{{Short description|Ruler of Mali from c. 1312 to c. 1337}}{{pp-vandalism|small=yes}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox royalty | name = Musa I | image = Catalan Atlas BNF Sheet 6 Mansa Musa (cropped).jpg | caption = Depiction of Mansa Musa, ruler of the [[Mali Empire]] in the 14th century, from the 1375 [[Catalan Atlas]] (Paris, [[Bibliothèque nationale de France|BnF]], Espagnol 30, sheet 6). The label reads: ''This Black Lord is called Musse [[Mali_Empire#Etymology_of_Mali|Melly]] and is the sovereign of the land of the black people of Gineva ([[Guinea (region)|Guinea]]). This king is the richest and noblest of all these lands due to the abundance of gold that is extracted from his lands.''<ref>{{cite web |title=The Cresques Project - Panel III |url= https://www.cresquesproject.net/catalan-atlas-legends/panel-iii |website=cresquesproject.net |access-date=12 February 2023 |archive-date=12 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230212173913/https://www.cresquesproject.net/catalan-atlas-legends/panel-iii |url-status=live }}</ref> | alt = | reign = {{circa|1312|1337|lk=no}}{{efn|The dates of Musa's reign are uncertain. Musa is reported to have reigned for 25 years, and different lines of evidence suggest he died either {{circa|1332}} or {{circa|1337|lk=no}}, with the 1337 date being considered more likely.{{sfn|Levtzion|1963|pp=349–350}}}} ({{approx.|25 years}}) | coronation = | cor-type = | succession = [[Mansa (title)|Mansa]] of [[Mali Empire|Mali]] | moretext = | predecessor = [[Mansa Muhammad|Muhammad]]<ref>{{harvnb|Levtzion|1963|p=346}}</ref> | regent = | successor = [[Maghan|Magha]] | reg-type1 = | regent1 = | spouse = Inari Konte{{sfn|Bühnen|1994|p=12}} | issue = [[Maghan I]] | house = [[Keita dynasty]] | mother = | birth_date = {{circa|1280}} | birth_place = [[Mali Empire]] | death_date = {{Circa|1337|lk=no}} (aged {{circa|57}}) | death_place = Mali Empire | burial_date = | burial_place = | religion = [[Sunni Islam]] ([[Maliki school]]) }}

'''Mansa Musa'''{{efn|{{langx|ar|منسا موسى|Mansā Mūsā}}}} ({{circa|1280}}{{snd}}{{circa|1337}}) was the ninth<ref>{{harvnb|Levtzion|1963|p=353}}</ref> ''[[Mansa (title)|Mansa]]'' of the [[Mali Empire]], which reached its territorial peak during his reign. Musa's reign is often regarded as the zenith of Mali's power and prestige, although he features less in [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] [[oral tradition]]s than his [[Keita dynasty|predecessors]].

Musa was exceptionally wealthy,<ref name="natgeo">{{cite web | url= https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/mansa-musa-musa-i-mali | title=Mansa Musa (Musa I of Mali) |work= [[National Geographic]] | publisher= [[National Geographic Society]] | access-date= 6 September 2022 | archive-date=19 August 2022 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220819110054/https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/mansa-musa-musa-i-mali/ | url-status=live }}</ref> to an extent that contemporaries described him as inconceivably rich; ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine reported: "There's really no way to put an accurate number on his wealth.” They cite Ferrum College history professor Richard Smith that Mali was likely the largest gold producer in the world at the time, but “contemporary sources describe the king’s riches in terms that are impossible for the time."<ref name=":0">{{cite magazine|url=http://time.com/money/3977798/the-10-richest-people-of-all-time/|title=The 10 Richest People of All Time|author=Davidson|first=Jacob|date=July 30, 2015|magazine=Time|access-date=5 January 2017|archive-date=24 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150824185817/http://time.com/money/3977798/the-10-richest-people-of-all-time/|url-status=dead}}</ref> It is known from local manuscripts and travellers' accounts that Mansa Musa's wealth came principally from the Mali Empire's control and taxing of the trade in salt from [[Taghaza|northern regions]] and especially from gold panned and mined in [[Bambouk|Bambuk]] and [[Siguiri|Bure]] to the south. Over a very long period Mali had amassed a large reserve of gold. Mali is also believed to have been involved in the trade in many goods such as ivory, [[History of slavery|slaves]], spices, silks, and ceramics. However, presently little is known about the extent or mechanics of these trades.<ref name="natgeo" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rodriguez |first1=Junius P. |title=The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery |date=1997 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-87436-885-7 |page= 449 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATq5_6h2AT0C&pg=RA1-PA449 |access-date=3 May 2023 |language=en}}</ref> It is estimated that two thirds of the gold circulating in the Medieval Mediterranean came from West Africa <ref>{{Cite web |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |date=May 1, 2019 |title=The Gold Trade of Ancient & Medieval West Africa |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1383/the-gold-trade-of-ancient--medieval-west-africa/ |website=World History Encyclopedia}}</ref> and this accounts for almost half of the [[Old World|Old World’s]] gold supply. <ref name="peoplesand">Stride, G. T., & Ifeka, C. (1971). ''Peoples and Empires of West Africa: West Africa in History 1000–1800''. Nelson.</ref> Archeological near the town of Tadmekka shows Malians invented their own process of refining gold by using melted glass and removing impurities. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Evan Nicole |date=2019-05-09 |title=Medieval Africans Had a Unique Process for Purifying Gold With Glass |url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/medieval-african-gold |access-date=2026-05-22 |website=Atlas Obscura |language=en}}</ref> While gold was abundant copper was incredibly scarce and prized in Sub-Saharan Africa and “was exchanged for gold at rates that would be considered unfair by present-day standards.” <ref>{{Cite web |last=Marot |first=Laurence |date=May 24, 2023 |title=Copper and Copper Alloys at the Time of the Kingdoms of Ghana and Mali |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/61643/chapter-abstract/539824767?redirectedFrom=fulltext |website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology}}</ref> At the time of Musa's ascension to the throne, Mali consisted largely of the territory of the former [[Ghana Empire]], which had become a vassal of Mali. The Mali Empire comprised land that is now part of [[Guinea]], [[Senegal]], [[Mauritania]], [[the Gambia]], and the modern state of [[Mali]] which would be an area of 1,300,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>. <ref>Orum Anthony M.,"The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies", (Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), 1404</ref>

Musa went on [[Hajj]] to [[Mecca]] in 1324, traveling with an enormous entourage and a vast supply of gold. En route he spent time in [[Cairo]], where his lavish gift-giving is said to have noticeably affected the value of gold in Egypt{{sfn|Mohamud|2019}} and garnered the attention of the wider Muslim world. Musa expanded the borders of the Mali Empire, in particular incorporating the cities of [[Gao]] and [[Timbuktu]] into its territory. He sought closer ties with the rest of the Muslim world, particularly the [[Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluk]] and [[Marinid Sultanate]]s. He recruited scholars from the wider Muslim world to travel to Mali, such as the Andalusian poet [[al-Sahili|Abu Ishaq al-Sahili]], and helped establish Timbuktu as a center of Islamic learning. His reign is associated with numerous construction projects, including a portion of [[Djinguereber Mosque]] in Timbuktu.

