← THIS IS HISTORY — A DYNASTY TO DIE FOR
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- [00:00]
Ann
I was never really a runner. The way I see running is a gift, especially when you have stage four cancer. I'm Ann. I'm running the Boston Marathon presented by bank of America. I run for Dana Farber Cancer Institute to give people like me a chance to thrive in life even with cancer.
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Bank of America Representative
Join bank of America in helping Anne's cause. Give if you can@b of a.com supportann what would you like the power to do?
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Ann
References to charitable organizations is not endorsement by bank of America Corporation.
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Narrator
Copyright 2025 hi everyone.
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Luke Pepperer
Just a reminder that after this episode, you can hear from me and Luke as we dive even deeper into the story over on this is history plus. To subscribe, just go to thisishistorypod.com or go to Apple Podcasts and click Try Free. Enjoy the episode.
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Narrator
Work starts again in the early morning, when the lighted sky is dull but the air is comfortably cool. Rising high and obscuring the surrounding landscape are a mass of wooden towers and scaffolds. Trailing into and around them are lightly clothed workers leading camels and donkeys piled high with tools, timber and sand. Spades, picks and wooden beams stick out of the canvas wrappings like thorns on a cactus stem. Walking on platforms between the scaffolds are more workers. The dry wood creaks beneath their footsteps. Their calls reverberate through the structures down below. These sounds intermingle with the camel's moans, donkeys, brays, and greetings from one worker to another. Now and then there are exclamations of anger as one person gets in another's way, or a hastily put together pack tumbles from an animal's back, crashing to the hard ground. Some workers, who are better dressed in cloth robes and holding building plans, ignore these minor mishaps, their attentions fixed on the buildings closer to completion, with brown mud brick subsuming the wooden poles. Gathered as near to these buildings as the guards will allow are the town's inhabitants. They wear simple cloth dresses and skull caps or turbans. They murmur, point and push past each other to get a closer look at what's happening. Children stare and exclaim in wonder at the scale of the building. Hustle and bustle. This construction work has been going on for a few years, but it looks like most of it will soon be finished. Hardly any of the inhabitants know what's being built or why. Some theorize that they are houses, others that they are fortresses or armories. Whatever their guesses, not one inhabitant comes close to predicting the impact these new buildings will have on their town, country, or indeed the world. When assembled, they will comprise the site of an institution on a scale never seen before. In the once humble town of Timbuktu is about to stand arguably the most magnificent academic establishment ever created, one of Africa's first universities to rival all others in fame and grandeur. It will be Mansa Musa's crowning achievement. But first, there are some crucial loose ends he must deal with. I'm Luke Pepperer and this is history. Presents Empire of Gold Episode 6 An Emperor's Legacy.
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Luke Pepperer
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Indeed Representative
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Narrator
We last left Musa on a bit of a high. After crossing the Arabian desert, Musa and his followers reached Medina at long last, where the Mali Emperor absolved himself of the guilt for having killed his mother. His main quest complete, his focus turns to his Muslim duty, the pilgrimage to Mecca. There's also the not so small matter of paying back the Cairene merchants from whom he borrowed tons of gold. Mecca is a relatively mere 300 miles from Medina. The route is well travelled and passes through several settlements well known to the Prophet's followers. Many Mecca itself is surrounded by hills and rocky outcrops. Below these are stone houses circled around a rectangular wall with minarets poking up from its corners. This is Mecca's sacred mosque and in its center, looming above the walls themselves, is The Kaaba, the 50 foot high cuboid stone shrine in whose DISTORTION Muslims pray five times a day. The Kaaba is draped in a black cloth ornamented with gold. The cube's origins are somewhat shrouded in mystery. Adam, the father of humanity, is said first to have