Editing Mali Empire (section)

==Religion==
Through the oral tradition of griots, the Keita dynasty claims descent from [[Lawalo]], one of the sons of [[Bilal ibn Ribah|Bilal]],<ref name=sundiata/> the faithful ''[[muezzin]]'' of [[Islam]]'s prophet [[Muhammad]]. But they also claim that his descendants founded and led the ''donso-ton'', the powerful hunter's brotherhood of Mande that was thoroughly steeped in local animist ritual.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=70}} This ambiguity and dualistic belief system was a fundamental feature of the Mali Empire, as it was for many other Sahel states up until the 19th century. Religious life in the Mali Empire was divided between animist and Islamic belief systems, but the boundary was blurry and porous, if it existed at all. The northern parts of the empire on the edge of the [[Sahara desert]] tended to be more Islamicized, while traditional paganism dominated in the south.{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=66}} The ruling family's traditions reflect this, cultivating an image as both longstanding Muslims and powerful sorcerers on the model of the ''Kòmò'' society.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=70}}{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=64}} 

Islam was present in Mande by at least the 10th century. [[Al-Bakri]] records that a king of Malal was converted to Islam when a [[marabout]] produced a miraculous shower of rain that ended a drought, and the ruler's descendants and his nobles kept Islam, although the common people were not converted.<ref>al-Bakri in [[Nehemiah Levtzion]] and J. F. P. Hopkins, eds and trans, ''Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History'' (New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1981, reprint ed. Princeton, NJ,: Marcus Wiener, 2000), p. 82-83.</ref> [[Ibn Khaldun]] named the first Muslim king Barmandana.<ref>ibn Khaldun in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds, and transl. ''Corpus'', p. 333.</ref> These conversion stories do not necessarily mean that early Mande was an Islamic state, however. Al-Bakri's story, if true, presumably applied only to one of the local rulers of the balkanized region, and any claims to longstanding Muslim status could be a later invention to give increased prestige to the royal family.<ref>Conrad DC. Islam in the Oral Traditions of Mali: Bilali and Surakata. The Journal of African History. 1985;26(1):33-49. doi:10.1017/S0021853700023070</ref>{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=71}} 

Sundiata himself may have been nominally or superficially Muslim.{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=67}} During his reign, Mansa Musa bestowed rewards on a [[marabout]] named Mudrik b. Fakkûs in gratitude for his ancestor who had supposedly converted Musa's ancestor 'Sarik Djata', probably Sundiata.{{sfn|Conrad|1992|p=157}}{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=68}} But the deeply pagan themes permeating the ''[[Epic of Sundiata]]'' reflect his times, and his practice of Islam was probably syncretic at best, if he practiced at all.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=91}} The emperor had to serve as both a pious sultan for his Muslim subjects and as the ''malimansa'', protected by the spirits, for his pagan subjects.{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=229}} Religiously mixed public ceremonies at [[Mansa Suleyman]]'s court as recorded by [[ibn Battuta]] reflect this.{{sfn|Fauvelle|2022|p=226}} The [[hajj]] pilgrimage, undertaken by mansas [[Uli I of Mali|Wali]], [[Mansa Sakura|Sakura]], and [[Mansa Musa|Musa]], mirrored the ''dali-ma-sigi'', a hunter's spiritual quest to forge an alliance with the secret powers of the wild bush.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=97}} Mansa Musa is generally considered the archetypal Muslim Mansa: besides his famous pilgrimage, he also built numerous mosques and madrasas, and encouraged the practice of Islam at his court.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=156}} But in oral tradition he is lauded as the king who brought important ''boliw'' (sacred objects) from Mecca for use in the ''Kòmò'' rituals.{{sfn|Conrad|1992|p=152}}

Under Malian rule, towns like [[Dia, Mali|Dia]] and [[Goundiourou]] enjoyed a degree of theocratic self-rule, where only Islamic law applied.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=158}}<ref name = Monteil>Charles Monteil ‘Le Site de Goundiourou’, Bulletin du Comité d'études historiques et scientifiques de l'Afrique occidentale française, Larose (Paris), 1928, http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb34381764h</ref> These were [[Jakhanke people|Jakhanke]] centers following [[Al-Hajj Salim Suwari]]'s [[Political quietism in Islam|quietist]] beliefs.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=157}}