Mansa Musa & Ibn Battuta 1280-1368

Salt and copper

Crossing the desert, paying a horseman from the destination to meet you

The Sahara

Egypt was always a prosperous cross-road between three continents. At a time, the Kingdom of Carthage in modern day Tunisia & Libya was the biggest rival to the Roman Empire. the Moors of modern-day Morocco had conquered half of Spain until being forced out in the 14^th century, and the great Christian philosopher Augustine of Hippo (St Augustine named after) was a member of the Berber people from modern-day Algeria during the last days of the Roman Empire.

However, these lands all bordered the Sahara Desert. The largest hot desert in the world. Covering almost 6 million square miles, it’s the size of China and the US combined. Alone it makes up 8% of the earths land mass. It receives less than an inch of rain each year, has a highest recorded temperature of 136 Fahrenheit and an average annual temperature of 86. (Florida is 72) Meanwhile, at night it drops to 21 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s a daunting task to cross, a journey that takes 40-60 days. The average caravan consisted of 500 camels, large animals that don’t need to drink for 15 days. To avoid the midday heat they would set off early in the morning, find shade in an oasis during the middle of the day and then set off again in the later afternoon and travelling until after dark. On long stretches across the desert, someone would be sent ahead of a caravan to arrange another caravan with water meet them halfway.

It’s for this reason that Africa was still almost entirely unknown in the 13^th century. It took an expert guide in order to cross it. The guides could navigate the seemingly empty and featureless desert to locate the oasis hidden between the dunes. These oasis were essential for crossing, known as “Lifelines of the desert”, missing one could mean dehydration and death. Other dangers included sandstorms, venomous snakes, bandits, scorpions and supernatural demons some desert people believe haunted parts of the Sahara.

Malian Empire

The Malian Empire was hidden south of the Sahara. It was extremely gold rich and had gathered a considerable amount of wealth. It's believed that they had half the world's known gold at the time.

Mansa Abubakar II was king. The Malian Empire controlled modern-day Senegal and the King was fascinated by the wide ocean. Many believed that the sea was unending and circled the entire earth. Abubaker wanted to discover what lay beyond it and sent scouts out into the ocean. They came back and reported rivers in the oceans (today we know these to be the transatlantic currents.) So in 1311, Abubaker gathered up 2 years’ worth of rations, 1,000 large canoes built by the sailors of Lake Chad and set sail to discover what lay beyond the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Africans Discovered America?

Some people speculate that the Kingdom of Mali could’ve crossed the Atlantic before Columbus. Let’s explore how likely this might be…

1. Indians in Hispaniola reported “black skinned people from south east with gold tipped spears”
2. Egyptian Mummies tested positive for South American drugs – 10,000 BC to 400 AD.
3. Egyptian Artifacts were reported as found in caves at the bottom of the Grand Canyon
4. Egyptians and South Americans have pyramids
5. Smithsonian team identified Black Skeletons found in South America – date?
6. The shortest distance across the Atlantic is 1,600 miles from Senegal to Brazil.
7. The giant Olmec head statues look like Africans
8. Some Native Americans had black deities
9. Mansa Musa himself had knowledge of “rivers in the ocean”

Investigation

1. Another explanation? Body paint? Darker skinned? Account is from 1498
2. No other mummies tested positive elsewhere at other labs. Didn’t bring back food? Contamination? Where were these mummies stored?
3. A single 1909 newspaper claims The Smithsonian covered up the discovery of Egypto-Tibetan artifacts in the Grand Canyon. The existence of the archeologists can’t be confirmed.
4. How similar are the pyramids? Did Malian’s have pyramids? Same purpose?
5. Based on No surviving Native Americans have African DNA
6. The Ancient Egyptians (2000BC-332BC) were said to be great seafarers. Modern people have crossed the Atlantic alone in a canoe, usually with GPS and knowledge of destination.
7. Olmec peoples are from the Veracruz and date to 900 BC
8. Vishnu has blue skin, good argument? – Most prominent Black God is from Navajos who are thought to have only lived West of Texas
9. Nobody returned to put it on a map?

Did Indians trade with Chinese? Did the Chinese trade with Indonesians? Did the Indonesians trade with the Polynesians? DNA evidence shows Polynesians interbred with South Americans. How about trading from Russia to Alaska? Viking settlements have been excavated in Canada. A famous story from Scandinavia is that of Leif Erikson and his voyage to Greenland. He named it Greenland to encourage migration but when many got there they realized it was mostly comprised of glacier ice. Much of contact between cultures was for trade and mutually beneficial. War was rarely considered because the trade was more profitable than war. Columbus’ voyage to the new world was a discovery to much of Europe but to the Polynesians, ancient Vikings, Alaskan Innuits, Native Americans and possibly Africans who made it there but never did return, it was already discovered. Columbus’ expedition also had two pivotal things goes for it. The invention of gunpowder (a Chinese invention) and the creation of guns (1434) and the evangelizing nature of the Catholic Church. Firearms made the Europeans far more powerful than the Native Americans and whom were not Christians. Many Catholics believed they were obligated to force their religion on the Native populations. Any good person would accept Christ and those who were evil would reject him. Evangelizing is about winning souls but if some refuse to convert, they’re in the way of others. Being an obstacle to conversion was seen to many as more dangerous than murder. Murder was only an earthly death but disbelief caused eternal spiritual death and shouldn’t be tolerated. So Columbus and the Europeans voyaged to the “New World” in search for Gold, God and Glory. Their aim was to return to their monarchs with testimonies of how many souls they had saved and how much gold they had discovered with hopes of winning them and their families glory and status. All of this was made easier by having superior firepower than their adversaries.  While past contact with Native Americans had resulted in trade and maybe occasional violence, the Native population had always remained. The Columbus Expedition is notable because the Europeans overpowered and replaced them.