constructed it. The flood that Noah survived buried the cube under sand. Ibrahim, known in Christianity and Judaism as Abraham the Prophet and Greek progenitor, and his son Ishmael rebuilt the shrine on the same site. According to tradition, the Kaaba has been rebuilt many times since. Historically, it was a pre Islamic pilgrimage site for pagan Arabs. In 630 A.D. when the Prophet Muhammad conquered and returned to Mecca after the pagan traders had forced him out, he destroyed the pagan idols in the cube and made it the focus of his new faith. As Musa and his followers climb up and down the hills and guide their camels carefully over the hard, steep rock surfaces, they see masses of other pilgrims entering the city. There it is. There is Mecca. Some pilgrims shout. We made it. Says Musa, who also can't contain his excitement. Praise be to Allah. Having set up camp outside the mosque's walls, the Mali pilgrims cleansed themselves and put on white dresses. In Mecca, every pilgrim is likewise dressed, signifying that before Allah all people are equal. Besides his noble bearing, Musa is indistinguishable from his subjects. The Malians begin the necessary pilgrimage rituals. This includes going to Mina, a town a few miles away from Mecca, and stoning the large pillar called Jamarat, which is a proxy for the devil. They also walk around the Kaaba seven times, counterclockwise. Standing on a hill towering over the mosque complex and looking into its courtyard below, the sight is entrancing. Swirling round the black cube, the pilgrims resemble a slow moving vortex. Musa performs these rituals and becomes a Hajji, one who has accomplished the pilgrimage to Mecca. Musa, ever the entrepreneur, collects more skilled Muslim scholars and experts for his cause. They join his list of recruits from Medina. And then it's finally time to go home. It's hard to imagine what the Malians or Musa might have been feeling at this point, though it must have been immense satisfaction and relief. They've been travelling for almost two years and now it's over. They retrace their steps, going back through Cairo, Gadamis and Libya, the Tuat oasis and the trans Saharan trade town of Walata. But there's a detour for Musa to visit his new conquest of Timbuktu. For close to a century, Timbuktu has been well developed. With an abundance of food supplies, amazing transport links and an urbanized center, it's the perfect candidate for an economic, political or cultural institution. People from across both the Mali empire and the continent can reach Timbuktu easily and stay there comfortably. And despite the war between Musa's top general, Saran Mandian, and the indigenous Saharan Tuareg that called Timbuktu home, the town remains in good shape. The Malians quick victory is mostly to thank for this lack of destruction. Even before Saran Mandian conquered the town, Musa has been aware of Timbuktu's strategic importance. But when he looks in on it, travelling away from Mecca, he realises just how suitable it is for the new project that's been taking shape in his mind ever since he found out Timbuktu belongs to him. It's why he's been getting all these awesome thinkers on the payroll. During the eight month long journey from the holy city. Back home, Musa has been fixated on this new project, bouncing his ideas off his best friend and main advisor, Faseke. He's also had extensive conversations with many of the scholars that are part of his return caravan. They speak about the best ways to share their knowledge and inspire young, talented Malians. Gold surely helped the cause, but Musa must have had a real ability to get buy in from great thinkers. Everyone is just really on board, uprooting their lives and following a foreign leader, sometimes bypassing language and cultural differences. Perhaps unlike many rulers we've covered on this podcast, Musa also really seems to take advice in a meaningful way. When they reach Timbuktu, Musa has a clear vision of what he wants to create and how he's going to do it. Essentially, this will be what we know as a university, one of the earliest in the world. The first thing a new university needs are buildings. Their construction is how we started this episode. It's led by Alsehealy, the genius. Andalusian poet and architect Al Saheeli conceives of two large mosques, one called Sankore, the other Jingorebe as the learning centres of Timbuktu. Built with a wooden frame and earthen bricks. When finished, their 50 foot high minarets dominate the skyline. Musa's bucket list was extravagant and difficult. Save Sol from damnation with a pilgrimage to Medina ticket, visit Mecca and gain the Haji title, Tick secure legacy with hub of intellectual grandeur in progress. But one big task remains. Pay back the Egyptian merchants.
