The WestAfricanKingdom of Mali

Global History and Geography I Name: ______

E. Napp Date: ______

In 1240 A.D., the West African kingdom of Mali conquered a weakened Ghana. Mali’s rulers established a new empire and brought both the gold and the salt mines under their control. The rulers of Mali dominated the Trans-Saharan trade. In addition, Mali’s rulers also converted to Islam. The man most responsible for Mali’s rise to greatness was Sundiata Keita. He took control of the gold fields and ordered his armies to sweep across Africa. In fact, his empire included large areas of the Sahara. However, while Sundiata Keita was a significant king of Mali, Mali’s most famous ruler was Mansa Musa.

Mansa Musa was a king of Mali when it was most powerful. Mansa Musa was also a pious Muslim. He brought many Arab scholars to his capital and set up a great center of Islamic learning in Timbuktu. Scholars from all over the Islamic world came to study in Timbuktu. Mansa Musa also made a religious pilgrimage to Mecca. Wanting to fulfill the Five Pillars of Islam, Mansa Musa loaded eighty camels with bags of gold dust to pay for the 3,000 mile trip from Mali to Mecca! In addition, because of the importance of studying the Koran, the holy book of Islam, many West Africans learned to read and write in order to fully appreciate the Koran. While Mali thrived for many years, it collapsed in the 1400s because later rulers of Mali proved to be less capable than Sundiata Keita and Mansa Musa.

Questions:

1-How was Mali’s involvement in the Trans-Saharan trade similar and different from Ghana’s involvement? ______

2-Who was Sundiata Keita and what did he do? ______

3-Why was Mansa Musa the most significant ruler of the West African kingdom of Mali? ______

4-Using prior knowledge, list the Five Pillars of Islam: ______

5-When and why did the West African kingdom of Mali collapse? ______

Ibn Battuta was a 14th-century Muslim traveler who spent 24 years traveling the Muslim world to meet scholars and rulers. His stories give us a first hand account of historical events such as the one below.

Primary Source

"[The king or sultan] has a lofty pavilion, of which the door is inside his house, where he sits for most of the time. . . . There came forth from the gate of the palace about 300 slaves, some carrying in their hands bows and others having in their hands short lances and shields. . . Then two saddled and bridled horses are brought, with two rams which, they say, are effective against the evil eye. . . . Dugha, the interpreter, stands at the gate of the council-place wearing fine garments of silk brocade and other materials. . . . The troops, governors, young men, slaves, and others sit outside the council-place in a broad street where there are trees. . . . Inside the council-place beneath the arches a man is standing. Anyone who wishes to address the sultan addresses Dugha and Dugha addresses that man standing and that man standing addresses the sultan."

  1. How does this passage provide evidence of Mali's wealth?

______

  1. What do you think are Ibn Battuta's impressions of the public sitting ceremony?

______

Word Bank:

Ghana, Salt, Trans Saharan, Mansa Musa, Gold, Cultural Diffusion, Camel, Mecca, Koran, Timbuktu, Islam

One similarity between the Ancient African kingdoms of Egypt, Ghana, Mali and Songhai is that all of these kingdoms were located

  1. in mountainous terrain
  2. in coastal areas
  3. on major trading routes
  4. in rain forest areas

You might think that camels are the perfect desert animals.

And they are. But other animals are adapted to the heat and dryness of the desert, too. They have to be, if they want to survive.

Take a good, close look at a camel. Everything about it helps the camel survive desert living. Its coarse, thick coat shields its skin from the harsh desert sun and wind. Its bushy eyebrows and long lashes protect its eyes from blowing sand, and a lining of fur protects the inside of its small ears. A camel can even close its nostrils during a windstorm to keep sand out of its nose.

Finding food can be a problem in the desert, especially for a big animal. But camels have sharp front teeth and tough skin on the inside of their mouths so they can tear up and eat thorny desert plants. Their upper lips are split so their teeth can also nibble short grasses, if any can be found.

The hump contains fat that a camel can use for energy when food is in short supply. The process of converting the fat into energy also produces water for the camel's body. A camel can go without taking a drink of water for up to a week, and its body conserves as much moisture as it can. A sponge in the camel's nose soaks up moisture from its breath before it exhales. A camel can also let its body temperature rise when it's hot. Why? To avoid sweating to cool down-and losing precious water.

And camels have another way to conserve water. Most animals need to urinate to get rid of waste products. But the urine of camels (and some other desert animals) is extremely concentrated. That way, very little water is lost, although a camel's urine is thick, dark, and smelly.

Most desert animals do their best to stay out of the hot sun in the desert. Many are active only early in the morning or at night. In fact, if you visit a desert in the middle of the day, you probably won't see a thing. No snakes or lizards, no ants or birds. Where are all the animals?

Some scorpions and spiders are resting under rocks. A tiny elf owl may be snoozing inside a saguaro cactus. But most animals are hiding underground.

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