Hello and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merrit and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson is looking at Mansa Musa's pilgrimage, and by the end of the lesson we'll be able to describe the consequences of Mansa Musa's pilgrimage.

In order to do that, we need to use some key terms and our key terms for today are pilgrimage and Hajj.

So a pilgrimage is a holy journey, and the Hajj is the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, which is one of the five pillars of Islam.

Today's lesson is gonna comprise of three separate learning cycles, and our first learning cycle is, "Who was Mansa Musa?" So let's get going.

So Musa Keita became the Mansa of Mali in 1312, while he was still in his early twenties and did so in really quite unusual circumstances.

The previous Mansa had set out on a voyage of discovery into the Atlantic Ocean with 2000 ships.

The reason being that he was determined to find out what lay beyond the ocean.

He never returned.

There is speculation that he may have made landfall in South America, but we don't know.

What we do know is that he did not return to Mali, but as a result, his deputy, who was whose Musa Keita, was crowned Mansa Musa.

Now Mansa Musa inherited a large and wealthy empire.

He controlled 24 kings, which who were rulers of their own region, and they obeyed the Mansa's orders and sent him regular tributes.

The trade routes which had made the empire rich were still in operation, and Islam was firmly established in the cities of the empire, although less so in the countryside.

In the countryside, the people tended to stick with their traditional animistic beliefs.

But within the cities, Islam was absolutely the dominant religion.

Mansa Musa was a devout Muslim who was determined to use his wealth to increase the power of the Mali Empire.

And Mansa Musa had a great deal of wealth.

He is confidently considered to be the richest person who has ever lived.

So let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So what was Mansa Musa's name before he was crowned Mansa? Is it, a, Sundiata Keita, b, Musa Keita, or c, Muhammad ibn Qu? Make your choice now.

Okay.

If you chose b, Musa Keita, then very well done.

That is indeed correct.

That's another check for understanding.

So how many kings did Mansa Musa have control over in the Mali Empire? Was it 2, 24, or 248? Alright, if you chose 24 then very well done.

That is indeed correct.

Right, let's go for our first task for today then.

So I have a series of statements regarding who was Mansa Musa on the screen there, but all the statements are missing a keyword.

What you need to do is choose the correct keyword from the list at the top and put it into the statements there.

So pause the video whilst you do this and I'll see you once you've finished.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Hopefully you've gone okay, with that task? Let's go through these statements.

So hopefully you got the correct answers here, but in case you didn't, here they are.

So who was Mansa Musa? Well, he became Mansa in 1312.

The Kings under his command paid him tributes.

If you're not too sure what tribute means, that just means a yearly, an annual gift that is paid to the ruler.

So generally speaking, that gift could come in the form of something like gold could come in the form of goods, it could come in the form of food.

But anyway, it is just a way for them to show that he is in charge and they rule at his pleasure, effectively.

He is the richest person who has ever lived.

The previous Mansa was lost in the Atlantic Ocean.

He was in his early twenties when he became Musa and he was a devout Muslim.

So hopefully you've got those answers correct as well.

Let's move on now then to our second learning cycle for today, which is, "Mansa Musa journey to Mecca." So as a Muslim, Mansa Musa was required to make one pilgrimage to Mecca, which is a tradition known as the Hajj during his lifetime.

Just to make it clear, all Muslims are expected to do this.

They're expected to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

They perform Hajj at least once in their lifetime.

There are a few exceptions.

If you are physically unable to make the journey, then you don't have to.

In which case, what you can do is you can ask for somebody to go in your behalf.

If you do not have the money.

For instance, if you live a long way away and you cannot afford to make it to Mecca, what you can do instead is that you and a few other people in the same situation can kind of band your money together and just send one representative to represent all of those people as well.

So although it's an expectation that all people who are able to make the Hajj do so at least once in their lifetime, there are provisions for people who are unable to for whatever reason.

So it is not an unreasonable request in that respect.

Now, a few previous Mansas had performed the Hajj, which meant a long and incredibly difficult journey across the Sahara Desert.

One of the Mansas actually have been attacked and killed by bandits on his journey home.

So just goes to show just how dangerous this could be.

A ruler of Mali was attacked and killed by bandits, whilst returning home from the Haj.

So Mansa Musa was eager to perform the Hajj, not simply because he was a Muslim and performing the Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, but also because he wanted to show off the wealth and power of the Mali Empire to the world.

So by Mansa Musa's reckoning, doing this task, performing this task, going on Hajj in a peaceful manner would increase the interest in the Mali Empire from other nations.

