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Mansa Musa

Mansa Musa

?1337 CE · Niani

Mansa Musa ruled the Mali Empire at its height in the early 14th century, presiding over a state that dominated the gold-producing regions of West Africa. His pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, made with a vast entourage and generous distributions of gold, brought Mali to the notice of the wider Islamic and Mediterranean world and placed it on European maps. He promoted Islamic scholarship and building and is associated with the flourishing of Timbuktu and Djenné as centers of learning and trade. He died around 1337.

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Stop 1 of 81324Mansa (Emperor) Of Mali

Niani

What they did here

He set out from the Mali heartland, associated with the capital at Niani on the Sankarani River, with a very large caravan.

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The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Mansa Musa’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

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