Abu Bakr (mansa)

Last updated
Abu Bakr
Mansa of Mali
Predecessor Khalifa
Successor Sakura
Dynasty Keita

Abu Bakr, [lower-alpha 1] known as Bata Mande Bori [lower-alpha 2] in oral tradition, was the fifth mansa of the Mali Empire, reigning during the late 13th century. [lower-alpha 3] He was a son of a daughter of Sunjata, the founder of the Mali Empire, and may have been adopted by Sunjata as a son. Abu Bakr succeeded Khalifa, a tyrant who was deposed after a brief reign. [3] Abu Bakr was the first mansa of the Mali Empire to succeed through the female line. It remains debated whether Abu Bakr's succession marked a return to a traditional pattern of succession that had been ignored by his predecessors or if it was a break from traditional succession caused by political instability. [2] [4] After an unremarkable reign, Abu Bakr was succeeded by Sakura, an enslaved court official who seized power in a coup.

Contents

Identity

The identities of the two figures named Abu Bakr mentioned in Ibn Khaldun's history of the Mali Empire and the figures in oral tradition named Mande Bori and Bata Mande Bori have been subject to some confusion. According to oral tradition, Sunjata had a brother named Mande Bori. Some traditions also claim he had a son named Bata Mande Bori, though this son is not mentioned in all traditions. The word "Bata" suggests that Bata Mande Bori was not a biological son of Sunjata and was rather related to him through the female line, though he may have been adopted by Sunjata. [5] Ibn Khaldun mentions two figures named Abu Bakr: the first is a son of Sunjata's daughter who reigned as mansa between Khalifa and Sakura and the second is a brother of Sunjata who was the ancestor of Mansa Musa. [3]

The confusion arose from a mistranslation by the 19th-century historian Baron de Slane. De Slane interpreted the second Abu Bakr as being a son of Sunjata's sister and believed he reigned as mansa between Muhammad and Musa. In 1959, Djibril Tamsir Niane identified Mande Bori with the first Abu Bakr and Bata Mande Bori with the second Abu Bakr. [5] The confusion was resolved in 1963 by Nehemia Levtzion, who studied the original manuscripts and realized a mistranslation had been made. [2] The first Abu Bakr, who reigned between Khalifa and Sakura, was a son of Sunjata's daughter and should be identified with Bata Mande Bori. The second Abu Bakr, who did not reign as mansa and is only mentioned by Ibn Khaldun as the progenitor of Musa's lineage, was Sunjata's brother and should be identified with Mande Bori.

As De Slane's misinterpretation led to the belief that a figure named Abu Bakr was Musa's immediate predecessor, [2] the name Abu Bakr II became associated with Musa's statement that his predecessor launched two expeditions to explore the Atlantic Ocean. [6] Musa's predecessor, and thus the likely subject of the anecdote, was actually Muhammad ibn Qu. [6]

See also

Footnotes

  1. Also spelled Abubakari
  2. Spelled variously: Manding/Mande/Manden, Bory/Bori
  3. There are few precise dates for the history of the Mali Empire. An earlier mansa, Wali, performed the hajj during the reign of Baibars (1260–1277) and Abu Bakr's successor Sakura performed the hajj during the reign of An-Nasir Muhammad (probably 1298–1308). Abu Bakr's reign has been dated to 1275–1285, but this is speculative. [1] [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mansa Musa</span> Ruler of Mali (c. 1312 – c. 1337)

Mansa Musa was the ninth Mansa of the Mali Empire, which reached its territorial peak during his reign. Musa is known for his wealth and generosity. He is believed to be the wealthiest person in history, but the extent of his actual wealth is not known with any certainty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mali Empire</span> Empire in West Africa from c. 1226 to 1670

The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa from c. 1226 to 1670. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa. At its peak, Mali was the largest empire in West Africa, widely influencing the culture of the region through the spread of its language, laws and customs.

Sundiata Keita was a prince and founder of the Mali Empire. He was also the great-uncle of the Malian ruler Mansa Musa, who is usually regarded as the wealthiest person of all time, although there are no reliable ways to accurately calculate his wealth.

In 1324, while staying in Cairo during his hajj, Mansa Musa, the ruler of the Mali Empire, told an Egyptian official whom he had befriended that he had come to rule when his predecessor led a large fleet in an attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean and never returned. This account, recorded by the Arab historian al-Umari, has attracted considerable interest and speculation as a possible instance of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. The voyage is popularly attributed to a Mansa Abu Bakr II, but no such mansa ever reigned. Rather, the voyage is inferred to have been undertaken by Mansa Muhammad ibn Qu.

Mansa Uli, also known as Yérélinkon, was the second mansa of the Mali Empire. He was the son and successor of Sunjata.

Khalifa was a 13th-century Mansa of the Mali Empire mentioned by the medieval Arab scholar Ibn Khaldun. All that is known of Khalifa's life comes from a brief mention in Ibn Khaldun's Kitāb al-ʻIbar:

[Mārī Jāṭa] ruled for 25 years, according to what they relate, and when he died his son Mansā Walī ruled after him...His brother Wātī ruled after him and then a third brother, Khalīfa. Khalīfa was insane and devoted to archery and used to shoot arrows at his people and kill them wantonly so they rose against him and killed him. He was succeeded by a sibṭ [son of a daughter] of Mārī Jāṭa, called Abū Bakr, who was the son of his daughter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mansa (title)</span> Royal title in the Mali Empire

Mansa is a Maninka and Mandinka word for a hereditary ruler, commonly translated as "king". It is particularly known as the title of the rulers of the Mali Empire, such as Mansa Musa, and in this context is sometimes translated as "emperor". It is also a title held by traditional village rulers, and in this context is translated as "chief".