And effectively what this all comes back down to is that this would open up new trade opportunities.

So Mansa Musa is very clever.

He understands that his wealth is a real bonus, his real asset for his empire.

But that doesn't to say that he's gonna rest and just accept what he's got.

He wants to keep on pushing.

He wants to make sure that Mali become as rich and powerful as possible.

So let's go for a quick check for understanding now then.

So true or false, Mansa Musa wanted to perform Hajj because he liked to explore.

Is that true or is that false? Make your choice now.

Alright, if you chose false, then very well done.

That is indeed false.

But let's justify this answer.

Now, why is it false? Is it false, because all Muslims have a duty to perform Hajj, plus Mansa Musa wanted to impress people with Mali's wealth.

Or is it false because Muslims are encouraged to perform Hajj if they want to, plus Mansa Musa wanted other countries to fear him.

So choose your justification now.

Okay, if you chose a, then congratulations.

That is indeed correct.

So Mansa Musa embarked on his journey in 1324, but he did not go alone.

Accompanying him was 60,000 of his subjects.

60,000 people made this journey.

These included 8,000 soldiers.

So Mansa Musa was very keen not to fall into the same problem that our previous Mansa had fallen into, who had been attacked and killed and returned from Mecca.

There were also 12,000 enslaved people that went with him.

His favourite wife he took with him, along with 500 of her own enslaved people.

Important people from every kingdom of his empire also journeyed with Mansa Musa.

There were also thousands upon thousands of animal handlers who looked after their camels, the horses, the goats, the cattle and the other livestock that were needed for a journey.

Now, the animals were needed to carry provisions.

And what I mean by that is they needed to carry food and water and, and everything else is needed for a journey.

In many cases, the animals were also food themselves, but there were also 80 camels who were each carrying 300 pounds of gold dust each.

So just an extraordinary amount of wealth that Mansa Musa has taken with him.

Not only that 500 enslaved people walked in front of the procession at all times, and they acted as heralds, messengers effectively.

So that 500 messengers to announce the fact that Mansa Musa was on his way, as if you couldn't see 60,000 people coming up upon you.

But each one of these heralds was carrying a gold staff.

So a big old stick made of solid gold.

Every member of the procession was dressed in brocade.

And brocade is a rich fabric, which is woven with gold.

So it's it's gold clothing effectively, and silk as well.

So really, really rich fabrics that they're all wearing as well.

And that includes all the enslaved people as well.

They're all dressed in silk and brocades, and they journeyed across the Sahara dressed in this and carrying these things.

They journey for eight months across the Sahara.

That's how long it took this procession to make its way across the Sahara.

Just to put that into context, an average caravan, which might consist of about 500 camels or so, and maybe a few thousand people that would take on a good journey, about 40 days.

So just over a, a month or so to get across the Sahara.

These guys took eight months to get across the Sahara.

So this is not a quick journey, this moving city, which is effectively what it was, it was three times the size of London at this point in time.

Just again, just to put the size of this procession into context, it was ginormous.

Anyway, it finally reached the Egyptian capital of Cairo after eight months of journey.

And I imagine for the people of Egypt, the people of Cairo, see this 60,000 people journey across, it must have been just an absolutely awe-inspiring sight.

Now, Mansa Musa spent three months in Cairo and he gave away so much gold as gifts and he overpaid for so many items with gold dust.

Apparently Mansa Musa just absolutely loved just wandering the markets didn't haggle with any of the merchants.

He wanted to buy something, he just gave them the price that they asked for.

So naturally, once they became aware of what he was like, they just asked ridiculous prices for the goods that that they were selling, and Mansa Musa paid it.

In any case, by doing this, he accidentally collapsed the Egyptian economy.

He flooded the Egyptian economy with so much gold dust that effectively it became worthless.

The people of Egypt just didn't value gold dust very highly 'cause there was so much of it in the country at this point in time.

Now, Mansa Musa didn't realise that at the time.

After visiting Cairo for three months, he then moved on to Mecca, performed Hajj, and then on his return journey also passed back through Cairo and realised his error.

And he did try to fix it, to be fair to him, he didn't do this on purpose, he did try to fix it.

And the way they tried to fix it was he took out loans to buy back some of the gold, but these loans were also at an inflated price.

So he was paying way more for these loans than he would do normally.

He was paying way more for the gold dust than realistically it was worth at that point in time.

But again, he can afford it.

He's the richest man who has ever lived.

And for him, he was trying to be a nice guy.

