West Africans as sophisticated and astute in world affairs"It is said that he brought with him 14,000 slave girls for his personal service. The members of his entourage proceeded to buy Turkish and Ethiopia slave girls, singing girls and garments, so that the rate of the gold dinar fell by six dirhams. Having presented his gift he set off with the caravan." - Cairo born historian al-Maqurizi. Mansa Musa also spent his wealth to more permanent effect. He commissioned the design and construction of a number of stunning buildings, for example, the building of the mosques at Gao and Jenne. At Niani he was responsible for the construction of a fantastic cupola for holding an audience in. Timbuktu became a place of great learning with young men linked to Fez in the north. The other famous Malian ruler was Mansa Suleiman. Less is known of him. The historian Ibn Khaldun describes the considerable gifts he assembled for a Sultan in the north. But Ibn Battuta criticises his meanness. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1624_story_of_africa/page82.shtml "Trans-Saharan Trade and the West African Discovery of the Mediterranean World" Pekka Masonen, University of Tampere NB *This is the unedited paper as given at the Joensuu conference. An updated and edited version has been published in Sabour and Vikør, Ethnic encounter and culture change, Bergen/London 1997, 116-42. Please quote or refer only to the published article.* http://www.hf.uib.no/institutter/smi/paj/Masonen.html Added: Implications of Research on Neglected Dimensions of Ancient World History Grounds of reevaluation: mapping ancient world relations -Jesse Benjamin http://books.google.com/books?id=sd4gnqTZ8IUC&pg=PA37 code pour embarquer la vidéo : >>> http://www.youtube.com/embed/Sy0DRZSwYck <<< |