==Name and titles==

Mansa Musa's personal name was Musa ({{langx|ar|موسى|Mūsá}}), the name of [[Moses in Islam]].{{sfn|McKissack|McKissack|1994|p=56}} ''[[Mansa (title)|Mansa]]'', 'ruler'<ref>{{harvnb|Gomez|2018|p=87}}</ref> or 'king'<ref>{{harvnb|MacBrair|1873|p=40}}</ref> in [[Manding languages|Mandé]], was the title of the ruler of the Mali Empire.

In oral tradition and the ''[[Timbuktu Chronicles]]'', Musa is further known as Kanku Musa.<ref>{{harvnb|Bell|1972|p=230}}</ref>{{efn|The name is transcribed in the ''Tarikh al-Sudan'' as Kankan ({{langx|ar|كنكن|Kankan}}), which Cissoko concluded was a representation of the Mandinka woman's name Kanku{{sfn|Cissoko|1969}}}} In Mandé tradition, it was common for one's name to be prefixed by his mother's name, so the name Kanku Musa means "Musa, son of Kanku", although it is unclear whether the genealogy implied is literal.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=109}} Al-Yafii gave Musa's name as Musa ibn Abi Bakr ibn Abi al-Aswad ({{langx|ar|موسى بن أبي بكر بن أبي الأسود|Mūsā ibn Abī Bakr ibn Abī al-Aswad}}),{{sfn|Collet|2019|p=115–116}} and [[Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani|Ibn Hajar]] gave Musa's name as Musa ibn Abi Bakr Salim al-Takruri ({{langx|ar|موسى بن أبي بكر سالم التكروري|Mūsā ibn Abī Bakr Salim al-Takruri}}).{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=358}}

Musa is often given the title [[Hajji]] in oral tradition because he made [[hajj]].{{sfn|Niane|1959}} In the [[Songhai language]], rulers of Mali such as Musa were known as the Mali-koi, ''koi'' being a title that conveyed authority over a region: in other words, the "ruler of Mali".<ref>{{harvnb|Gomez|2018|pp=109,129}}</ref>

==Historical sources==

Much of what is known about Musa comes from Arabic sources written after his hajj, especially the writings of [[Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari|Al-Umari]] and [[Ibn Khaldun]]. While in Cairo during his [[hajj]], Musa befriended officials such as Ibn Amir Hajib, who learned about him and his country from him and later passed that knowledge to historians such as Al-Umari.{{sfn|Al-Umari|loc=Chapter 10}} Additional information comes from two 17th-century manuscripts written in [[Timbuktu]], the ''[[Tarikh al-fattash|Tarikh Ibn al-Mukhtar]]''{{efn|The ''Tarikh Ibn al-Mukhtar'' is a historiographical name for an untitled manuscript by Ibn al-Mukhtar. This document is also known as the ''Tarikh al-Fattash'', which Nobili and Mathee have argued is properly the title of a 19th-century document that used Ibn al-Mukhtar's text as a source.{{sfn|Nobili|Mathee|2015}}}} and the ''[[Tarikh al-Sudan]]''.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|pp=92–93}} Oral tradition, as performed by the ''jeliw'' ({{singular}} ''jeli''), also known as [[griots]], includes relatively little information about Musa relative to some other parts of the history of Mali, with his predecessor conquerors receiving more prominence.{{sfnm|Gomez|2018|1pp=92–93|Niane|1984|2pp=147–152}}

==Lineage==

{{Lineage | align=right|caption=Genealogy of the mansas of the Mali Empire up to Magha II ({{died-in|{{circa|1389}}}}), based on Levtzion's interpretation of [[Ibn Khaldun]].{{sfn|Levtzion|1963}} Numbered individuals reigned as ''mansa''; the numbers indicate the order in which they reigned.{{efn|The sixth mansa, [[Mansa Sakura|Sakura]], is omitted from this chart as he was not related to the others. The third and fourth mansas (Wati and Khalifa), brothers of Uli, and fifth (Abu Bakr), a nephew of Uli, Wati, and Khalifa, are omitted to save space.}} | 1|-1|[[Naré Maghann Konaté|Nare Maghan]]{{efn|Name from oral tradition}}| | 2| 1|1.&nbsp;[[Sundiata Keita|Sunjata]]| | 3| 1|[[Mande Bori|Abu Bakr]]| | 4| 2|2. [[Uli I of Mali|Uli]]| | 5| 4|7. [[Gao (mansa)|Qu]]| | 6| 5|8.&nbsp;[[Mohammed ibn Gao|Muhammad]]| | 7| 3|Faga Leye{{efn|Name from oral tradition}}| | 8| 7|'''9. Musa I'''| | 9| 8|10. [[Maghan I|Magha I]]| | 10| 9|13.&nbsp;[[Mari Djata II of Mali|Mari&nbsp;Jata&nbsp;II]]| | 11| 10|14. [[Musa II of Mali|Musa&nbsp;II]]| | 12| 10|15. [[Magha&nbsp;II]]| | 13| 7|11.&nbsp;[[Sulayman of Mali|Sulayman]]| | 14| 13|12. [[Kassa (mansa)|Qanba]] | }}

According to [[Djibril Tamsir Niane]], Musa's father was named Faga Leye{{sfn|Niane|1959}} and his mother may have been named Kanku.{{efn|Musa's name Kanku Musa means "Musa son of Kanku", but the genealogy may not be literal.<ref>{{harvnb|Gomez|2018|pp=109–110}}</ref>}} Faga Leye was the son of [[Mande Bori|Abu Bakr]], a brother of [[Sunjata]], the first mansa of the Mali Empire.{{sfn|Niane|1959}} [[Ibn Khaldun]] does not mention Faga Leye, referring to Musa as Musa ibn Abu Bakr. This can be interpreted as either "Musa son of Abu Bakr" or "Musa descendant of Abu Bakr." It is implausible that Abu Bakr was Musa's father, due to the amount of time between Sunjata's reign and Musa's.<ref>{{harvnb|Levtzion|1963|p=347}}</ref>{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=156}}