You know, he was trying to make Mali look good to the world and crashing a potential allies' economy isn't probably a good way of doing that.

So he was trying to fix his problem.

In any case, once he got back home, he paid off his loans in one big lump sum and he crashed the economy of Egypt again.

So it was, I suppose, one of the big problems of having that much money.

In any case, it would take more than 12 years for the Egyptian economy to recover from Mansa Musa's pilgrimage.

Now, quick check for understanding, now, I'd like you to pick out two groups that accompanied Mansa Musa on his pilgrimage to Mecca.

Was it important people from every kingdom in his empire? Were they miners to gather gold as they travelled? Was it accountants to limit the amount of money that Mansa Musa spent, or is it 8,000 soldiers from his army? So choose two of those options now.

Okay, if you chose a and d, then very well done.

Those are the correct answers.

Right, let's go for our next task for today.

I've got a series of statements on the screen in front of you.

And what I'd like you to do is I'd like you to read the statements and if they're correct, give them a tick.

And if they are incorrect, I would like you to rewrite them and make them correct.

So let's just read through these statements now and make sure we're happy with them.

So to get to Mecca, Mansa Musa had to sail across the Atlantic Ocean.

A previous Mansa had been killed by bandits whilst performing Hajj.

Mansa Musa took 200,000 of his subjects on Hajj with him, Mansa Musa's 300 heralds carried silver staffs and wore simple cotton robes.

Mansa Musa collapsed the Egyptian economy by giving away too much gold, and it took the Egyptian economy more than 50 years to recover.

So tick those statements that are correct and rewrite the statements that are incorrect.

Pause the video while you're doing this and I'll see you once you've finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got on fine with that task.

Let's take a look at these statements and see which ones are correct.

Well, there are only two that are correct, and that is a previous Mansa had been killed by bandits whilst performing Hajj.

And Mansa Musa collapsed the Egyptian economy by giving away too much gold.

So let's look and see how we could have rewritten the incorrect ones.

Well, we could have said to get to Mecca, Mansa Musa had to cross the Sahara Desert.

That'd be a correct rewriting of that first statement.

And we could also say that Mansa Musa took 60,000 of his subjects on Hajj with him, to correct the other statement.

We could then say that Mansa Musa's 500 heralds carried gold staffs and wore brocade and silk clothes.

And then we could finally say it took the Egyptian economy more than 12 years to recover.

Hopefully you've got an accurate rewriting of some of those statements as well.

Let's move on now to our third and final learning cycle for today, which is looking at, "What were the consequences of Mansa Musa's Hajj?" Now, Mansa Musa successfully completed the Hajj and returned home, and it took nearly two years, and he travelled more than 4,000 miles in order to do so.

So this was a big undertaking.

Obviously it was massive in terms of the scale, just the sheer number of people, the sheer amount of wealth he took with him, but also just the distance travelled was huge and the amount of time it took to do so was exceedingly long as well.

It also is quite incredible that Mansa Musa as the ruler of an empire that had independent or semi-independent kingdoms within it, was able to leave and feel secure that nobody would try and take over the throne.

And again, this is part of the reason why Mali operated so successfully, is 'cause that generally speaking, the kingdoms within the empire were quite happy because they had that measure of independence.

So Mansa Musa felt confident that he could leave his empire and everything would be fine, which is exactly what happened.

Everything was fine in Mali.

So whilst in Mecca, Mansa Musa made contact with some of the, the descendants of the Prophet Mohammad and convinced four of them to return to the Mali Empire with him.

Now, the benefit of this is that it increases the legitimacy of the Mali Empire as an Islamic nation, if there are descendants of the prophet Muhammad who are settled there as well.

It just makes other Muslim nations sit up and take notice of Mali.

He also convinced a Spanish scholar, a man named Abu Al Sahili to return with him.

Now, Al Sahili designed the Djinguereber Mosque, an image of which is on the screen in front of you there, and created a new style of architecture which was influenced by North African architecture.

And this style was used extensively thereafter.

Al Sahili is generally regarded as the man that brought this style of architecture to this part of the world.

Now, whilst Mansa Musa was away, as well as not suffering any sort of rebellions, his army generals weren't just sitting back and taking it easy.

They'd actually been busy expanding the borders of the empire.

So not only is Mansa Musa able to leave his country and feel secure that no one's gonna rise up and rebel.

He also feels secure enough to have his army generals actually marching around with armies.

And again, there have been many occasions across time and through different societies where generals have risen up and overthrown their rulers.

