Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today, all about significant rulers from the past, and we're going to explore the question, what can those rulers, what can their stories tell us? So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to explain how Mansa Musa's Hajj made him famous.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords we'll be using today are pilgrimage, Hajj, Islamic.

I'm going to say those again and I'd like you to repeat each word after me.

Pilgrimage.

Hajj.

Islamic.

Good job.

Now let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Here are the definitions for each of our keywords.

A pilgrimage is a journey to a special place that's important to a religion.

Hajj is the name for the Muslim pilgrimage.

Islamic means relating to Islam.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson, Mansa Musa's Hajj.

How did Mansa Musa become famous? In the first learning cycle, we're going to explore Mansa Musa's Hajj.

Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire around 700 years ago, between 1312 CE and 1337 CE, and he was in charge for 25 years.

Mansa Musa was a Muslim and he followed Islam.

His faith was very strong.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which faith did Mansa Musa follow, Christian faith, Islam faith, or the Jewish faith? Pause the video here and have a moment to think, and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that Mansa Musa followed Islam, you're absolutely right, well done.

Now, Mansa Musa knew that as a Muslim, he should travel to the holy city of Mecca, and he should travel there on a pilgrimage.

Have a look there at that photo of the City of Mecca.

What can you see? It's quite a wonderful-looking place.

Now a pilgrimage is a journey to a special place that's important to a religion, and a Muslim pilgrimage is called a Hajj.

Mecca is the holy city of Islam, and it is in Saudi Arabia.

The Great Mosque of Mecca contains a cube-shaped structure called the Kaaba.

If they are able to, Muslims are expected to make the Hajj to Mecca at least once during their lifetime.

Can you see the cube-shaped structure, the Kaaba in this photo here of the City of Mecca? It's a very special place.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Can you complete the following sentence? A Muslim pilgrimage is called a what, what is it called? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your learning partner, and press play when you are ready to continue.

A Muslim pilgrimage is called a Hajj.

Well done if you got that right.

In 1324, Mansa Musa went on his pilgrimage through Egypt and it brought him a lot of attention that he had not had before.

Although the Mali Empire was rich, not many people outside of West Africa had heard of Mali before the Hajj of Mansa Musa.

The Hajj was really important because it completely changed this.

Can you see the map there? That's the map of Mansa Musa's pilgrimage.

So that green outlined area is the Mali Empire and the red shows Mansa Musa's pilgrimage, his journey.

Now it is said that on the long journey to Mecca, Mansa Musa travelled with thousands of people from Mali, and each person carried around three kilogrammes of gold with them, and he also had many camels, around 100 travelling with him, and they were also carrying huge amounts of gold.

Now the journey there and back was 4,000 miles and it took almost two years to complete! Now that is a very long journey and with lots of people, and camels, and gold, I'm sure he did get a lot of attention on that journey.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

What did Mansa Musa travel with? Have a look at those images.

Did he travel with gold, camels, a car? Pause a video here and take a moment to think, and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said he travelled with gold and camels, you are absolutely right, well done! This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to answer the following questions.

What was Mansa Musa's journey called? Why did he go on this journey? And who was he travelling with? So pause the video here, give yourself enough time, make sure that you have a pen and some paper to answer the following questions, and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at some answers? So, the journey was called a pilgrimage or Hajj.

He went on the journey because he was a Muslim, and he travelled with thousands of people and camels carrying gold.

Well done if you were able to answer those questions, and well done for completing that learning task.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson.

How did man Mansa Musa become famous? During his Hajj to Mecca, Mansa Musa gave lots of his gold away to the people that he met.

That's very kind of him, wasn't it? Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Mansa Musa gave things to the people he met on his Hajj, is that true or false? Hmm, what do you think? That is true.

Now, looking at these two statements, which would help to justify your answer, Mansa Musa gave away his food to the people? Mansa Musa gave away his gold to the people? Pause the video here and have a quick discussion with your learning partner, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that Mansa Musa gave away his gold to the people, you're absolutely right, well done! Now stories of Mansa Musa's wealth and generosity travelled across the Islamic world, and soon, everyone knew who Mansa Musa was, and these stories of his wealth even travelled to Europe.

And in 1375, Spanish map makers created a map, and this map showed Mansa Musa holding a large piece of gold in one hand, and a golden staff in the other, and sitting on a throne looking over West Africa.

Have a look at that illustrative map there of the Mali Empire, that is the map that the Spanish map makers created.

Can you see that image of Mansa Musa holding his lump of gold and the golden staff, and sitting on his throne? Now his journey and his gold made Mansa Musa famous throughout the Islamic world and across the globe.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

What was created that showed Mansa Musa's wealth, a play, a map, a statue? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your learning partner, and press play when you are ready to.

What did you think? It was a map that was created that showed Mansa Musa's wealth.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to have a go at drawing a map showing details of Mansa Musa's Hajj, and include labels of who he was with and what he did.

Then I'd like you to write one sentence to explain how the Hajj made Mansa Musa famous.

So you can see a map of Mansa Musa's pilgrimage there, so you can use that as an example to help you draw your map.

Pause the video here, and give yourself enough time to complete this learning task, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So you might draw a map similar to this, and then add your labels.

He travelled with many people and camels, so he might have drawn some people and camels, and he gave gold to people he met.

You might have included an image of Mansa Musa, giving out his gold to people he met, and then secondly, your sentence could look like this.

"Mansa Musa became famous from his Hajj because he met many people on the two-year journey and they learned about his wealth when he gave out so much gold." Well done if you were able to create your map, and add labels, and write that sentence.

Well done, for completing that learning task.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about Mansa Musa and the Hajj.

Mansa Musa was a Muslim and he travelled to the holy city of Mecca on a pilgrimage called the Hajj.

He made the long journey to Mecca with thousands of people and camels, carrying huge amounts of gold.

During the journey, Mansa Musa gave lots of his gold away to the people that he met.

Stories of his wealth even reached Europe, where a map was created with Mansa Musa on it, making him famous there too.

His journey and the gold made Mansa Musa and Mali famous throughout the the Islamic world and across the world.

Thank you for joining me for this lesson today, I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time!.