Mali Empire

Founding

Mali rose in the early 13th century from a revolt of the Mande (Malinke) peoples against the short-lived dominance of the Soso kingdom and its ruler Sumanguru Kante. The revolt was led by Sundiata Keita, an exiled prince who is both a historical figure and a cultural hero; his story has been carried down for centuries by jalis (griots), the hereditary oral historians of the Mande world. His decisive victory over the Soso is traditionally placed around 1235, and the empire is usually dated from about 1240.

Mande tradition also credits the empire's founder with the Manden Charter, proclaimed at the clearing of Kurukan Fuga, near today's Mali–Guinea border. UNESCO, which added it to its intangible heritage list in 2009, describes it as one of the world's oldest constitutions, though held mainly in oral form. Its chapters address social peace in diversity, the inviolability of the person, education, food security, an end to slave raiding, and freedom of expression and trade. It is still passed down orally within Malinke clans and commemorated each year at Kangaba.

Gold and expansion

Mali controlled gold-producing regions such as Bambuk and Bure and the routes that carried West African gold north across the Sahara. At its height, the Metropolitan Museum notes, the empire covered an area larger than western Europe, taking in trading towns along the Niger such as Timbuktu and Gao.

Mansa Musa

The best-known ruler is Mansa Musa, whose pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324–25 drew wide attention. According to the Metropolitan Museum, his spending in Cairo was so lavish that it lowered the value of gold there for several years. UNESCO records that the first building of Timbuktu's Djingareyber mosque is attributed to him on his return from the pilgrimage, and the Sankore mosque also dates to the 14th century. Timbuktu went on to become an intellectual and spiritual centre in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Ibn Battuta's account

The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta crossed the Sahara in 1352 and spent about eight months in Mali, where he attended the court of Mansa Sulayman, Musa's brother. He praised the safety of the roads and the people's dedication to learning the Qur'an, while criticising some court customs.

Decline

After Musa's time Mali faced succession disputes, raids and shifting trade routes. In the 15th century the Songhai ruler Sunni Ali took over much of its former territory along the Niger, and by about 1645 Mali had shrunk back to its Mande heartland.