What did Ibn Battuta see in Mali?
Ibn Battuta's account of sub-Saharan Mali under Mansa Sulayman is one of the earliest outside records of Muslim West Africa — its piety, its scholarship, and its distinctive customs.
4 passages from 1 book in the library
The classical approach.
These passages are drawn from 1 book by Ibn Battuta — part of the classical Sunni tradition that carries over a thousand years of reflection on the Qurʾān, the authentic Sunnah, and the consensus of the early community. Nothing below is a paraphrase. The words are the scholars' own, translated from the original Arabic manuscripts.
14th century · Tangier, Morocco
The Riḥlah — a 30-year, 75,000-mile journey across three continents, and the most important travel account of the pre-modern world.
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"Before him was Mansa Magha, and before Mansa Magha was Mansa Musa, who was a generous, noble man who liked the Berbers and treated them well."
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"Mudrik, the jurist, told me that a man from Tlemcen known as Ibn Shaikh al-Laban had once favored Sultan Mansa Musa in his youth with seven and a third mithkals when Mansa Musa was just a boy of no significance at the time."
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"During my stay in Mali, the Sultan became angry with his chief wife, his cousin's daughter named Kasa, meaning queen in their tongue."
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"Mansa Musa then awarded him 700 mithkals along with clothing, slaves, and servants, urging him not to cut off his visits."
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