Editing Niger (section)

==== Mali Empire (1200s–1400s) ====
{{Main|Mali Empire}}
The Mali Empire was a [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] empire founded by [[Sundiata Keita]] (r. 1230–1255) in {{circa|1230}} and existed until the 1600s. As detailed in the ''[[Epic of Sundiata]]'', Mali emerged as a breakaway region of the [[Sosso Empire]] which itself had split from the earlier [[Ghana Empire]]. Thereafter Mali defeated the Sosso at the [[Battle of Kirina]] in 1235 and then Ghana in 1240.<ref name="oxfordre1">{{cite book|url = https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-266|author = Sirio Canós-Donnay|title = Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History|chapter = The Empire of Mali| publisher = Oxford Research Encyclopedias|date = February 2019|doi = 10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.266|isbn = 978-0-19-027773-4|access-date = 13 November 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190730024800/https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-266| archive-date = 30 July 2019| url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.worldhistory.org/Mali_Empire/|title = Mali Empire|publisher = Ancient Origins|date = 1 March 2019|access-date = 13 November 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190729130448/https://www.worldhistory.org/Mali_Empire/|archive-date = 29 July 2019|url-status = live}}</ref> From its heartland around the later Guinea-Mali border region, the empire expanded under successive kings and came to dominate the Trans-Saharan trade routes, reaching its greatest extent during the rule of [[Mansa Musa]] (r. 1312–1337).{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} At this point parts of what are now Niger's [[Tillabéri Region]] fell under Malian rule.<ref name="oxfordre1"/> A Muslim, Mansa Musa performed the ''[[hajj]]'' in 1324–25 and encouraged the spread of [[Islam]] in the empire, and it "appears that most ordinary citizens continued to maintain their traditional animist beliefs instead of or alongside the new religion".<ref name="oxfordre1"/><ref name="ancient1">{{cite web|url = https://www.worldhistory.org/Mali_Empire/|title = Mali Empire|publisher = World History Encyclopedia|access-date = 13 November 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190729130448/https://www.worldhistory.org/Mali_Empire/|archive-date = 29 July 2019|url-status = live}}</ref> The empire began "declining" in the 15th century due to a combination of internecine strife over the royal succession, weak kings, the shift of European trade routes to the coast, and rebellions in the empire's periphery by [[Mossi people|Mossi]], [[Wolof people|Wolof]], [[Tuareg]] and [[Songhai people|Songhai]] peoples.<ref name="ancient1"/> A rump Mali kingdom continued to exist until the 1600s.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}