Editing Mali Empire (section)

===Height of power===
After Sakura's death, power returned to the line of Sunjata, with [[Gao (mansa)|Qu]] taking the throne.{{sfn|Levtzion|1963|p=345}} He was succeeded by his son [[Mohammed ibn Gao|Muhammad]], who launched [[Atlantic voyage of the predecessor of Mansa Musa|two voyages]] to explore the [[Atlantic Ocean]].{{efn|There is some ambiguity over the identity of the mansa responsible for the voyages. The voyage is often incorrectly attributed to a Mansa Abu Bakr II, but no such mansa ever reigned.{{sfn|Fauvelle|2018|p=165}} The account of the voyage does not mention the mansa by name, only indicating that it was Musa's immediate predecessor. According to Ibn Khaldun, Musa's immediate predecessor was Muhammad.{{sfn|Levtzion|1963|p=346}}}} After the loss of the first expedition, Muhammad led the second expedition himself. He left his cousin [[Mansa Musa|Kanku Musa]] in charge during his absence. Eventually, due to Muhammad's failure to return, Musa was recognized as mansa in approximately 1312.{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=269}}

The reign of Kankan Musa, better known as [[Mansa Musa]], is considered the golden age of Mali.{{sfn|Levtzion|1963|pp=347}} A devout and well-educated Muslim, he took an interest in the scholarly city of [[Timbuktu]], which he peaceably annexed in 1324, and transformed [[Sankore]] from an informal [[madrasah]] into an Islamic university. Mansa Musa Keita's crowning achievement was his famous 1324 pilgrimage to [[Mecca]]. Accounts of how many people and how much gold he spent vary. All of them agree that he took a very large group of people; the ''mansa'' kept a personal guard of some 500 men,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/sarasota/african.htm |title=African |publisher=Sarasota.k12.fl.us |access-date=2009-09-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531010306/http://www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/sarasota/african.htm |archive-date=31 May 2008 }}</ref> and he gave out so many [[alms]] and bought so many things that the value of gold in Egypt and Arabia depreciated for twelve years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/materials/handouts/k_o_mali.html |title=Kingdom of Mali |publisher=Bu.edu |access-date=2009-09-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090831043514/http://www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/materials/handouts/k_o_mali.html |archive-date=31 August 2009 }}</ref> When he passed through [[Cairo]], historian [[al-Maqrizi]] noted "the members of his entourage proceeded to buy [[Anatolian beyliks|Turkish]] and [[Ethiopian Empire|Ethiopian]] slave girls, singing girls and garments, so that the rate of the gold ''dinar'' fell by six ''[[dirham]]s''." In addition to his famous hajj, Musa built mosques and palaces in Timbuktu and [[Gao]], and took control of the valuable salt mine of [[Taghazza]].

[[File:Catalan Atlas BNF Sheet 6 Mansa Musa.jpg|thumb|[[Mansa Musa|Musa]] depicted holding a gold coin in the 1375 [[Catalan Atlas]]]]

Mansa Musa's son [[Maghan I]] ruled for only a few years before being succeeded (or overthrown) by his uncle [[Sulayman of Mali|Sulayman]]. Sulayman's reign continued Mali's golden age, as attested by the writer [[Ibn Battuta]] who arrived in Mali in July 1352, and he made a successful ''[[hajj]]'', kept up correspondence with Morocco and Egypt.{{sfn|Wilkinson|1994|p=51}}

Upon Sulayman's death in 1360, the empire was ruled by a string of short-lived, cruel, or incompetent rulers. The ''kankoro-sigui'' held increasing influence as a power behind the throne.<ref name=peoplesand>Stride, G. T., & Ifeka, C. (1971). ''Peoples and Empires of West Africa: West Africa in History 1000–1800''. Nelson.</ref> During this period the [[Jolof Empire]] was founded, and soon dominated all of northern [[Senegambia]].{{sfn|Wilkinson|1994|p=51}} In the 1370s a war between Mali imperial forces and Berber Tuareg forces from [[Takedda]] devastated the city of [[Gao]]. The area around it became independent of Malian control around this time.<ref name=":3">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nAsWQqy_fXwC&q=kabura%20niger&pg=PA29|title=Social History of Timbuktu: The Role of Muslim Scholars and Notables 1400–1900|last1=Saad|first1=Elias N.|date=14 July 1983|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0521246032|edition=Cambridge History of Science Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization|pages=29–30}}</ref> Still, by the time of Mansa Musa Keita II's death in 1387, Mali was financially solvent and in control of all of its previous conquests except Gao and Dyolof. Forty years after the reign of Mansa Musa Keita I, the Mali Empire still controlled some {{Convert|1100000|km2|sqmi}} of land.{{sfn|Imperato|Imperato|2008|p=203}}