Theme 1: Africa

Chapter 5: The Mali Empire: Origin, Nature, and Impact

Depiction of Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire in the 14th century, from a 1375 Catalan Atlas of the known world (mapamundi), drawn by Abraham Cresques of Mallorca

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This module examines the Old Mali Empire within the context of ancient and medieval African history. The Old Mali Empire should not be confused with the modern Mali, even though modern Mali derives its name from the Old Mali Empire. Students should carefully study D.T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali and develop some ideas on the rise of Old Mali, the evolution of Old Mali, the nature of Old Mali society, and the decline of the empire. What were the major achievements of the Old Mali Empire? What is Old Mali remembered for? What are its legacies?

The materials on this module include the following:

i) Readings:

ii) Video:

 

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HIS 103: Ancient World History to 1300 C.E. by Meshack Owino, Shelley Rose, and Kelly Wrenhaven is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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