Mali

Goods from Western and Central Africa were traded across trade routes to faraway places like Europe, the Middle East, and India. What did they trade? The main items traded were gold and salt. The gold mines of West Africa provided great wealth to West African Empires such as Ghana and Mali.

Timbuktu, French Tombouctou, city in the western African country of Mali, historically important as a trading post on the trans-Saharan caravan route and as a centre of Islamic culture (c. 1400–1600). It is located on the southern edge of the Sahara, about 8 miles (13 km) north of the Niger River.

Explanation: By traveling to Mali, Mansa Musa helped spread the thoughts of Mali a way that portrayed the power and wealth of the empire, thus he made Mali an even greater world power.

Mansa Musa inherited a kingdom that was already wealthy, but his work in expanding trade made Mali the wealthiest kingdom in Africa. His riches came from mining significant salt and gold deposits in the Mali kingdom. Elephant ivory was another major source of wealth.

Mansa Musa ruled over the empire of Mali, a nation of fabulous wealth. He built many monuments, mosques and schools throughout his empire, and was most famous for his 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca that introduced Mansa Musa and the empire of Mali to the Middle East and Europe.

Mansa Musa was known to be a wise and efficient ruler, and one of his greatest accomplishments was his commission of some of the greatest buildings of Timbuktu. In 1327 the Great Mosque in Timbuktu was constructed [xlvi] and Timbuktu would later become a centre of learning [xlvii].

Maghan I

Mansa Mūsā left a realm notable for its extent and riches—he built the Great Mosque at Timbuktu—but he is best remembered in the Middle East and Europe for the splendour of his pilgrimage to Mecca (1324).

Mansa Musa, fourteenth century emperor of the Mali Empire, is the medieval African ruler most known to the world outside Africa. He became the first Muslim ruler in West Africa to make the nearly four thousand mile journey to Mecca.

In 1590, al-Mansur took advantage of the recent civil strife in the empire and sent an army under the command of Judar Pasha to conquer the Songhai and to gain control of the Trans-Saharan trade routes. After the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Tondibi (1591), the Songhai Empire collapsed.

Following Mansa Musa’s death around 1337, the empire fell victim to declining influence around Africa. Other trade centers developed, hurting the commercial wealth that had once so freely surrounded Mali. Poor leadership set the kingdom on a path of civil wars.

French colonial rule Mali fell under the control of France during the late 19th century. By 1905, most of the area was under firm French control as a part of French Sudan. On 24 November 1958, French Sudan (which changed its name to the Sudanese Republic) became an autonomous republic within the French Community.