Lesson video

Hi, welcome to lesson three of four, looking at "What does the life of Mansa Musa reveal "about mediaeval Mali?" Thank you for joining me again, I'm Miss Cusworth.

And today we're looking at Mansa Musa and his return from Mecca.

So you'll remember that last lesson we looked at Mansa Musa when on his incredible journey, his Hajj to Mecca.

And that revealed to us quite few things about mediaeval Mali, that it was ambitious, that it was wealthy, that it, or at least Mansa Musa, his leader, was Muslim.

And just to sort of recap, before we look at anything new for today's lesson, before we look at what happened when Mansa Musa arrived in Mecca and then his return journey, I just want to do a quick sort of fill in the blanks recap.

So you have two options here.

One is that you copy and then complete using the words that I've given you at the bottom of the paragraph.

The other option is that you write down the words in order that would fill in the blanks.

Once you've done that, you can continue on with the video and I'll go through the answers with you.

Okay, so let's go through a, let's go through the answers quickly together.

In the 14th century, who ruled an empire? Well, Mansa Musa ruled.

What? Ruled an empire in West Africa.

Studying Mansa Musa's life, it reveals several things to us about mediaeval Mali.

First, mediaeval Mali was ambitious.

Secondly, that Mansa Musa brought so much gold to Cairo, it shows that mediaeval Mali was wealthy.

Finally, Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca reveals something was important.

He went on a pilgrimage, it's a religious journey.

It reveals that Islam was important there.

So let's now think about what he did perhaps when he was in Mecca, maybe what that reveals about mediaeval Mali, and then find out what he did on his return journey.

So last lesson, we looked at the journey, the giving out all of the gold in Cairo, and here arrived in Mecca to worship in front of the Kaaba.

Now we're going to find out a bit more about that.

So you'll remember that Mecca is a very holy place for Muslims, and the Hajj in Islamic pilgrimage, a religious journey to Mecca, which is in Saudi Arabia and it happens every year.

So while Mansa Musa was in Mecca, this is my little drawing of him, he would have focused on being kind of pure and holy.

He would, we think, have worn white.

He wouldn't have committed any sins.

Like, he wouldn't have hurt any animals, for example.

And he would have spent a lot of time in prayer, being very focused.

And while he was there in Mecca, here, he met scholars.

Now, scholar is an academic, it's someone who's very committed to learning, maybe that's their sort of job, they're interested in knowledge and learning more, a scholar.

So while he was there, he met scholars such as al-Sahili, who was originally from Granada in Spain.

So as-Sahili was originally here, from here, sorry, in Spain.

At the time, this part of Spain was a Muslim place.

It was an Islamic place.

So it's not surprising that that's where al-Sahili was from.

Today, Spain is primarily a Christian place, but this time it was Muslim, it was ruled by Muslims. And most of the people who lived there, not all, but most of the people who lived there were Muslim too.

So al-Sahili met Mansa Musa in Mecca.

And according to one account, Mansa Musa was so delighted by al-Sahili's poetry and his storytelling, that he invited him to go back to Mali with him, to make that long journey back to Mali.

So what does Mansa Musa's return reveal about mediaeval Mali? Well, we're going to use similar categories to last time; that it was ambitious, that it was Muslim, but this time we're also going to look at how it reveals mediaeval Mali was powerful.

More on that in a moment.

So we kind of get a sense that mediaeval Mali was Muslim, because Mansa Musa himself went on Hajj and he was the leader.

And he also brought back scholars with him.

And these scholars would have been very knowledgeable about Islam.

And so, I think we can put that down.

The fact that he asked al-Sahili to come back with him, a scholar to come back with him, gives us a sense that mediaeval Mali was Muslim, he cared about Islam.

When you do you'll table, 'cause I'm going to ask you to copy this out like we did last time, you might want to leave a space again for some any other ideas that you have that don't fit under these kind of categories of Ambitious, Muslim or Powerful.

So what I'm going to ask you to do, just like last time, just pause the video to create and sort of copy out, create, copy out the table.

You want to put the title, "What does Mansa Musa's return reveal about mediaeval Mali?" Divide your page, maybe into three; Ambitious, Muslim, Powerful.

And I'd like you to copy down these two examples for me.

Once you finished, you can resume with the video and we'll get on with the rest of the lesson.

