Editing Mali Empire (section)

==Legacy==
The Mali Empire had a massive effect on the development of West Africa societies even well after its peak. Its expansion spread Mande culture and the [[Mande languages]] from the mouth of the [[Gambia River]] to what is now [[Burkina Faso]] and, particularly through [[Dyula people|Dyula]] traders, from the Niger loop to the trading centers on the south coast. All across this region, political institutions with Malian structures and terminology survived to the colonial period and beyond.{{sfn|Cissoko|1983|pp=59}} 
<!-- Things to add: religion, jeli, nyamakalaw, tontajontaniworo, Ibn Battuta's observations -->

===Architecture===
[[File:Fortier 372 Timbuktu Djingereber Mosque.jpg|thumb|Remains of the [[Djinguereber Mosque]] in [[Timbuktu]]. The original mosque was built in the 14th century and reconstructed over the following centuries<ref>{{cite book |last1=  Morris|first1= James|last2= Blier |first2=Suzanne Preston|title=Butabu: Adobe Architecture of West Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cCrQKWxzG9cC&pg=PA190&dq=Djinguereber+mosque+Mansa+Musa+1325&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm7o7tnp2MAxVWXEEAHRBrA0MQuwV6BAgKEAk#v=onepage&q=Djinguereber%20mosque%20Mansa%20Musa%201325&f=false|date=2004|publisher=[[Princeton Architectural Press]]|page=190|isbn=9781568984131}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=  Morris|first1= James|author2=Biro Y.  |author3= Cissé M.|author4=Conrad David C.|author5= Diagne S. B.|author6= McIntosh R.|author7=Paulo F. de Moraes Farias|author8=Paoletti G. |author9= Thiaw I.|name-list-style=amp|title=Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_cfLDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA138&dq=Djinguereber+mosque+Mansa+Musa+1325&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm7o7tnp2MAxVWXEEAHRBrA0MQuwV6BAgMEAo#v=onepage&q=Djinguereber%20mosque%20Mansa%20Musa%201325&f=false|date=2020|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|page=138–139|isbn=9781588396877}}</ref> |278x278px]]

Imperial Malian architecture was characterised by [[Sudano-Sahelian architecture]]. This style is distinguished by the use of [[mudbrick]]s and an [[adobe]] plaster, with large wooden-log support beams that jut out from the wall face for large buildings such as [[mosque]]s or palaces.

The dating of the original [[Great Mosque of Djenné]], the most prominent example of this style today, is uncertain but thought to date as early as 1200 to as late as 1330.<ref name="Bourgeois">{{Harvnb|Bourgeois|1987}}.</ref> The current structure, built under French colonial rule by the traditional Djenne masons, dates from 1907 and recreates some of the original's design and on the original plan.<ref name="Bourgeois" /> The earliest document mentioning the old Djenne mosque is Abd al-Sadi's ''[[Tarikh al-Sudan]]'', which gives the early history, presumably from the oral tradition as it existed in the mid seventeenth century. The ''tarikh'' states that a Sultan Kunburu became a Muslim and had his palace pulled down and the site turned into a mosque; he then built another palace for himself near the mosque on the east side.<ref name="Bourgeois" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Hunwick|1999|p=18}}. "When the sultan became a Muslim. he had his palace pulled down and the site turned into a mosque dedicated to God Most High. This is the present congregational mosque. He built another palace for himself and his household near the mosque on the east side."</ref>

The Sudano-Sahelian influence was particularly widely incorporated during the rule of Mansa Musa I, who constructed many architectural projects, including the Great Mosque of Gao and Royal Palace in Timbuktu, which was built with the assistance of Ishaak al-Tuedjin, an architect brought by Musa from his pilgrimage to Mecca.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Alexander|first1=Leslie|title=Encyclopedia of African American History|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1851097692|pages=73–74|edition=American Ethnic Experience|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Uhh7GggNxQoC&q=mali+musa+maghrib&pg=PA73|ref=Bibliography Bell, Nawal Morcos. "The Age of Mansa Musa of Mali: Problems in Succession and Chronology", ''International Journal of African Historical Studies'' vol. 5 no. 2(1972):221–34; J. D., Farge. ''A History of Africa'', London: Hutchinson, 1978; Levtzion, Nehemia. ''Ancient Ghana and Mali''. London: Methusen, 1973}}</ref>