[[Ibn Battuta]], who visited Mali during the reign of Musa's brother Sulayman, said that Musa's grandfather was named Sariq Jata.{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=295}} Sariq Jata may be another name for Sunjata, who was actually Musa's great-uncle.{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=416}} This, along with [[Ibn Khaldun]]'s use of the name 'Musa ibn Abu Bakr' prompted historian Francois-Xavier Fauvelle to propose that Musa was in fact the son of [[Abu Bakr (mansa)|Abu Bakr I]], a grandson of Sunjata through his daughter. Later attempts to erase this possibly illegitimate succession through the female line led to the confusion in the sources over Musa's parentage.{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=173–4}} Hostility towards Musa's branch of the [[Keita dynasty]] would also explain his relative absence from or scathing treatment by oral histories.{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=185}}

==Early life and accession to power== The date of Musa's birth is unknown, but he appears to have been a young man in 1324.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=104}} The ''Tarikh al-fattash'' claims that Musa accidentally killed Kanku at some point prior to his hajj.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=109}}

Musa ascended to power in the early 1300s{{efn|The exact date of Musa's accession is debated. Ibn Khaldun claims Musa reigned for 25 years, so his accession is dated to 25 years before his death. Musa's death may have occurred in 1337, 1332, or possibly even earlier, giving 1307 or 1312 as plausible approximate years of accession. 1312 is the most widely accepted by modern historians.<ref name="Bell 1972">{{harvnb|Bell|1972}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Levtzion|1963|pp=349–350}}</ref>}} under unclear circumstances. According to Musa's own account, his predecessor as Mansa of Mali, presumably [[Mohammed ibn Gao|Muhammad ibn Qu]],<ref>{{harvnb|Fauvelle|2018}}</ref> launched [[Atlantic voyage of the predecessor of Mansa Musa|two expeditions]] to explore the [[Atlantic Ocean]] (200 ships for the first exploratory mission and 2,000 ships for the second). The Mansa led the second expedition himself and appointed Musa as his deputy to rule the empire until he returned.<ref>{{harvnb|Al-Umari|loc=Chapter 10}}</ref> When he did not return, Musa was crowned as mansa himself, marking a transfer of the line of succession from the descendants of Sunjata to the descendants of his brother Abu Bakr.<ref>{{harvnb|Ibn Khaldun}}</ref> Some modern historians have cast doubt on Musa's version of events, suggesting he may have deposed his predecessor and devised the story about the voyage to explain how he took power.<ref>{{harvnb|Gomez|2018}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Thornton|2012|pp=9,11}}</ref> Nonetheless, the possibility of such a voyage has been taken seriously by several historians.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=101}}{{sfn|Devisse|Labib|1984|p=666}}{{sfn|Thornton|2012|p=13}}

==Early reign==

Musa was a young man when he became ''Mansa'', possibly in his early twenties.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=104}} Given the grandeur of his subsequent ''[[hajj]]'', it is likely that Musa spent much of his early reign preparing for it.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=105}} Among these preparations would likely have been raids to capture and enslave people from neighboring lands, as Musa's entourage would include many thousands of slaves; the historian Michael Gomez estimates that Mali may have captured over 6,000 slaves per year for this purpose.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=107}} Perhaps because of this, Musa's early reign was spent in continuous military conflict with neighboring non-Muslim societies.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=107}} In 1324, while in Cairo, Musa said that he had conquered 24 cities and their surrounding districts.<ref>{{harvnb|Al-Umari}}, translated in {{harvnb|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=267}}</ref>

==Pilgrimage to Mecca== [[File:Mansa Moussa on the map of Angelino Dulcert.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Mansa Moussa (''Rex Melly'') on the map of [[Angelino Dulcert]] (1339)]] Musa was a [[Muslims|Muslim]], and his [[hajj]], or pilgrimage to [[Mecca]], made him well known across [[North Africa]] and the [[Middle East]]. To Musa, Islam was "an entry into the cultured world of the Eastern Mediterranean".<ref name=Goodwin110>{{harvnb|Goodwin|1957|p=110}}.</ref> He would have spent much time fostering the growth of the religion within his empire. When Musa departed Mali for the Hajj, he left his son Muhammad to rule in his absence.<ref>{{harvnb|Al-Umari}}, translated in {{harvnb|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=268}}</ref>

Musa made his pilgrimage between 1324 and 1325, spanning 2700 miles.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=4}}<ref>{{Cite book|title = Worlds Together Worlds Apart|last = Pollard|first = Elizabeth|publisher = W.W. Norton Company Inc|year = 2015|isbn = 978-0-393-91847-2|location = New York |page = 362}}</ref><ref name= Bakewell>{{cite book|last1= Wilks| first1= Ivor| chapter= Wangara, Akan, and Portuguese in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries|editor1-last= Bakewell |editor1-first= Peter John|title=Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas| date= 1997| publisher= Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Limited |location= Aldershot| page= 7| isbn= 9780860785132}}</ref> Arabic chroniclers writing after the event give widely varying figures for the size of Musa's caravan and the quantity of gold it transported, and modern historians treat these numbers as rhetorical rather than statistical.{{sfn|Schultz|2006}}{{sfn|Collet|2019}} According to figures preserved in the later Arabic accounts, his procession included upwards of 12,000 [[slave]]s, all wearing [[brocade]] and Yemeni silk{{sfn|Cuoq|1985|p=347}} and each said to have carried {{convert|4|lb|abbr=on|order=flip}} of gold bars, with heralds dressed in silks bearing gold staffs organizing horses and handling bags.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

