Contextualization: Mansa Musa Event Cards
CONTEXTUALIZATION—MANSAMUSAEVENTCARDSTheMaliEmpirewasfounded by Sundiata Keita in about 1230 CE.Trade goods such as gold from West Africa and salt inEastAfricadrovetrans-Saharan trade.Ideas and beliefs like Islam traveled along trade routes throughout Africa, where, from the tenth through fifteenthcenturies,manyelites converted, and then blendedIslam with local belief systems.OneoftheFivePillars of Islam isthe hajj, orpilgrimage,toMecca—Islam’s holiest city—which mustbe made at least once in a person’slifetime,ifpossible.MansaMusadepartedMali with a group of over1,000 people,camels,andgoldto traveltoMeccac.1324CE.The trans-Saharan trading system reached its height during the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, thanks to the desire for goods such as gold and salt along with the riseofpowerfulstateslikeMali and Songhai.The domestication of the camel allowed trade to flourishacrosstheSahara desert.Islamic empires expanded from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain/Portugal) in the west toSoutheast Asia inthe east.Islam was founded inseventh-century MeccabytheprophetMuhammad.Sundiata’s nephew MansaMusabecamethe ruler of the Mali Empire andreignedfromc.1312 to c. 1337 CE.The city of Timbuktu in the kingdom of Mali began as a pitstop for camelcaravanstradingacrossthedesert.TheMaliEmpirebecame very wealthy fromthetradeofgoldand enslaved people.The connection between government/rulers and religion was very strong, especiallyintheIslamicworld.Bothoverlandandsearoutes along the Silk Road trade networks connected Asia to the Mediterranean.