Mansa Musa's Hajj (1324)

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

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   Niani, on the upper Niger1324 CE

   Stop 1: Niani, the royal city

   Mansa Musa had ruled Mali since 1312. His empire stretched from the Atlantic coast to beyond the bend of the Niger, and it held the goldfields that supplied much of the gold of the Mediterranean world. His capital is usually placed at Niani, in the Mandinka heartland on the upper Niger.

   In 1324 he prepared to make the Hajj, the pilgrimage that every Muslim who is able must make once in a lifetime. He was not the first king of Mali to go, but he went on a scale that nobody had seen. Writers in Egypt spoke of thousands of people in his caravan: soldiers, officials, servants and members of the royal household, with many camels carrying gold. The numbers grew with every telling, but all agree that it was enormous.

   Read more: Sundiata and the founding of Mali (c. 1235) (Era 7 · Chapter 02)

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   Walata, in today's Mauritania1324 CE

   Stop 2: Walata, at the edge of the desert

   The caravan travelled north to Walata, a trading town at the southern edge of the Sahara, where the green Sahel gives way to sand. Walata was one of the places where merchants from North Africa met the traders of Mali. Salt and North African goods arrived from the north, and gold and grain went the other way.

   Here the caravan made its final preparations for the crossing. Camels were loaded with water skins and food, and guides who knew the wells and the stars were hired. The desert crossing was dangerous. Caravans could lose their way, and a missed well could mean death.

   Walata was also a town of scholars, with mosques and families of learning, part of the same world as Timbuktu and Chinguetti.

   Read more: Gold, salt and the Sahara roads (to c. 1235) (Era 7 · Chapter 01)

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   Tuat, in today's Algeria1324 CE

   Stop 3: Tuat, the oasis road

   The crossing of the Sahara took weeks. The caravan moved from well to well across a sea of sand and stone, travelling in the cool hours and resting in the heat. The route is thought to have passed through the oases of Tuat, in the middle of the desert, a chain of palm groves watered by underground channels.

   Oases like Tuat were the stepping stones of the Sahara trade. They supplied dates, water and rest, and their merchants knew the roads north and south. Muslim traders had been crossing this way for centuries, and the faith had travelled the same roads into West Africa.

   From the oases the caravan turned north-east, toward Egypt and the Nile.

   Read more: Gold, salt and the Sahara roads (to c. 1235) (Era 7 · Chapter 01)

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   Cairo, EgyptJuly 1324 CE

   Stop 4: Cairo, the city of the sultans

   In the summer of 1324 the caravan reached Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk sultans and the greatest city of the Muslim world at the time. Mansa Musa camped near the pyramids for some months while waiting for the pilgrim caravan to Makkah.

   He was received by the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Muhammad. The historian al-Umari, who wrote a few years later and spoke to people who had met him, recorded that Musa at first refused to bow before the sultan, saying that he bowed only to God, and that a way was found to keep the dignity of both kings.

   Al-Umari also tells what Cairo remembered most. Mansa Musa and his people gave gifts and spent gold so freely in the markets that its value fell, and years later it had still not recovered.

   Read more: Mansa Musa's Hajj (1324) (Era 7 · Chapter 03); Cairo, the capital of learning (1260-1517) (Era 6 · Chapter 06)

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   Makkah and Madinah, the Hijaz1324-1325 CE724-725 AH

   Stop 5: Makkah and Madinah

   From Cairo the king of Mali travelled with the Egyptian pilgrim caravan across Sinai and down through the Hijaz to Makkah. There he performed the Hajj with pilgrims from across the Muslim world: the circling of the Ka'bah, the standing at Arafat, and the days at Mina.

   He also visited Madinah and the mosque of the Prophet ﷺ. In both cities he gave generously to the poor. By the time he turned for home, he had given away so much that, according to the accounts, he had to borrow money in Cairo for the return journey.

   In the holy cities he also sought out scholars and invited them to come to Mali. Some agreed, among them descendants of the family of the Prophet ﷺ, and joined his caravan home.

   From the Quran

   وَأَذِّن فِى ٱلنَّاسِ بِٱلْحَجِّ يَأْتُوكَ رِجَالًا وَعَلَىٰ كُلِّ ضَامِرٍ يَأْتِينَ مِن كُلِّ فَجٍّ عَمِيقٍ ۝٢٧

   Call ˹all˺ people to the pilgrimage. They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel from every distant path,

   Read more: Mansa Musa's Hajj (1324) (Era 7 · Chapter 03)

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   Gao and Timbuktu, on the Niger1325 CE

   Stop 6: Gao and Timbuktu, the road home

   On the way home, news came that Mansa Musa's generals had taken Gao, the city of the Songhai on the bend of the Niger. The king visited it, and Timbuktu, further up the river, also came firmly under Mali.

   Mansa Musa brought back the most valuable gift of his journey: people. Among them was Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, a poet and architect from al-Andalus, who designed buildings for him, including the great mosque of Timbuktu, the Djinguereber, which is still used for prayer. Scholars settled in the city, teachers opened study circles, and families began to gather libraries.

   Over the next two centuries Timbuktu became one of the great centres of Islamic learning in Africa, famous for its scholars and its manuscripts.

   Read more: Timbuktu: mosques, scholars and manuscripts (14th-16th centuries) (Era 7 · Chapter 04)