Musa is reported to have provided all necessities for the procession, feeding the entire company of men and animals.<ref name=Goodwin110 /> The same sources state that the caravan included 80 [[camel]]s, each said to have carried between {{convert|50|–|300|lb|abbr=on|order=flip}} of gold dust — a range that itself reflects the absence of any audited contemporary count and is treated by modern historians as an upper-bound literary topos rather than a measurement.{{sfn|Schultz|2006}}{{sfn|Collet|2019}} Musa is said to have distributed gold to the poor along his route and to the cities he passed through on the way to Mecca, including [[Cairo]] and [[Medina]], and reportedly to have built a [[mosque]] every Friday.<ref name="Bell 1972"/> [[Shihab al-Din al-'Umari]], who visited Cairo shortly after the pilgrimage and is the proximate source for most of these accounts, described the procession as "a lavish display of power, wealth, and unprecedented by its size and pageantry".<ref>The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa By Patricia McKissack, Fredrick McKissack Page 60</ref>

Musa and his entourage arrived at the outskirts of Cairo in July 1324. They camped for three days by the [[Pyramids of Giza]] before crossing the Nile into Cairo on 19 July.{{efn|26 Rajab 724}}{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=355}}{{sfn|Gomez|2018|pp=114,117}} While in Cairo, Musa met with the [[Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluk sultan]] [[al-Nasir Muhammad]], whose reign had already seen one ''mansa'', [[Mansa Sakura|Sakura]], make the Hajj. Al-Nasir expected Musa to prostrate himself before him, which Musa initially refused to do. When Musa did finally bow he said he was doing so for God alone.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=116}}

Despite this initial awkwardness, the two rulers got along well and exchanged gifts. Musa and his entourage gave and spent freely while in Cairo. Musa stayed in the [[City of the Dead (Cairo)|Qarafa district]] of Cairo and befriended its governor, ibn Amir Hajib, who learned much about Mali from him. Musa stayed in Cairo for three months, departing on 18 October{{efn|28 Shawwal}} with the official caravan to Mecca.{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=355}}{{sfn|Collet|2019|p=111}}

Musa's generosity continued as he traveled onward to Mecca, and he gave gifts to fellow pilgrims and the people of [[Medina]] and Mecca. While in Mecca, conflict broke out between a group of Malian pilgrims and a group of Turkic pilgrims in the [[Masjid al-Haram]]. Swords were drawn, but before the situation escalated further, Musa persuaded his men to back down.{{sfn|Collet|2019|pp=115–122}}

Musa and his entourage lingered in Mecca after the last day of the Hajj. Traveling separately from the main caravan, their return journey to Cairo was struck by catastrophe. By the time they reached [[Suez]], many of the Malian pilgrims had died of cold, starvation, or bandit raids, and they had lost much of their supplies.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=118}}{{sfn|Collet|2019|pp=122–129}} Having run out of money, Musa and his entourage were forced to borrow money and resell much of what they had purchased while in Cairo before the Hajj, and Musa went into debt to several merchants such as Siraj al-Din. However, Al-Nasir Muhammad returned Musa's earlier show of generosity with gifts of his own.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|pp=118–120}}

On his return journey, Musa met the [[al-Andalus|Andalusi]] poet [[Abu Ishaq al-Sahili]], whose eloquence and knowledge of jurisprudence impressed him, and whom he convinced to travel with him to Mali.{{sfn|Hunwick|1990|pp=60–61}} Other scholars Musa brought to Mali included [[Maliki school|Maliki jurists]].<ref>{{harvnb|Al-Umari}}, translated in {{harvnb|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=261}}</ref>

According to the ''[[Tarikh al-Sudan]]'', the cities of [[Gao]] and [[Timbuktu]] submitted to Musa's rule as he traveled through on his return to Mali.<ref>{{harvnb|al-Sadi}}, translated in {{harvnb|Hunwick|1999|p=10}}</ref> It is unlikely, however, that a group of pilgrims, even if armed, would have been able to conquer a wealthy and powerful city.{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=79}} According to one account given by [[ibn Khaldun]], Musa's general Saghmanja conquered Gao. The other account claims that Gao had been conquered during the reign of [[Mansa Sakura]].<ref>{{harvnb|Ibn Khaldun}}, translated in {{harvnb|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=334}}</ref> Mali's control of Gao may have been weak, requiring powerful mansas to reassert their authority periodically,{{sfn|Levtzion|1973|p=75}} or it might simply be an error on the part of al-Sadi, author of the ''Tarikh''.{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=79}} ==Later reign==

===Construction in Mali=== Musa embarked on a large building program, raising [[mosques]] and [[Madrasah|madrasas]] in Timbuktu and [[Gao]]. Most notably, the ancient center of learning [[Sankore Madrasah]] (or University of Sankore) was constructed during his reign.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://muslimheritage.com/the-university-of-sankore-timbuktu/|title=The University of Sankore, Timbuktu|date=7 June 2003}}</ref>

According to a long-standing tradition in nineteenth- and twentieth-century historiography, Musa brought architects from [[Andalusia]] and Cairo to build his palace in Timbuktu and the great [[Djinguereber Mosque]] that still stands, with the Granadan poet [[Al-Sahili|Abū Isḥāq al-Sāḥilī]] commonly credited as the principal designer.{{sfn|De Villiers|Hirtle|2007|page=70}} Subsequent scholarship has substantially qualified this attribution. [[John Hunwick|J. O. Hunwick]] has shown that the only project firmly attributable to al-Sāḥilī in the Arabic sources is a royal audience chamber at the city of Mali — for which [[Ibn Khaldun]] records a payment of 12,000 ''[[Mithqal|mithqals]]'' of gold (approximately 51 kg) — and that al-Sāḥilī's role there appears to have been decorative and organizational rather than that of a structural architect.{{sfn|Hunwick|1990|pp=59–66}} On the broader [[Sudano-Sahelian architecture|Sudano-Sahelian]] tradition, the architectural historian [[Labelle Prussin]] has argued that the earthen ([[Banco (building material)|banco]]) architecture of the [[Niger River|Niger]] bend, with its projecting [[toron]] beams, represents a centuries-long synthesis of indigenous West African and Islamic design practices rather than an importation from al-Andalus or the Maghreb;{{sfn|Prussin|1986}} modern scholarship accordingly regards the image of al-Sāḥilī as the founder of West African mosque architecture as a historiographical myth rather than an established historical fact.{{sfn|Prussin|1986}}{{sfn|Hunwick|1990|pp=59–66}} Excavations at [[Djenné-Djenno]] by [[Susan Keech McIntosh|Susan]] and [[Roderick McIntosh]] have established that permanent settlement, complex craft production and iron metallurgy were already present in the [[Inner Niger Delta|Inland Niger Delta]] by the third century BCE — with long-distance exchange networks attested in subsequent phases of the site — demonstrating that the architectural and urban infrastructure on which Musa's building program drew was an indigenous tradition of substantial antiquity rather than an importation of his reign.{{sfn|McIntosh|McIntosh|1980}}