Mansa Musa - 1312-1337

Islam had been useful for the rulers of saharan Africa. Established laws, writing, trade and political control over many people.

In 1324, the King of Mali was Mansa Musa. Mansa was the Malian word for King and Musa is Arabic for Moses. One of the core traditions in Islam is traveling to Mecca, the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad. This journey is called "The Haij".

Musa wasn't the first Mansa of Mali to do the haji to Mecca. However, in the past, the Mansa had traveled modestly and without fan fare. Musa saw an opportunity to increase his kingdom's reputation and his own greatness.

So in 1324, Mansa Musa assembled thousands of merchants, diplomats, messengers, slaves and bodyguards. They loaded 200 camels with gold and set off for Mecca. Along the way, Mansa Musa gave out gold to the poor, gifts to the rich and built a mosque every Friday.

When he reached Egypt, he was invited to meet with the Sultan. (Egypt hadn't had a pharaoh for over one thousand years by this point) Mansa Musa politely declined the offer and said he was only interested in reaching Mecca. The sultan kept making offers for Mansa Musa to visit but it was also tradition to kiss the ground at the sultan's feet. Mansa Musa didn't believe he should have to lower himself to any other ruler. Eventually turning down offers from the sultan began to get insulting but Mansa Musa had a plan.

When Mansa Musa and his entourage of subjects visited the Sultan, the moment came for Mansa Musa to kiss the ground but before doing so, he said "I kiss the ground to Allah." This was a smart move that prevented it appearing that Mansa Musa was lowering himself to another ruler.  The Sultan & The Mansa exchanged gifts and Mansa Musa continued on his way.

The massive caravan loaded back up and got back on it's way. Along the way, they continued to hand out gold to the needy. Since the journey was a holy pilgrimage, Mansa Musa desired to display his dedication to the five pillars of Islam, one of which being generosity and charity. They handed out so much gold in Egypt that it reduced the value of gold and caused an ecommerce crisis. By some estimates, Musa may have brought as much as 18 tons of gold on his hajj, equal in value to over US$957 million in 2022.

Merchants from Venice traded with Egypt's port city of Alexandria. The Egyptians would tell the Venetians stories of Mansa Musa and his immeasurable wealth. These Venetians went back to Europe and told the people there about Mansa Musa and the Kingdom of Mali. When the Spanish created a map of the known world and even through Mansa Musa had died 50 years previously, sub-Saharan Africa was represented by a depiction of Mansa Musa holding a golden nugget.

The Haij

After singlehandedly crashing the Egyptian economy, Mansa Musa continued on to Mecca to participate in the Haij. During the Haij, everybody wears the same white gown. This is meant to simulate heaven and strip away social classes. Mansa Musa, King of Gold, blended into the crowd and humbled himself amongst the crowds of the plainly dressed. Of course, much of the plainly dressed crowd were his personal entourage but the sentiment was the same.

Mansa Musa returns to see his newly conquered city of Timbuktu. Builds a mosque and university that still stands today. The biggest ancient library of Africa after the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

Why is Mansa Musa important?

Traditionally history has been very European focused and there’s long been a stereotype of Africa being nothing but mud-huts and witch doctors. Mansa Musa provides evidence that vast, high functioning kingdoms existed with vast amounts of wealth, beauty and culture. The awareness of great African kingdoms is still growing. The knowledge of Kingdom’s such as Great Zimbabwe (1000-1600), The Kingdom of Ghana (300-1100) and the Kingdoms of Ethiopia (100-960) are still being uncovered.

Prisoners of Geography

Ibn Battuta - 1304-1369

The same year Mansa Musa returned to Mali, a new journey began in present-day Morocco. Ibn Battuta was a Berber man from Morocco. He was born into a family of Islamic lawyers and professors. This is what Ibn also hoped to do.

Aged 21, he set off on his Hajj alone. A journey that usually took people in his town a total of 16 months. He wouldn’t return to Morocco for 24 years, aged 45 after travelling 73,000 miles and visiting around 40 present-day countries.

His hometown was Tangier (namesake of Tangerines)

First leg (1325-1332)

Morocco

Algeria

Tunisia

Libya

Egypt

Israel

Lebanon?

Syria

Saudi Arabia

Yemen

Turkey

Iran

Iraq

Kuwait?

Oman

Somalia

Kenya

Tanzania

 

2^nd Leg

 

Bulgaria?

Ukraine

Russia

Kazakstan

Uzbeckistan

Tajikistan

Afghanistan

Pakistan

India

Sri Lanka

Maldives

Bangladesh

Myanmar

Thailand

Indonesia

Vietnam

China

Philippines?

 

3^rd Leg

 

Spain

Italy

Mali

Mansa Musa had been dead for 15 years

Guinea

Mauritania

Gibraltar

Niger