Sundiata’s centralised government, diplomacy and well-trained army permitted a massive military expansion which would pave the way for a flourishing of the Mali Empire, making it the largest yet seen in Africa. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide.Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week:Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including We have also been recommended for educational use by the following publications:Some Rights Reserved (2009-2020) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted.When the Sosso king Sumanguru imposed trade restrictions on the Mali region, the native Malinke tribe rose in rebellion.Mali had a triple income: taxes on trade, goods were bought & sold on at much higher prices, & it had its own natural resources.





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The Mali Empire thus came to include many different religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups.To govern these diverse peoples, Mansa Musa divided his empire into provinces with each one ruled by a governor (Islam spread through parts of West Africa via the Arab merchants who traded there.







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Mali rose to the apogee of its power under Mansa Musa (1307–32?).

The Sudan region of West Africa where the Mali Empire would develop had been inhabited since the Sundiata Keita (aka Sunjaata or Sundjata, r. 1230-1255 CE) was a Malinke prince, whose name means ‘lion prince’, and he waged These problems of governance were yet to come, though, and Sundiata would continue to expand his territory to include the old kingdoms of Ghana, Walata, Tadmekka, and Songhai.






Imperial armies secured the gold-bearing lands of Bondu and Bambuk to the south, subdued the Diara in the northwest, and pushed along the Niger as far north as

Even the Islam that did take hold in Mali was a particular variation of that practised in the Arab world, perhaps because Mali rulers could not afford to completely dismiss the indigenous religious practices and beliefs that the majority of their people clung on to.The buildings of the Mali Empire, some of which like the Sankore mosque in Timbuktu still stand, are one of the most recognisable features of the region and have become international symbols of Africa’s rich pre-colonial history.













Many native converts studied in such places as Fez, Morocco, and became great scholars, missionaries, and even saints, and so Islam came to be seen no longer as a foreign religion but a black African one.







Mali architects had a distinct disadvantage because of the rarity of stone in the region, and for this reason, buildings were typically constructed using beaten earth (On a smaller scale, excavations at Niani have revealed the remains of houses and their stone foundations, confirming later sources that the richer members of society built stone houses.













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It later outgrew its political and military strength and by about 1550 ceased to be important as a political entity.

Mark is a history writer based in Italy. The After a string of seemingly lacklustre rulers, the Mali Empire enjoyed its second golden era during the reign of Mansa Musa I in the first half of the 13th century CE.



In addition, Islamic studies were conducted in Arabic not native languages, and this further impeded its popularity outside the educated clerical class of towns and cities.



The Niger River provided ready access to Africa’s interior and Atlantic coast, while the Timbuktu, founded c. 1100 CE by the nomadic Tuaregs, was a semi-independent trade port which had the double advantage of being on the Niger River bend and the starting point for the trans-Saharan caravans.



Following the conquest of North Africa by Muslim Arabs in the 7th... Gus Casely-Hayford: The powerful stories that shaped Africa Here's what it was like to be Mansa Musa, thought to be the richest person in history





Despite the spread of Islam, it is also true that ancient indigenous animist beliefs continued to be practised, especially in rural communities, as noted by travellers like Ibn Battuta who visited Mali c. 1352 CE.
































Noted Muslim travellers and chroniclers like Islam in West Africa really took off, though, from the reign of Mansa Musa I.



Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.In extending Mali’s rule beyond Kangaba’s narrow confines, Sundiata set a precedent for successive emperors.