What was the significance of the places listed below to Mansa Musa: Mali Empire, Niger River, Timbuktu, Sahara Desert, Nile River, Cairo and Mecca?
1 Answer
All except Mansa Musa are important parts of the development of the gold salt trade and the formation of Islamic culture in West Africa.
Explanation:
Mansa Musa( a title of the high chief in some West African Empires )made a hijab (religious pilgrimage )to Mecca. Mansa Musa brought an impressive amount of gold and slaves with him.
He traveled across the Sarah desert that separated the Empires of Western Africa from the Islamic Empires north of the Desert. When he reached Cario on the Nile River, the wealth he brought created inflation in the local economy.
Mansa Musa was the high chief of the Mali Empire. The gold salt trade across the Sarah Desert with the north had already brought Islamic influences to the Mali Empire. The contact with the Islamic culture brought a written language to the people of West Africa. Timbuktu became a center of learning when Mansa Musa returned with Islamic scholars from Mecca.
Ghana the empire that had existed on the Niger River before Mali had started the gold salt trade. The Niger River provided a means of transportation in West Africa that made the trade within the Western African Empire possible.
The Songhai Empire that replaced the Mali Empire was eventually was invaded and destroyed by Islamic forces from the north ending the trade between the Islam culture in the north and African Empires in the south.