Okay, so I've said that Mansa Musa's return from Mecca reveals that mediaeval Mali was ambitious.

But just wanted to double-check that you are really clear on what ambitious means.

So does it mean rich and generous? Does it mean determined to succeed? Does ambitious mean jealous of other people or does ambitious mean never satisfied and like always wanting more? I'd like you to write down option one, two, three, or write down four.

And I'm going to show you the answer in a second.

Okay, so ambitious, in this context, is about being determined to succeed.

So we're going to be looking over the next part of the lesson for any examples where Mansa Musa and mediaeval Mali looks determined to succeed, to do well.

So Mansa Musa returns from Mecca.

The beginning of his journey, he retraced his steps and went back from Mecca, through and to Cairo.

And he travelled back to Mali with many different types of people.

According to one account, he had thousands of slave girls in fine fabrics.

He had scholars, so people who are interested in learning, and merchants like traders, they also travelled with him.

And according to these accounts, they were Ethiopians, there were Arabs, there were Andalusians, so people from that Muslim part of Spain, and Turks.

So a really broad range of people travelled back to Mali with him.

And Mansa's journey went, Mansa Musa's journey went via Cairo.

But then part way through the journey, they changed course.

And instead of retracing their steps all the way down to where they had started, they actually took a slightly different route.

They might have kind of, we think, that they went down here, maybe joined up with this trade route here and went down this way, stopping at Gao.

Now, Gao, you can see here, was a really important trading centre.

You can see on the map how many different trade routes went into Gao.

So lots of things were traded there, and Mansa Musa, on his return journey from Mecca, took control of it.

According to accounts that were written later, his conquest, when he took over Gao, it was peaceful.

It wasn't like a really big battle with lots of people being killed on the battlefield.

Apparently it was quite a peaceful takeover.

So from Gao, he then went to Timbuktu.

Now, Timbuktu was wealthy from the trade in salt and gold and ivory and slaves.

And you can see here, there's Timbuktu, again, it was connected in to several different trade routes.

And the scholar, al-Sahili, so we talked about him from before, the one that Mansa Musa met in Mecca, he settled down in the growing sort of intellectual, like academic and commercial, so like trading, things to do with money, centre of Timbuktu.

And in Timbuktu, apparently he built a palace for Mansa Musa to receive guests.

And he showed, al-Sahili showed that he was quite talented as kind of a craftsman.

And Mansa Musa apparently was so impressed at what al-Sahili had built, that he asked him to build a palace, and a great mosque.

Now, a mosque is like an Islamic sort of religious building, similar to a church for Muslims. So a great mosque.

And here is a picture of that great mosque that exists in Timbuktu.

And you can sort of see the scale of it.

You can see the sort of impressive architecture there.

And this building is still standing.

You can, this picture is from not that long ago.

Oh, and my face covers that bit.

But you can see that there's another really impressive mosque in another part of Mali.

Here's an image of it from not that long ago.

So let's have a little think about what did Mansa Musa do on his return from Mecca.

And I'd like you to pick three options.

So option one, he brought people back with him, including slaves and scholars.

He added two important cities to the Mali empire.

He killed thousands of people.

Or he built mosques.

Now, there are full options there and I need you to pick three.

So narrow down your options, write down the three correct options.

Pause the video if you need some time to write those correct options down, and then we're going to go through the answers in a second.

Okay, so what did Mansa Musa do on his return from Mecca? Well, we think that his taking over of these two important cities, Gao and Timbuktu, was apparently peaceful.

So he didn't kill thousands of people.

He did bring people back with him from Mecca and from Cairo, including slaves and scholars.

You remember, last lesson we talked about how we, one thing we kind of could reveal about mediaeval Mali was that it was a society that had slaves.

And he built mosques on his return journey.

So you've got your table that you made earlier, and we're going to add a little bit more detail.

So maybe some examples to it.

So what I would like you to do is pause the video and I want you to think, is there anything that Mansa Musa has done on his return from Mecca, which maybe shows that he is determined to succeed, that he's ambitious, or that it potentially shows that he's powerful.

Use what he did from his return to, return from Mecca, sorry, use what he did on his return from Mecca to add some more examples to your table.

Pause the video now, and when you've finished writing down your examples, resume, and we can look at some possible answers together.

Okay, welcome back.

So a couple of suggestions, a couple of ideas that I had, that show mediaeval Mali was ambitious, was that he brought back scholars with him.