Sakura was a mansa of the Mali Empire who reigned during the late 13th century, known primarily from an account given by Ibn Khaldun in his Kitāb al-ʻIbar. Sakura was not a member of the ruling Keita dynasty, and may have been formerly enslaved. He usurped the throne following a period of political instability and led Mali to considerable territorial expansion. During his reign, trade between the Mali Empire and the rest of the Muslim world increased. He was killed in the early 1300s while returning from the hajj and the Keita dynasty was restored to power.

Sunjata is an epic poem of the Malinke people that tells the story of the hero Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire. The epic is an instance of oral tradition, going back to the 13th century and narrated by generations of griot poets or jeliw (djeli). There is no single or authoritative version. Material pertaining to the epic first began to be collected during the early 20th century in French Sudan, notably by the French elite school École William Ponty, resulting in the "modern" version of the tale as considered standard today, based on the oral account by Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate, a griot or traditional oral historian, translated into French by Djibril Tamsir Niane in 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sulayman of Mali</span> Mansa of Mali

Mansa Sulayman was mansa of the Mali Empire during the middle of the 14th century. He was the brother of Mansa Musa and succeeded Musa's son Magha as mansa.

Mansa Jata, commonly referred to as Mari Jata II, possibly incorrectly, was mansa of Mali from 1360 to 1374. He was an ineffective ruler, and his reign, recorded by the contemporary North African historian Ibn Khaldun, marked the beginning of the decline of the Mali Empire.

Muhammad ibn Qu was the eighth mansa of the Mali Empire. He succeeded his father, Mansa Qu, and was the predecessor of Mali's most famous ruler, Mansa Musa. The exact dates of Muhammad ibn Qu's reign are not known with certainty, though his reign was certainly brief. His father's predecessor, Sakura, was killed at some point between 1298 and 1308 and his own successor Musa took the throne in 1307 or 1312. Musa said that his predecessor disappeared leading an expedition into the Atlantic Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaabu</span> State in the Senegambia region of West Africa (1537-1867)

Kaabu (1537–1867), also written Gabu, Ngabou, and N'Gabu, was a federation of Mandinka kingdoms in the Senegambia region centered within modern northeastern Guinea-Bissau, large parts of today's Gambia, and extending into Koussanar, Koumpentoum, and the Casamance in Senegal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-imperial Mali</span>

Pre-imperial Mali refers to the period of history before the establishment of the Mali Empire, an African empire located mostly in present-day Mali, in c. 1235.

Mande Bori, also known as Mande Bakari and known in Arabic as Abu Bakr, is a heroic figure in Mande oral tradition who was involved in the founding of the Mali Empire. He was the brother and right-hand man of Sunjata, the founder of the empire, and served as the empire's kankoro-sigui, an office that has been translated as "viceroy" or "lieutenant-general". Though Mande Bori never himself reigned as mansa, his grandsons Musa and Suleyman ruled the Mali Empire at the apex of its power and prestige.

The military history of the Mali Empire is that of the armed forces of the Mali Empire, which dominated Western Africa from the mid 13th to the late 15th century. The military culture of the empire's driving force, Mandinka people, influenced many later states in West Africa including break-away powers such as the Songhay and Jolof empires. Institutions from the Mali Empire also survived in the 19th century army of Samory Ture who saw himself as the heir to Old Mali's legacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghana Empire</span> Empire in West Africa from c. 200s to c. 1200s

The Ghana Empire, also known as simply Ghana, Ghanata, or Wagadou, was a West African classical to post-classical era western-Sahelian empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali. With the collapse of the Dhar Tichitt culture circa 400 B.C.E, The Ghana Empire's latency phase is hypothesized to have spanned from the 4th century B.C.E to approximately the 1st century C.E. with the eventual imperial state materializing between the 1st and 3rd centuries C.E. ultimate dissolving in the 1300s.

Dankaran Touman was the first son of Naré Maghann Konaté in the Malian epic of Sundiata. He was also the King of Manden prior to the establishment of the Mali Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingdom of Tlemcen</span> Berber kingdom in Algeria (1235–1554)

The Kingdom of Tlemcen or Zayyanid Kingdom of Tlemcen was a kingdom ruled by the Berber Zayyanid dynasty in what is now the northwest of Algeria. Its territory stretched from Tlemcen to the Chelif bend and Algiers, and at its zenith reached Sijilmasa and the Moulouya River in the west, Tuat to the south and the Soummam in the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manding region</span> Region located in West Africa

Manding, Manden or even Mandé is a region located in West Africa, a space between southern Mali and eastern Guinea. It is the historic home of the Mandinka community.

References

  1. Niane, D. T., ed. (1984). General History of Africa IV: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. ISBN   92-3-101-710-1.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Levtzion, N. (1963). "The thirteenth- and fourteenth-century kings of Mali". The Journal of African History. 4 (3): 341–353. JSTOR   180027.
  3. 1 2 Ibn Khaldun, Kitab al-'Ibar, translated by Levtzion, N.; Hopkins, J. F. P.
  4. Gomez, Michael A. (2018). African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa. Princeton University Press. ISBN   9780691196824.
  5. 1 2 Niane, Djibril Tamsir (1959). "Recherches sur l'Empire du Mali au Moyen Age". Recherches Africaines (in French). Archived from the original on 2007-05-19.
  6. 1 2 Fauvelle, François-Xavier (2018) [2013]. "The Sultan and the Sea". The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages. Troy Tice (trans.). Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-0-691-18126-4.
Preceded by Mansa of the Mali Empire
12751285
Succeeded by