The Obituary
Sundiata Keita united the Mandinka peoples and founded Mali in the early 13th century on the upper Niger River, controlling the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade. Under Mansa Musa in the 14th century it reached its height, fabulously wealthy and dotted with mosques and madrasas at Timbuktu and Djenne. Succession disputes, Tuareg raids, and the rise of Songhai gradually stripped away its provinces. By the 17th century Mali had shrunk to a small chiefdom, finished off when the Bamana of Segou sacked its capital around 1670.
Worth remembering
- Mansa Musa's 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca gave away so much gold it disrupted Egyptian economies for years.
- Its city of Timbuktu became a famed center of Islamic scholarship and the book trade.
Sources
- Mali Empire founded by Sundiata Keita c. 1235 Wikipedia
- Mali declined from the 15th century and collapsed by the 17th World History Encyclopedia
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.