A seated terracotta figure from the Middle Niger, made in the thirteenth century
Seated figure, 13th century
Marked Niani

SubjectIn outline · lessons being written

The Mali empire and Mansa Musa

Sundiata Keita founded Mali, which grew to rule much of West Africa. In 1324 Mansa Musa travelled to Mecca with so much gold that writers in Cairo were still talking about it decades later.

Place
Niani · Timbuktu · Djenné · GaoAfrica
Laid out as
An empireOne power across a long stretch of time: how it grew, held together, and came apart.
Lessons
6 planned, none written yet

The lessons we plan

Titles may change as they are written

  1. ISundiata and the epic
  2. IIThe griots who remember
  3. IIIGold and salt
  4. IVMansa Musa’s journey
  5. VTimbuktu and Djenné
  6. VIIbn Battuta visits

Still to come

The people and objects these lessons will cover

People

  • Sundiata Keita
  • Sogolon
  • Mansa Musa
  • Ibn Battuta

Objects

  • The Catalan Atlas
  • The Djinguereber mosque

Where it sits

All of human history, era by era

Early human ancestryOur species and the Old Stone AgeFarming and the New Stone AgeFirst cities and the Bronze AgeThe Iron Age and growing statesThe classical worldAfter the empiresMedieval networks and empiresOceans crossedRevolutions and the first factoriesIndustry, empire and world warThe world since 1945

1235 to 1600. Each era is drawn the same width, so the earliest are squeezed: era II alone is over 300,000 years.

Nearby in time and place

This page is an outline. The summary above is a starting point; each lesson, when it is written, will give its sources, its pictures and where historians disagree. Spotted a mistake?