Mūsā I of Mali, Mūsā also spelled Musa or Mousa, also called Kankan Mūsā or Mansa Musa, (died 1332/37?), mansa (emperor) of the West African empire of Mali from 1307 (or 1312). 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). Top Questions What is Mūsā I known for? Mūsā I is widely considered the wealthiest man in history. He made his wealth and that of Mali known through a long and extravagant pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, the 17th year of his reign as emperor of Mali. Mūsā’s rule defined the golden age of Mali. Why did Mūsā I make a pilgrimage to Mecca? Like two mansolu (rulers of Mali) before him, Mūsā I undertook the hajj as an act of devotion in line with Islamic tradition. Furthermore, his hajj in 1324 was in some ways an act of solidarity that showed his connection to other rulers and peoples throughout the Islamic world. What happened on Mūsā I’s pilgrimage? Mūsā I’s pilgrimage caravan to Mecca in 1324 comprised some 60,000 people and an immeasurable amount of gold. He stopped in Cairo along the way, and his luxurious spending and gift giving was so extensive that he diluted the value of gold by 10 to 25 percent and impacted Cairo’s economy for at least 12 years afterward. What did Mūsā I do when he returned to Mali? Upon his return in 1324, Mūsā I’s pious pilgrimage inspired him to commission two enormous mosques in Timbuktu and Gao. He encouraged his subjects’ immersion in scholarship, the arts, and the Qurʾān. He intended to abdicate the throne and return to Mecca but died before he was able to do so. What was Mūsā I’s legacy? Mūsā I’s hajj left a lasting impression of Mali’s splendour on both the Islamic and European worlds. In Mali he promoted trans-Saharan trade that further increased the empire’s wealth. Under his reign, Mali conquered the neighbouring kingdom of Songhai. His religious devotion contributed to the spread of Islam across West Africa.

Pilgrimage to Mecca Mansa Mūsā, either the grandson or the grandnephew of Sundiata, the founder of his dynasty, came to the throne in 1307. In the 17th year of his reign (1324), he set out on his famous pilgrimage to Mecca. It was this pilgrimage that awakened the world to the stupendous wealth of Mali. Cairo and Mecca received this royal personage, whose glittering procession, in the superlatives employed by Arab chroniclers, almost put Africa’s sun to shame. Traveling from his capital of Niani on the upper Niger River to Walata (Oualâta, Mauritania) and on to Tuat (now in Algeria) before making his way to Cairo, Mansa Mūsā was accompanied by an impressive caravan consisting of 60,000 men including a personal retinue of 12,000 slaves, all clad in brocade and Persian silk. The emperor himself rode on horseback and was directly preceded by 500 slaves, each carrying a gold-adorned staff. In addition, Mansa Mūsā had a baggage train of 80 camels, each carrying 300 pounds of gold. Mansa Mūsā’s prodigious generosity and piety, as well as the fine clothes and exemplary behaviour of his followers, did not fail to create a most-favourable impression. The Cairo that Mansa Mūsā visited was ruled by one of the greatest of the Mamlūk sultans, Al-Malik al-Nāṣir. The black emperor’s great civility notwithstanding, the meeting between the two rulers might have ended in a serious diplomatic incident, for so absorbed was Mansa Mūsā in his religious observances that he was only with difficulty persuaded to pay a formal visit to the sultan. The historian al-ʿUmarī, who visited Cairo 12 years after the emperor’s visit, found the inhabitants of this city, with a population estimated at one million, still singing the praises of Mansa Mūsā. So lavish was the emperor in his spending that he flooded the Cairo market with gold, thereby causing such a decline in its value that the market some 12 years later had still not fully recovered. Rulers of West African states had made pilgrimages to Mecca before Mansa Mūsā, but the effect of his flamboyant journey was to advertise both Mali and Mansa Mūsā well beyond the African continent and to stimulate a desire among the Muslim kingdoms of North Africa, and among many of European nations as well, to reach the source of this incredible wealth. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. Subscribe today

Conquest of Songhai kingdom Mansa Mūsā, whose empire was one of the largest in the world at that time, is reported to have observed that it would take a year to travel from one end of his empire to the other. While this was probably an exaggeration, it is known that during his pilgrimage to Mecca one of his generals, Sagmandia (Sagaman-dir), extended the empire by capturing the Songhai capital of Gao. The Songhai kingdom measured several hundreds of miles across, so that the conquest meant the acquisition of a vast territory. The 14th-century traveller Ibn Baṭṭūṭah noted that it took about four months to travel from the northern borders of the Mali empire to Niani in the south. The emperor was so overjoyed by the new acquisition that he decided to delay his return to Niani and to visit Gao instead, there to receive the personal submission of the Songhai king and take the king’s two sons as hostages. At both Gao and Timbuktu, a Songhai city almost rivalling Gao in importance, Mansa Mūsā commissioned Abū Isḥāq al-Sāḥilī, a Granada poet and architect who had travelled with him from Mecca, to build mosques. The Gao mosque was built of burnt bricks, which had not, until then, been used as a material for building in West Africa. Timbuktu, Mali: Great Mosque Great Mosque, built by Emperor Mūsā I of Mali in 1327, Timbuktu, Mali. © Ayse Topbas—Moment/Getty Images Under Mansa Mūsā, Timbuktu grew to be a very important commercial city having caravan connections with Egypt and with all other important trade centres in North Africa. Side by side with the encouragement of trade and commerce, learning and the arts received royal patronage. Scholars who were mainly interested in history, Qurʾānic theology, and law were to make the mosque of Sankore in Timbuktu a teaching centre and to lay the foundations of the University of Sankore. Mansa Mūsā probably died in 1332.

Legacy The organization and smooth administration of a purely African empire, the founding of the University of Sankore, the expansion of trade in Timbuktu, the architectural innovations in Gao, Timbuktu, and Niani and, indeed, throughout the whole of Mali and in the subsequent Songhai empire are all testimony to Mansa Mūsā’s superior administrative gifts. In addition, the moral and religious principles he had taught his subjects endured after his death. John Coleman de Graft-Johnson