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Lowes Representative
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- [13:18]
Narrator
In the bustling markets of the Egyptian capital, the Cairo merchants are anxious. Angry murmurs spread from store to store. Rumour has it that Mansa Musa has blown all his gold on a vanity project in Timbuktu and won't be paying back a penny of the huge debt he took on in Cairo. The merchants are at a loss. Some have even hopped on caravans heading to Mali with hopes of appealing to the emperor directly. Little do they know that Musa is no scoundrel. He is already back in Mali's capital, Niani, and has every intention of doing the honourable thing when he does. Though the merchants might have wished he hadn't, the scene is a familiar one. It's as though Musa were preparing for a second pilgrimage. Nearly a hundred chewing, grunting, farting camels stacked with sacks of gold dust, about 100 kg per beast. Surrounding them are their herders, Somali officials whose job it is to make sure the handover goes smoothly. And of course, guards. Because, as Musa is well aware, the trip is hazardous. Not only is he going to pay back the merchants, it's a full delivery service. On reaching Cairo, the Mali officials waste no time in distributing the gold. They know the Cairene merchants fleeced them the first time round, and they want to be as far away from these untrustworthy traders as possible. No joyous souvenir shopping this time. Once again, the merchants greed is their downfall. When they receive the gold, they're initially ecstatic. But for a second time, gold floods Egypt's economy and once again causes mass inflation. And with no Musa to borrow all this gold back, this inflation lasts for at least a decade afterwards. Meantime, in Mali, the future looks much brighter. Musa's university in Timbuktu is a roaring success. It has 25,000 students receiving lectures in every subject from astronomy to law, as well as a library of almost a million manuscripts. It also has exchange programs with other prominent universities across the Muslim world, such as the distinguished Al Karayin University in Morocco. Timbuktu becomes Such a significant global academic institution that it even inspires the following West African proverb. Salt comes from the north, gold from the south, and silver from the country of the white men. But the word of God and the treasures of wisdom are only to be found in Timbuktu. Impressed with Al Saheeli's work on the university's buildings, Musa also puts him in charge of making a new audience chamber in Niani. One chronicler describes this magnificent structure as a square room surmounted by a cupola covered with plaster and decorated with arabesques in dazzling colors. With his accomplishments, Musa retains a profound inner peace. He's achieved all his ambitions and there's nothing left on earth for him to do. He's atoned for the killing of his mother. He's completed the pilgrimage to Mecca and outdid his father's disastrous attempts to sail beyond the Atlantic Ocean. By making it the most spectacular pilgrimage ever undertaken, he's founded an elite university and settled his debts. Now, in his 50s, he's ready to retire with Inari Conte, his beautiful and favourite wife. Musa has a young son called Maga. He intends to make Maga his heir, abdicate the throne, give up all his worldly wealth and retire as an ascetic in Mecca. Such a peaceful transfer of power is unheard of on this podcast and, well, doesn't exactly come off. Musa carries out the initial parts of his plan, but before he even sets out for Mecca, he dies of old age. In Niani, Maga succeeds him, but after just four years, also dies. Musa's younger brother, Suleiman, becomes emperor. Rumour has it that he killed his nephew. It's all very princes in the tower. After Suleiman's reign, civil wars, invasions by indigenous Saharan raiders and economic turmoil caused Mali to crumble into a fraction of what it was. In the late 15th century, the rulers of Gao, a province Mali had once controlled, then conquered Niani, founding a new empire called Songhe. But Musa's legacy only strengthens over time. News of Egypt's economic woes ripple throughout Africa, Asia and Europe. In as far away from Mali as France, tales are told of a kingdom in West Africa so rich in gold, it has, according to one chronicler, gold producing plants whose nuggets are harvested like carrots. In the 1370s, the French king Charles V has the Spanish mapmaker Abraham Cresquez draw a map of the world. On this map, Cresces puts Musa, Mali and Timbuktu, describing the African emperor as the noblest and richest king in all the land. At the same time, the Portuguese launch expeditions to find Mali, but it doesn't exist by the time they reach West Africa, having been replaced largely by Songhe. However, they established diplomatic and economic links with African kingdoms such as Congo. The Congolese elite adopt Catholicism and even send emissaries to the Pope. For many African societies, the culmination of this European contact is colonisation. But there's a bilateral exchange of peoples, goods and ideas that influence cultures on both continents, making them what they are today. In Songhye, Timbuktu University thrives. It now has almost 200 learning centres and its scholars are producing works that are translated worldwide. Today, the Jingarabi and Sankore mosques still stand. Manuscripts produced in Timbuktu over the last 700 years are kept in the homes of the descendants of the scholars who wrote them. They are being digitized, with many available to be seen online. These are the two prongs of Musa's legacy. The creation of one of the first universities in the world, whose name is legend, and the spending of so much wealth that it ushers in the period of European contact with Africa, which changes both continents. Psst.
- [20:52]
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