===Economy and education=== [[File:Djingareiber cour.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|The [[Djinguereber Mosque]], commissioned by Mansa Musa in 1327]] Timbuktu soon became the center of trade, culture, and Islam; markets brought in merchants from [[Hausaland]], Egypt, and other African kingdoms, a university was founded in the city (as well as in the Malian cities of [[Djenné]] and [[Ségou]]), and Islam was spread through the markets and university, making Timbuktu a new area for Islamic scholarship.{{sfn|De Villiers|Hirtle|2007|page=74}} News of the Malian empire's city of wealth even traveled across the Mediterranean to southern Europe, where traders from [[Venice]], [[Granada]], and [[Genoa]] soon added Timbuktu to their maps to trade manufactured goods for gold.{{sfn|De Villiers|Hirtle|2007|page=87–88}}

The [[University of Sankore]] in Timbuktu was restaffed under Musa's reign with jurists, astronomers, and mathematicians.<ref>{{harvnb|Goodwin|1957|p=111}}.</ref> The university became a center of learning and culture, drawing Muslim scholars from around Africa and the Middle East to Timbuktu.

In 1330, the kingdom of [[Mossi Kingdoms|Mossi]] invaded and conquered the city of Timbuktu. Gao had already been captured by Musa's general, and Musa quickly regained Timbuktu, built a rampart and stone fort, and placed a standing army to protect the city from future invaders.{{sfn|De Villiers|Hirtle|2007|page= 80–81}} While Musa's palace has since vanished, the university and mosque still stand in Timbuktu.

==Death== [[File:The Mali Empire.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The Mali Empire at the time of Musa's death]]

The date of Mansa Musa's death is uncertain. Using the reign lengths reported by [[Ibn Khaldun]] to calculate back from the death of Mansa Suleyman in 1360, Musa would have died in 1332.{{sfn|Levtzion|1963|p=349}} However, Ibn Khaldun also reports that Musa sent an envoy to congratulate [[Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman|Abu al-Hasan Ali]] for his conquest of [[Tlemcen]], which took place in May 1337, but by the time Abu al-Hasan sent an envoy in response, Musa had died and Suleyman was on the throne, suggesting Musa died in 1337.{{sfn|Levtzion|1963|p=350}} In contrast, al-Umari, writing twelve years after Musa's hajj, in approximately 1337,{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|pp=252,413}} claimed that Musa returned to Mali intending to abdicate and return to live in Mecca but died before he could do so,{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=268}} suggesting he died even earlier than 1332.{{sfn|Bell|1972|p=224}} It is possible that it was actually Musa's son Maghan who congratulated Abu al-Hasan, or Maghan who received Abu al-Hasan's envoy after Musa's death.{{sfn|Bell|1972|p=225–226}} The latter possibility is corroborated by Ibn Khaldun calling Suleyman Musa's son in that passage, suggesting he may have confused Musa's brother Suleyman with Musa's son Maghan.{{sfn|Bell|1972|p=225}} Alternatively, it is possible that the four-year reign Ibn Khaldun credits Maghan with actually referred to his ruling Mali while Musa was away on the hajj, and he only reigned briefly in his own right.{{sfn|Bell|1972|p=226–227}} [[Nehemia Levtzion]] regarded 1337 as the most likely date,{{sfn|Levtzion|1963|p=350}} which has been accepted by other scholars.{{sfn|Sapong|2016|p=2}}{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=145}}

==Legacy== Musa's reign is commonly regarded as Mali's golden age, but this perception may be the result of his reign being the best recorded by Arabic sources, rather than him necessarily being the wealthiest and most powerful mansa of Mali.{{sfn|Canós-Donnay|2019}} The territory of the Mali Empire was at its height during the reigns of Musa and his brother Sulayman, and covered the Sudan-Sahel region of West Africa.{{sfn|Niane|1984|p=152}}

Musa is less renowned in Mandé oral tradition as performed by the ''jeliw''.<ref>{{harvnb|Gomez|2018|pp=92–93}}</ref> He is criticized for being unfaithful to tradition, and some of the ''jeliw'' regard Musa as having wasted Mali's wealth.{{sfn|Mohamud|2019}}{{sfn|Niane|1984}} However, some aspects of Musa appear to have been incorporated into a figure in Mandé oral tradition known as Fajigi, which translates as "father of hope". Fajigi is remembered as having traveled to Mecca to retrieve ceremonial objects known as ''boliw'', which feature in Mandé traditional religion.{{sfn|Conrad|1992|p=152}} As Fajigi, Musa is sometimes conflated with a figure in oral tradition named Fakoli, who is best known as Sunjata's top general.{{sfn|Conrad|1992|p=153}} The figure of Fajigi combines both Islam and traditional beliefs.{{sfn|Conrad|1992|p=152}}

The name "Musa" has become virtually synonymous with pilgrimage in Mandé tradition, such that other figures who are remembered as going on a pilgrimage, such as Fakoli, are also called Musa.{{sfn|Conrad|1992|pp=153–154}}

In 1525 Sicilian mapmaker [[Jacopo Russo]] created the ''Mansa Musa Map'' in honor of him.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Kläger |first=Florian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=boSPCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA117#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Early Modern Constructions of Europe: Literature, Culture, History |last2=Bayer |first2=Gerd |date=2016 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |isbn=978-1-317-39492-1 |series=Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture |location=s.l |pages=117}}</ref> [[File:The Mansa Musa Map, c. 1525, Nautical chart of the Mediterranean by The British Library Board, Add. MS 31318B, vellum. Jacopo Russo.jpg|thumb|The ''Mansa Musa Map'', c. 1525, Nautical chart of the Mediterranean by [[Jacopo Russo]] <ref name=":1" />[[File:Mana_Musa_holding_gold.jpg|thumb|Closeup in color depicting Mansa Musa holding gold with depictions of camels, traders and cities <ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=African kings on medieval and Renaissance maps |url=https://www.bl.uk/stories/blogs/posts/african-kings-on-medieval-and-renaissance-maps |access-date=2026-05-31 |website=www.bl.uk |language=en}}</ref> [[File:Mansa_Musa_dressed_like_European.jpg|thumb|Another map depicting Mansa Musa. Map made in Ancona, Italy (around 1529) by cartographer Conte di Ottomanno Freducci. He is depicted with white skin and European clothing. Caption translated from Latin “This king Mansa Musa rules the province of Guinea and is no less prudent and knowledgeable than powerful. He has with him excellent mathematicians and men versed in the liberal arts, and he has great riches, as he is near the branch of the Nile which is called the Gulf of Gold. From this is brought a great quantity of gold dust or ''tibr'', and this is a passage through his kingdom, and these regions abound in all the things that there are above the ground, particularly in dates and manna, and the best of all other things that can be had — they only lack salt” <ref name=":2" />]][[File:African_monarchs.jpg|thumb| Another map shows depictions of African rulers. The depictions are ‘Emperor of Mali’, ‘King of Nubia’ and ‘Manicongo’. Manicongo is the name for the ruler of the [[Kingdom of Kongo]] (from the Queen Mary Atlas (completed 1558) <ref name=":2" />]]]]]]

