There are 5 pillars of Islam, one being a Hajj to Mecca, that Muslims take part in to prove that they are good Muslims. Mansa Musa went on a Hajj for his religion, but he had other intentions for participating in this journey. Mansa Musa was a very wealthy leader of Mali who decided to go on this pilgrimage to Mecca to complete one of the 5 pillars of Islam, and he gave some of his gold to people who lived in the cities along the way where salt was abundant and gold was very valuable.
Mansa Musa went to Mecca for his religion, but had other motivating factors. Mansa Musa could have gone through Timbuktu, but instead he decided to go the longer route, through Taghaza and Walata. In Taghaza and Walata “salt was worth its weight in gold”
Mansa Musa set off on his hajj and traveled thousands of miles through deserts, and strange cities to get to Mecca. Although this was a very religious journey, was this pilgrimage really all for religious purposes? Religion may have been a large motivating factor for this trip, but Mansa Musa did not journey on his hajj just for religious purposes. There were many other motivating factors for why Mansa Musa took this journey. Some motives were to set up better trade for the future, and gain popularity for his kingdom Mali and himself.
Mansa Musa was an influential ruler. He was very wealthy, generous, and dedicated to his land. Mansa Musa became a well-known figure during his pilgrimage to Mecca where he proved to be a great leader. First, Mansa Musa was the richest man ever. For example, “he brought camels that carried 100 loads of gold” for resources on his pilgrimage.
The Islam religion, believed by Muslims, has spread across the globe at rapid speeds. Muhammad ibn Abdullah started the religion. The religion began in Mecca. The religion was made known in 610 CE. The two major themes of the religion are “Allah is the one God” and the importance of charity.
In North Africa the Berber merchants were one of the major groups that traded with Sub-Saharan West Africa through the Trans-Saharan trade routes. The Berber merchants played an essential part in dispersing the Islam and its traditions into Sub-Saharan West Africa since they frequently used the Sahara to trade. When Islam made its way into Sub-Saharan West Africa, it was absorbed into their society but unlike in other societies, Islam merged with the existing animistic culture. A majority of the Sub-Saharan West African population didn’t convert to Islam but remained animistic. The people who converted were merchants and elite rulers.
In Document A, it states,” By the middle of the 6th century… Mecca was … prosperous and important.” Mecca is prosperous and important meaning that people would trade there often and people may travel the routes and spread the religion and since it was important, people went there tremendously so people would trade religions and praise Islam. Plus in Document C, it shows that Islam spread in the vast region through Muhammad followers. Muhammad had many followers which meant that he had a variety of people teaching Islam.
The attitudes of Christianity and Islam towards merchants and trade are different from one another in the beginning stages, but as time progress each moderate their earlier views. In the beginning Christians found it unfit to be a rich merchant, while Islam’s judgment on trade was acceptable as long as they were honest and the trading was just. As time went by over a couple hundred years, the followers if each belief changed their views on trade, though it was acceptable, merchants were expected to trade geniuses. In the beginning Christians found it unfit to be a rich merchant, while Islam’s judgment on trade was acceptable as long as they were honest and the trading was just.
Colonialism, it’s how population spread across the world and how we’re here today. Most people think that the Europeans colonizing across the world had a positive effect; however, there are some people that the Europeans colonizing across the world had a negative effect. Colonialism had both a positive and negative affect on Kenyan people. During the time, the British imposed a harder religion that they had brought along, how people were being treated, and agricultural services. European colonialism had a negative effect on the Kenyan people through imposing a harder religion that they had brought along.
In 1939, Reza Shah’s unveiling declaration sparked a worldwide debate as to what the veil actually symbolizes. Ever since the beginning of Islam, women throughout the Islamic world have had to adopt the hijab as part of their cultural and religious attire due to various interpretations of the Islamic dress code. In addition, the Koran emphasizes purity in the name of Islam by asking both men and women to be modest when it comes to the way they dress. Furthermore, in his efforts to modernize Iran, Reza Shah failed to satisfy the needs of his people, as he gave women no say in what they could and could not wear in public. This eventually resulted in the division of Iranian women, as there were those who favored the Islamic tradition, and those who supported the regime and its adoption of Western values.
An area that was changed due to this, was the city of Timbuktu. It is located about 12 miles North of the southern edge of the River Niger. Subsequent to the pilgrimage, Timbuktu was transformed into a cultural center of the Mali Empire. Trade elevated immensely during this time and as the population grew, a university was created to educate the newcomers. Islam was spread through the merchants and by teachers at the University.
Mansa Musa’s hajj influenced the world’s perception of West Africa because it showed how many people were Muslim and the amount of resources West Africa had. One perception of West Africa was that it was a very religious place. Many people believed Islam was important because of the amount of West Africans that went on Mansa Musa’s hajj. There were 60,000 people that attended hajj in the fourteenth century with Mansa Musa (Document A). Document B shows
We all know about Marco Polo and his travels, which serve as one of the main historical sources about Central Asia and China for that time period. However, Muslim world has also their own “Marco Polo”. His name was Ibn Battuta and it is believed that he traveled more than 70 000 miles. [ Marlène Barsoum, “The traveller and his Scribe: In the footsteps of Ibn Battuta and their rendering by Ibn Juzayy”, The Journal of North African Studies, 11:2, (2006): 195] Muhammad Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan scholar born in Tangiers, who widely traveled the medieval world. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the Islamic world and many non-Muslim lands, namely North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, the Middle East, India, Central
In Anglo-Saxon culture, gold was one of the most valuable possessions a person could own. Gold and treasure was a sign of wealth, honor, respect and power. To the Anglo-Saxons, people lived their lives to become more honorable in the eyes of their peers. People valued others who had more treasure as it was a sign of their accomplishments. The role of wealth, treasure and gold in this poem is important to the power and the honor of the individual.
The biggest impact of Mansa Musa's journey was in Mali itself, which became a religious and educational place based on the amount of exceptional people Mansa Musa recruited upon his return. He instituted mosques at Timbuktu and Gao. During his reign, Timbuktu became an important trade stop for caravans in the region, and an educational center that evolved into a university where history, law and theology were supported by royal funds. His influence on his people was to instill Islam into their lives, so much that his subjects became educated in religious and secular matters.
Mansa Musa, who ruled from 1312 to 1337 CE (often referred to as “the golden age of the Mali Empire”), was the tenth mansa, or king, of the Mali Empire, which was located in the Sahara Desert and “stretched across two thousand miles from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Chad” (Alkhateeb; Tesfu). In 1324 CE, Musa, a Muslim ruler, decided to begin his pilgrimage to Mecca, called the Hajj, which is the fifth pillar of Islam. Mansa Musa’s visit to Cairo, Egypt during his Hajj to Mecca had an incredibly negative impact on the economy in Egypt for over a decade. Mahmud Kali, a native scholar and Islamic judge of Timbuktu, provided insight into Mansa Musa’s initial reason for deciding to set out on his pilgrimage to Mecca: Muhammad Quma, a scholar, had told Kali that “the Mali-koy Kankan Musa had killed his mother, Nana Kankan, by mistake. For this he felt deep regret and remorse and feared
Mansa Musa helped Islam spread by leaving to pilgrimage and introduced the empire to the Islamic World. He encouraged learning to read the Arabic language to read the Qur’an. He hired architects to build mosques as well. Another example is the Songhai empire. Songhai leaders were Muslims as well.