Niani and occupying much of Manden.
Mahmud IV took refuge in a fortress in the mountains north of Narena, dividing the responsibility of defending the remaining Mali territory between his sons.
[101] According to Yves Person, this was the branch descended from Nyamaghan (identical to Delafosse's Mama Maghan) who drove the Fula and Bambara marauders out and, under Fakaba Mansa, re-built Niani circa 1720.