===Wealth=== Mansa Musa is renowned for his wealth and generosity. While online articles in the 21st century have claimed that Mansa Musa was the richest person of all time,{{sfn|Collet|2019|p=106}} historians such as Hadrien Collet have argued that Musa's wealth is impossible to calculate accurately.{{sfn|Mohamud|2019}}{{sfn|Collet|2019|p=106}} Contemporary Arabic sources may have been trying to express that Musa had more gold than they thought possible, rather than trying to give an exact number.{{sfn|Davidson|2015b}} Musa himself further promoted the appearance of having vast, inexhaustible wealth by spreading rumors that gold grew like a plant in his kingdom.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=121}} [[Encyclopædia Britannica|Encyclopedia Britannica]] states that he is "widely considered to be the wealthiest person in history".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Musa-I-of-Mali |title=Mūsā I of Mali |website=britannica.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150801000000*/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Musa-I-of-Mali |title=britannica.com/biography/Musa-I-of-Mali |website=Internet Archive: Wayback Machine}}</ref>

The Catalan Atlas (1375 AD) describes Mansa Musa as 'the richest man in the region', but makes no mention of him being 'the richest in the world' or 'the richest in history'.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Cresques Project - Panel III |url= https://www.cresquesproject.net/catalan-atlas-legends/panel-iii |website=cresquesproject.net |access-date=12 February 2023 |archive-date=12 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230212173913/https://www.cresquesproject.net/catalan-atlas-legends/panel-iii |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to some Arabic writers, Musa's gift-giving caused a depreciation in the value of gold in Egypt. Al-Umari said that before Musa's arrival a ''[[mithqal]]'' of gold was worth 25 silver ''[[dirhams]]'', but that it dropped to less than 22 ''dirhams'' afterward and did not go above that number for at least twelve years.{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=271}} Though this has been described as having "wrecked" Egypt's economy,{{sfn|Mohamud|2019}} the historian Warren Schultz has argued that this was well within normal fluctuations in the value of gold in Mamluk Egypt.{{sfn|Schultz|2006}} Estimates that Musa brought as much as 18 tons of gold on his hajj — figures sometimes glossed in modern media as equivalent to billions of US dollars — are reconstructions extrapolated from the same al-Umari and Ibn Khaldun reportage, and reflect a single chain of transmission rather than independent attestation.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=106}}{{sfn|Schultz|2006}}{{sfn|Collet|2019|p=106}} The conversion of such figures into modern monetary equivalents is regarded by historians as methodologically unsound, given both the gap between fourteenth-century Sahelian gold-economy logic and modern asset valuation and the difficulty of separating the personal wealth of a monarch from that of the state.{{sfn|Collet|2019|p=106}}{{sfn|Davidson|2015a}}

The idea of a West African monarch being the wealthiest in the world predates Mansa Musa by over 300 years, Ibn Hawqal (951) stated “The king of [[Ghana Empire|Ghana]] is the wealthiest king on the face of the earth because of his treasures and stocks of gold extracted in olden times for his predecessors and himself.” He goes on to describe the same empire’s oppressing need for imported salt. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Kingdom of Ghana {{!}} African Studies Center |url=https://www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/teachingresources/history/ancient-to-medieval-history/k_o_ghana/ |access-date=2026-05-19 |website=www.bu.edu}}</ref>

The wealth of the Mali Empire did not come from direct control of gold-producing regions, but rather trade and tribute.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|pp=107–108}} These trade routes extended as south as the Akan Forest in [[Ghana|the modern country of Ghana]] which was formerly known as the [[Gold Coast (region)|Gold Coast]] (not to be confused with the [[Ghana Empire]]). In the late 15th century the Portuguese were attaining 400-550 kilos (880-1,200 pounds) of gold per year from this region through trade. <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |date=2019-05-13 |title=The Gold Trade of Ancient & Medieval West Africa |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1383/the-gold-trade-of-ancient--medieval-west-africa/ |journal=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref> The earliest city of the [[Akan people]] was [[Bono Manso]] and was an important trade connection with [[Djenné]]. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Compton |first=Anne M. |url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/rv042v90q |title=Excavations at Kranka Dada: An Examination of Daily Life, Trade, and Ritual in the Bono Manso Region |date=2017 |publisher=BAR Publishing |isbn=978-1-4073-4487-4 |language=en}}</ref> The gold Musa brought on his pilgrimage probably represented years of accumulated tribute that Musa would have spent much of his early reign gathering.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=105}} Another source of income for Mali during Musa's reign was taxation of the copper trade.{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=272}}