But Mansa Musa was able to instruct his generals to raise their armies and then to go out and expand the borders of the empire, feeling secure enough that they wouldn't turn on him, and they didn't.

It worked.

So Mansa Musa visited some of these new cities, the most important new cities anyway, on his return, such as Gao, Timbuktu, really, really influential trading cities.

And he visited these, before returning back to his capital of Niani.

Now Mansa Musa turned Timbuktu into the cultural and spiritual centre of the empire, and he did this by building great mosques, which were also centres of learning.

So mosques weren't just religious sites, they were also centres for education as well.

So they served that dual purpose, and that's because education, the gathering of knowledge, was such a fundamental aspect of Islam.

Now, the fame of the Mali Empire generated by Mansa Musa's Hajj, plus his development of Timbuktu, turned the city into one of the most important centres of Islamic learning in the world at that point in time.

So this Muslim nation that is effectively cut off from a great deal of the rest of the Muslim world by the Sahara Desert, because of the work of Mansa Musa, it becomes a really, really significant centre for Islam.

It cost an enormous sum of money to do this, but Mansa Musa had successfully put the Mali Empire firmly on the map.

Now let's have a quick check for understanding.

So how far did Mansa Musa travel on his pilgrimage? Was it roughly 1000 miles? Was it roughly 2000 miles? Was it roughly 4,000 miles? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose C then very well done, roughly 4,000 miles.

It was an extraordinarily long journey.

Another quick check for understanding, we've got a statement here, is it true or false? The capital city of the Mali Empire, Niani, became one of the most important centres for Islamic scholarship after Mansa Musa's Hajj.

Is that true or is that false? Okay, if you chose false, then very well done.

It is indeed.

But let's justify that statement now.

Why is it false? Is it false because Niani was already one of the most important centres for Islamic scholarship before Mansa Musa's pilgrimage? Or is it because Timbuktu, which became part of the Mali Empire, whilst Mansa Musa was on Hajj, that city became a centre for Islamic scholarship.

So make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose B, then very well done.

I think the reason why Timbuktu as opposed to Niani became this centre, this such an important centre for Islam within Mali Empire, is that Timbuktu was to the north of the Empire, which meant that it was right on the border as the Sahara, and it was one of the first cities that traders would would visit if they were making that trans-Sahara journey.

Whereas Niani was towards the south of the Empire, it was closer to the Rainforest District and it was further away from those trading hubs.

Right.

Let's go onto our next task then.

So what I'd like you to do is to identify one positive consequence of Mansa Musa's pilgrimage and also one negative consequence as well.

So I've got some ideas on the screen that you could include.

So you could think about the descendants of the Prophet Mohammad.

You could talk about Abu Al Sahili.

You could talk about Timbuktu, you could talk about the Egyptian economy.

You could discuss loans.

We could mention the fact that 12 years.

So pause the video now once you complete this task.

One positive consequence of the pilgrimage and one negative consequence.

And I'll see you once you've finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you gotten okay with that task.

So I've got an answer here on the screen.

Let's it read through it and see what's good about it.

So one positive consequence of Mansa Musa's pilgrimage, a tradition known as the Hajj, was that he was able to bring Abu al Sahili back with him to the Mali Empire.

Al Sahili built the Djinguereber Mosque and created a new style of architecture in Mali, which gave the buildings of Mali a unique look.

One negative consequence of Mansa Musa's pilgrimage, was that he gave away so much gold as gifts and overpaid for so many items with gold dust, that accidentally collapse the Egyptian economy.

It would take more than 12 years for the price of gold to return to its previous level in Egypt.

So hopefully you've got something similar to what I've got there.

You might have noticed that I discussed both positive and negative.

I've included some of those details from the previous slide as well, but I've also done, as I've actually explained, how the details that I'm including, actually support the point that I'm making as well.

So hopefully you've got some of that level of explanation in your answer as well.

Right? Let's summarise the lesson now.

So Mansa Musa was a 14th century ruler of the Mali Empire.

He was the wealthiest man who has ever lived.

As a devout Muslim, Mansa Musa undertook the Hajj to Mecca, travelling across the Sahara Desert to get there.

The amount of gold he gave away during his pilgrimage, destabilised the economy of Egypt, and there were positive consequences of his pilgrimage.

For example, the legitimacy of the Mali Empire increased, a new architectural style was created, and Timbuktu became the cultural and spiritual centre of the empire.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully you've enjoyed yourself, that you learned something, and hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Bye-Bye.