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Mansa Wati (French: "Ouati") was the third mansa of the Mali Empire reigning from 1270 to 1274.
Mansa Wati was one of two adopted children from among Sunjata's generals. He was raised in the royal court as a prince alongside the previous mansa Uli and another adopted sibling named Khalifa. Like any blood member of the Keita clan, he was eligible for the throne and fought for it against Khalifa after Mansa Wali's death shortly after his return from the hajj. Wati succeeded in gaining the throne but ruled only four, tumultuous years. By the time of his death in 1274, the empire of Sunjata was in ruins.
With Wati out of the way, Khalifa returned to the capital of Niani and seized the throne, sidelining Sunjata's brother again. Mansa Wati is remembered as a bad ruler, and Khalifa would prove even worse.
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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 has been subject to popular claims that he is the wealthiest person in history, but the extent of his actual wealth is not known with any certainty.
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, the wealthiest person of all time.
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.
Abu Bakr, known as Bata Mande Bori in oral tradition, was the fifth mansa of the Mali Empire, reigning during the late 13th century. 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. 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. After an unremarkable reign, Abu Bakr was succeeded by Sakura, an enslaved court official who seized power in a coup.
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, as published in "novelistic" form in French translation by Djibril Tamsir Niane in 1960.
Musa II was mansa of the Mali Empire from 1374 to 1387.
Maghan II was mansa of the Mali Empire from 1387 to 1389. He was the son of Mansa Mari Diata II and the brother of Mansa Musa II.
Mansa Sandaki or Sandaki Mari Djata, also known as Sandiki or Santigi, was a mansa of the Mali Empire from 1389 to 1390.
Qu was Mansa of the Mali Empire between 1300 and 1305.
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.
Mansa Uli II, also known as Gbèré, was the twentieth mansa of the Mali Empire. He ruled during the later half of the 15th century.
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.
Mansa Mahmud Keita IV was the last emperor of the Mali Empire according to the Tarikh al-Sudan. Prior to his rule there was a vacancy of some sort, indicated by the long period of the time in which neither written or oral sources give a ruler. We do know that more than one person made a claim for the throne, which caused the Sankar-Zouma and Farima-Soura to refuse aid to Mansa Mahmud IV and the Keita family, on his military operation against Djenné.
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.
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 Mandingo community.