According to several contemporary authors, such as Ibn Battuta, [[Ibn al-Dawadari]] and [[Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari|al-Umari]], Mansa Musa ran out of money during his journey to Mecca and had to borrow from Egyptian merchants at a high rate of interest on his return journey. Al-Umari and [[Ibn Khaldun]] state that the moneylenders were either never repaid or only partly repaid. Other sources disagree as to whether they were eventually and fully compensated.<ref>{{harvnb|Gomez|2018|pp=119–120}} "When Mansa Musa first arrived in Cairo he 'and his followers bought all kinds of things … they thought that their money was inexhaustible.' By the time they left for Mali a year later, they had to borrow the very resources they initially spent, as Ibn al-Dawadari relates: 'Then these people became amazed at the ampleness of this country and how their money had become used up. So they became needy and resold what they had bought at half its value, and people made good profits out of them. And God knows best.' […] Abu l-Hasan Ali b. Amir Hajib, who had befriended Mansa Musa, told al-Umari the former was forced to borrow money from Egyptian merchants (at) 'a very high rate' … 'Avaricious people lent to them in the hope of big profits on their return [that is, to Mali], but everything they borrowed fell back on the heads of the lenders and they got nothing back. Among these was our friend the shaykh and imam Shams al-Din b. Tazmart al-maghribi. He lent them gold of good form but none of it came back.'… Ibn Khaldun records that the 'Banu l-Kuwaykh', or his family, were among those who loaned money to Musa, in this case 50,000 dinars. In partial repayment, Musa sold to Siraj al-Din the 'palace' given to him by the sultan al-Nasir, but to recover the entire amount, Siraj al-Din sent agents to Mali, later followed by his son Fakhr al-Din Abu Jafar. Other moneylenders did the same, and the sources disagree as to whether they were all eventually and fully compensated."</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343431925 |title=Mansa Musa's Journey to Mecca and Its Impact on Western Sudan (Conference: 'Routes of Hajj in Africa', at International University of Africa, Khartoum)|date=2020 |last1=Abbou |first1=Tahar |quote=With his lavish spending and generosity in Cairo, (Mansa Musa) ran out of money and had to borrow at high rates of interest for the return journey. Ibn Battuta says that Mansa Musa borrowed 50,000 dinars from Siraj al-Din ibn al-Kuwayk, a rich merchant from Alexandria, after he had spent all his wealth.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RwCHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA308 |title=Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages: A Reader |publisher=University of Toronto Press |date=2011 |editor-last=Whalen |editor-first=Brett Edward |isbn=9781442603844 |pages=308 |quote=[Mansa Musa] could not meet his expenses. He therefore borrowed money from the principal merchants. Among those merchants who were in his company were the Banu l-Kuwayk, who gave him a loan of 50,000 dinars. He sold to them the palace which the sultan had bestowed on him as a gift. He [the sultan] approved it. Siraj al-Din b. al-Kuwayk sent his vizier along with him to collect what he had loaned to him but the vizier died there. Siraj al-Din sent another [emissary] with his son. He [the emissary] died but the son, Fakhr al-Din Abu Jafar, got back some of it. Mansa Musa died before he [Siraj al-Din] died, so they obtained nothing more from him.}}</ref>

== Appearance and character == According to [[Ibn Kathir]], "He was a handsome young man." [[Ibn Habib al-Halabi]], a contemporary of Ibn Kathir, described Musa as a "young man, brown-skinned, with a pleasant face and handsome appearance."{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=104}}

Arabic writers, such as Ibn Battuta and Abdallah ibn Asad al-Yafii, praised Musa's generosity, virtue, and intelligence.{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=295}}{{sfn|Collet|2019|p=115–116}} Ibn Khaldun said that he "was an upright man and a great king, and tales of his justice are still told."{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=334}}

==Footnotes== {{notelist}}

==References== ===Citations=== {{reflist|20em}}

===Primary sources=== {{refbegin|indent=yes}} *{{citation | author = Al-Umari | author-link = Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari | title = Masalik al-Absar fi Mamalik al-Amsar }}, translated in {{harvnb|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000}} *{{citation | author = al-Sadi | title = Taʾrīkh al-Sūdān }}, translated in {{harvnb|Hunwick|1999}} {{refend}} * {{cite book |editor1-last=Cuoq |editor1-first=Joseph |title=Recueil des sources arabes concernant l'Afrique occidentale du VIIIeme au XVIeme siècle (Bilād Al-Sūdān) |work=Sources d'histoire médiévale |date=1985 |volume=7 |issue=1 |publisher=Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique |location=Paris |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/sohim_0398-3811_1985_edc_7_1}} * {{citation | author = Ibn Khaldun | author-link = Ibn Khaldun | title = Kitāb al-ʿIbar wa-dīwān al-mubtadaʾ wa-l-khabar fī ayyām al-ʿarab wa-ʾl-ʿajam wa-ʾl-barbar }}, translated in {{harvnb|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000}}