I think that shows that he's kind of determined to succeed, to bring intelligent people back to his empire to help him.

Another example of him being ambitious or Mali being ambitious, was that they wanted to expand the empire.

We see that when he took Gao and Timbuktu, those important cities.

And then built mosques, he wants to display his power, perhaps.

He also wants to build lots of things in his kingdom.

That could be a sign of ambition.

In terms of mediaeval Mali being Muslim, I think we see that when, well, obviously that Mansa Musa went on Hajj, also that he brought scholars back, scholars, intelligent people who would have known about Islam.

And then another one is that he built mosques in Timbuktu.

And powerful.

So the fact that he added those two powerful cities, Gao and Timbuktu, to his empire, on his return journey and supposedly without fight, I think show that he's really powerful.

Perhaps people saw how many people were in Mansa Musa's team on the return journey, and were like, whoa, we're not going to get involved in a fight.

This emperor's too powerful for us.

We don't know for sure, because we weren't there, it was in the past, but that's maybe one interpretation.

You might have had some other brilliant ideas about Mansa Musa's return from Mecca and what it reveals to us about mediaeval Mali.

And hopefully you popped those down under your table.

So we're now at the point where we're going to answer these questions.

Question one, "What did Mansa Musa do while he was in Mecca?" Question two, "Who did Mansa Musa bring back to Mali "with him from Mecca?" Three, "Which important cities did Mansa Musa add to his empire "on his return journey?" Question four, I want you to remember what I said about those cities.

Why were they important, right? Why was it significant that he added them to his empire? Number five, Mansa Musa built mosques, religious buildings, in Gao and Timbuktu.

What could maybe that reveal about mediaeval Mali, that he built these mosques? I'd like you to pause the video and complete the questions.

And then when you're finished, you can resume and we can go through the answers together.

Okay, let's go through the answers.

So what did Mansa Musa do while he was in that really holy city of Mecca? Yeah, he could have prayed, or a kind of good answer would be, "While in Mecca, Mansa Musa would have focused "on being pure and holy.

"He would have worn white, "not committed any sins and spent a lot of time in prayer." Who did Mansa Musa bring back to Mali with him? Islamic scholars would have been an all right answer.

Maybe you might have put, "According to one account, "he had thousands of slave girls in fine fabrics.

"Scholars and merchants also travelled with him.

"There were Ethiopians, Arabs Andalusians and Turks." So maybe you kind of gave a bit more detail about who returned with him, thinking about people from all over parts of Africa and parts of Europe.

Which important cities did Mansa Musa add to his empire on his return journey? Gao and Timbuktu are the two that we spoke about.

And you might have just put that into a full sentence, "On his return journey, Mansa Musa added "the cities of Gao and Timbuktu." Why were these cities important? Well, we talked about how they were centres of trade, people swapping goods.

And a good answer might have been, "The cities of Gao and Timbuktu "were important trading centres "and they had been for some time." So it wasn't like a new thing.

They were established trading centres.

"By capturing them, Mansa Musa added wealth "and people to his empire." Important trading centres with wealth, with money.

Mansa Musa built mosques in Gao and Timbuktu.

What could that reveal about mediaeval Mali? It could reveal, I think, very clearly, that the mediaeval Mali was religious or at least that the emperor Mansa Musa wanted it to be a kind of Islamic, an Islamic place.

So a good answer might be, "That Mansa Musa built mosques in Gao and Timbuktu, "reveals that Islam was important, "at least to Mansa Musa, at least to the ruler." So well done for answering those questions.

I'm sure you've got some brilliant answers down on your page.

Okay, extension activity.

If you're feeling confident, have a go at answering today's lesson question.

"What does Mansa Musa's return from Mecca "reveal about mediaeval Mali?" You might want to talk about the scholar that Mansa Musa brought back with him from Mecca.

Maybe talk about what Mansa Musa did in Mecca, who he returned with, what he did on his return journey and what it reveals about mediaeval Mali.

So you're going to bring in everything that we've learned together into one kind of summary paragraph.

Give that a go.

And once you've done that, or if you'd just like to move straight on, then this is the end of the lesson.

So complete the end of lesson quiz to check your understanding.

You might want to go back and do the extension activity before that.

And I really look forward to seeing you for our fourth and final lesson on Mansa Musa.

Okay, see you soon.

Bye.