===Other sources=== {{refbegin|indent=yes|30em}} * {{cite journal |last=Bell |first=Nawal Morcos |year=1972 |title=The age of Mansa Musa of Mali: Problems in succession and chronology |journal=[[International Journal of African Historical Studies]] |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=221–234 |doi=10.2307/217515 |jstor=217515}} *{{Cite journal |doi=10.2307/3171880 |issn=0361-5413 |volume=21 |pages=1–47 |last=Bühnen |first=Stephan |title=In Quest of Susu |journal=History in Africa |date=1994 |jstor=3171880 |s2cid=248820704 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0361541300001169/type/journal_article |access-date=30 October 2021 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418013055/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/abs/in-quest-of-susu/2ECEF02ECCFB74B2547F582D13C6DE21 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}} * {{Cite book |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-027773-4 |last1=Canós-Donnay |first1=Sirio |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History |chapter=The Empire of Mali |date=25 February 2019 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.266 |url=http://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-266 |access-date=16 October 2021 |archive-date=20 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020034919/https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-266 |url-status=live}} * {{Cite journal |doi=10.2307/3171998 |issn=0361-5413 |eissn=1558-2744 |volume=19 |pages=147–200 |last=Conrad |first=David C. |title=Searching for History in The Sunjata Epic: The Case of Fakoli |journal=History in Africa |date=1992 |jstor=3171998 |s2cid=161404193 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0361541300000656/type/journal_article |access-date=27 July 2021 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418013117/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/abs/searching-for-history-in-the-sunjata-epic-the-case-of-fakoli1/38A0DB3D1DB47D729223D42951A01604 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}} * {{cite journal |last=Cissoko |first=S. M. |year=1969 |title=Quel est le nom du plus grand empereur du Mali: Kankan Moussa ou Kankou Moussa |journal=Notes Africaines |volume=124 |pages=113–114}} * {{Cite journal |doi=10.1017/hia.2019.12 |issn=0361-5413 |eissn=1558-2744 |volume=46 |pages=105–135 |last=Collet |first=Hadrien |title=Échos d'Arabie. Le Pèlerinage à La Mecque de Mansa Musa (724–725/1324–1325) d'après des Nouvelles Sources |journal=History in Africa |date=2019 |s2cid=182652539 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/abs/echos-darabie-le-pelerinage-a-la-mecque-de-mansa-musa-72472513241325-dapres-des-nouvelles-sources/6621DFBE19EDD839E80372C81529CF4A |access-date=15 April 2022 |archive-date=15 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220415084128/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/abs/echos-darabie-le-pelerinage-a-la-mecque-de-mansa-musa-72472513241325-dapres-des-nouvelles-sources/6621DFBE19EDD839E80372C81529CF4A |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}} * {{cite book |last=Collet |first=Hadrien |title=Le sultanat du Mali. Histoire régressive d'un empire médiéval (XXIe–XIVe siècle) |publisher=CNRS Éditions |location=Paris |year=2022 |language=fr |isbn=978-2-271-13979-5}} * {{cite magazine |title=How to Compare Fortunes Across History |first1=Jacob |last1=Davidson |year=2015a |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921212003/https://money.com/richest-people-of-all-time-methodology/ |url=https://money.com/richest-people-of-all-time-methodology/ |archive-date=September 21, 2021 |magazine=Money.com |url-status=live |df=mdy-all}} * {{cite magazine |url=https://money.com/the-10-richest-people-of-all-time-2/ |title=The 10 Richest People of All Time |author=Davidson |first=Jacob |year=2015b |magazine=Money.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220131054311/https://money.com/the-10-richest-people-of-all-time-2/ |archive-date=January 31, 2022 |url-status=live}} * {{cite book |first1=Marq |last1=De Villiers |author-link1=Marq de Villiers |first2=Sheila |last2=Hirtle |title=Timbuktu: Sahara's fabled city of gold |publisher=Walker and Company |location=New York |date=2007}} *{{cite book |last1=Devisse |first1=Jean |last2=Labib |first2=S. |date=1984 |chapter=Africa in inter-continental relations |editor-last=Niane |editor-first=D.T. |title=General History of Africa, IV: Africa From the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century |location=Berkeley California |publisher=University of California |pages=635–672 |isbn=0-520-03915-7 |chapter-url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000060349 |access-date=25 April 2022 |archive-date=25 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220425142605/https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000060349 |url-status=live}} *{{Cite book |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-18126-4 |last=Fauvelle |first=François-Xavier |others=Troy Tice (trans.) |title=The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages |date=2018 |orig-year=2013 |chapter=The Sultan and the Sea}} *{{cite book |last1=Fauvelle |first1=Francois-Xavier |title=Les masques et la mosquée - L'empire du Mâli XIIIe XIVe siècle |date=2022 |publisher=CNRS Editions |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-271-14371-6}} * {{cite book |first1=Michael A. |last1=Gomez |title=African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-691-19682-4 |publisher=Princeton University Press |title-link=African Dominion}} * {{cite journal |last=Goodwin |first=A. 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T. |title=Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century |chapter=Mali and the second Mandingo expansion |series=General history of Africa |date=1984}} * {{cite book |last=Prussin |first=Labelle |author-link=Labelle Prussin |title=Hatumere: Islamic Design in West Africa |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |year=1986 |isbn=0-520-03004-4}} * {{Cite journal |doi=10.1017/hia.2015.18 |issn=0361-5413 |eissn=1558-2744 |volume=42 |pages=37–73 |last1=Nobili |first1=Mauro |last2=Mathee |first2=Mohamed Shahid |title=Towards a New Study of the So-Called Tārīkh al-fattāsh |journal=History in Africa |date=2015 |s2cid=163126332 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/abs/towards-a-new-study-of-the-socalled-tarikh-alfattash/F9AC89F940A7085882CCCA63A63D11A8 |access-date=15 April 2022 |archive-date=15 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220415184035/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/abs/towards-a-new-study-of-the-socalled-tarikh-alfattash/F9AC89F940A7085882CCCA63A63D11A8 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}} * {{Cite book |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |isbn=978-1-118-45507-4 |pages=1–5 |editor-first1=Nigel |editor-last1=Dalziel |editor-first2=John M. |editor-last2=MacKenzie |last=Sapong |first=Nana Yaw B. |title=The Encyclopedia of Empire |chapter=Mali Empire |location=Oxford, UK |date=11 January 2016 |doi=10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe141}} * {{Cite book |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=3-447-05278-3 |pages=428–447 |editor-first1=Judith |editor-last1=Pfeiffer |editor-first2=Sholeh A. |editor-last2=Quinn |last=Schultz |first=Warren |title=History and historiography of post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East: studies in honor of John E. Woods |chapter=Mansa Mūsā's gold in Mamluk Cairo: a reappraisal of a world civilizations anecdote |location=Wiesbaden |date=2006}} * {{cite book |last=Thornton |first=John K. |date=10 September 2012 |title=A Cultural History of the Atlantic World, 1250–1820 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N9DI9rWxowMC&q=Bakr |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521727341 |access-date=12 September 2021 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418013051/https://books.google.com/books?id=N9DI9rWxowMC&q=Bakr |url-status=live}} {{refend}}

==Further reading== *{{cite book | author1 = Ibn Battuta | author-link1 = Ibn Battuta | author2 = Ibn Juzayy | author-link2 = Ibn Juzayy | title = Tuḥfat an-Nuẓẓār fī Gharāʾib al-Amṣār wa ʿAjāʾib al-Asfār }}, translated in {{harvnb|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000}} and {{harvnb|Hamdun|King|2009}}

==External links== {{sister project links||d=Q309333|c=Category:Mansa Musa|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|s=no|wikt=no|species=no}} *[https://www.worldhistory.org/Mansa_Musa_I/ Mansa Musa I] at World History Encyclopedia * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100210111328/http://www.history.com/classroom/unesco/timbuktu/mansamoussa.html Mansa Moussa: Pilgrimage of Gold] (archived) at [[History Channel]]'s History.com *[https://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/exhibitions/2019/caravans-of-gold,-fragments-in-time-art,-culture,-and-exchange-across-medieval-saharan-africa.html Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa] at Northwestern University's [[Block Museum of Art]]

{{s-start}} {{s-reg}} {{succession box|title=[[Mansa of the Mali Empire]]|before=[[Mohammed ibn Gao|Muhammad ibn Qu]]|after=[[Maghan]]|years=1312–1337}} {{s-end}} {{Mansas of Mali Empire}} {{Portalbar|Mali|Islam|Monarchy|History|Biography}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musa}} [[Category:13th-century births]] [[Category:Year of birth uncertain]] [[Category:1330s deaths]] [[Category:Year of death uncertain]] [[Category:Mansas of the Mali Empire]] [[Category:Guinean philanthropists]] [[Category:14th-century monarchs in Africa]] [[Category:African slave owners]] [[Category:14th-century travelers]] [[Category:African slave traders]]