According to Arab tradition, the ensuing war pushed Ghana over the edge, ending the kingdom's position as a commercial and military power by 1100, as it collapsed into tribal groups and chieftaincies, some of which later assimilated into the Almoravids while others founded the Mali Empire.

In 1236, Sundiata Keita presented an oral constitution federating the Mali Empire, called the Kouroukan Fouga.

The Kouroukan Fouga divided the Mali Empire into ruling clans ( lineages ) that were represented at a great assembly called the Gbara.

Elsewhere during the Middle Ages, Islamic science and mathematics flourished under the Islamic caliphate established across the Middle East, extending from the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Indus in the east and to the Almoravid Dynasty and Mali Empire in the south.

The Sosso kingdom ( 12th to 13th centuries ) briefly flourished in the void but the Islamic Mandinka Mali Empire came to prominence when Soundiata Kéïta defeated the Sosso ruler, Soumangourou Kanté at the semi-historical Battle of Kirina in c. 1235.

The Mali Empire was ruled by Mansa ( Emperors ), the most famous being Kankou Moussa, who made a famous hajj to Mecca in 1324.

Shortly after his reign the Mali Empire began to decline and was ultimately supplanted by its vassal states in the 15th century.

The most successful of these was the Songhai Empire, expanding its power from about 1460, and eventually surpassing the Mali Empire in both territory and wealth.

Ever since Mansa Musa, king of the Mali Empire, made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325, with 500 slaves and 100 camels ( each carrying gold ) the region had become synonymous with such wealth.

Some notable pre-colonial states and societies in Africa include the Nok culture, Mali Empire, Ashanti Empire, Kingdom of Mapungubwe, Kingdom of Sine, Kingdom of Saloum, Kingdom of Baol, Kingdom of Zimbabwe, Kingdom of Kongo, Ancient Carthage, Numidia, Mauretania, the Aksumite Empire, the Ajuuraan State and the Adal Sultanate.

Mali Empire at its greatest extent

Although the salt and gold trade continued to be important to the Mali Empire, agriculture and pastoralism was also critical.

The Mali Empire saw an expansion of learning and literacy.

Oualata was the southern terminus of the trans-Saharan trade route and had recently become part of the Mali Empire.

From there, Ibn Battuta travelled southwest along a river he believed to be the Nile ( it was actually the river Niger ), until he reached the capital of the Mali Empire.

Mali Empire and West Africa

During most of his journey in the Mali Empire, Ibn Battuta travelled with a retinue that included slaves, most of whom carried goods for trade but would also be traded as slaves.

** Emperors of Mali, see Mali Empire

Present-day Mali was once part of three West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade: the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire ( from which Mali is named ), and the Songhai Empire.

After the reign of Mansa Suleyman ( 1341 – 1360 ), Mali began its spiral downward.

During the 13th century, when the gold mines in modern day Mali started to dry up, Bonoman and later other Akan states began to rise to promince as the major players in the Gold trade.

In 1990, cohesive opposition movements began to emerge, and was complicated by the turbulent rise of ethnic violence in the north following the return of many Tuaregs to Mali.

However, by 1990, cohesive opposition movements began to emerge, including the National Democratic Initiative Committee and the Alliance for Democracy in Mali ( Alliance pour la Démocratie au Mali, ADEMA ).

* Siege of Medina Fort, an 1857 battle in present-day Mali, where Umar Tall's war against Khasso and France began in 1857

The Empire flourished from the 13th to the late 14th century but began to decline as some vassal states throw away the yoke of Mali and regained their independence.

It was during his reign that Mali first began to gain fame and notoriety as well as economic strength, a strength that his successors such as Mansa Musa improved on thanks to the ground work set by Sundiata, who controlled the region's trade routes and gold fields.

It began its rise in 1468 when Sonni Ali conquered much of the weakening Mali empire's territory as well as Timbuktu, famous for its Islamic universities, and the pivotal trading city of Djenné.

Maga began to form an alliance with Ahomadegbé-Tomêtin, especially after Apithy voted in favor of joining the short-lived Mali Federation, an idea that Maga opposed.

She began recording in her early twenties with Radio Mali.

It was at this time that Mali began encouraging some of its local merchants to establish colonies close to the gold fields of West Africa.

In Mali, the rising began in 1990 when Tuareg separatists attacked government buildings around Gao in Mali.

Attacks in the extreme northeast of Mali began to grow in number and intensity in August 2007, as reports appeared that the ADC splinter group, led by former combatant Ibrahim Ag Bahanga claiming these attacks had formally confederated with the Niger-based MNJ.

Early planning for the dam began in 1972 when the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River ( Organisation pour la mise en valeur du fleuve Sénégal, or OMVS ) was set up by Mali, Mauritania and Senegal to develop the agricultural and hydropower potential of the basin.

The dam began to produce electricity for Senegal, Mali and Mauritania in 2001.

In 1971, he began working on his dissertation in theology in France, and was soon informed by Luc Sangare, archbishop of Bamako, that he would be made a bishop on his return to Mali, a post Sidibé took in 1974.

He began courtesy visits to foreign heads of state visiting Mali and won recognition for the Association of Griots in the protocol list of the Republic in many official ceremonies.

They began traversing the borders of Cote d ' Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana around the 13th century.

The region has, however, seen a number of bloody civil wars, including the Nigerian Civil War ( 1967 – 1970 ), two civil wars in Liberia in 1989 and 1999, a decade of fighting in Sierra Leone from 1991 – 2002, a Tuareg Rebellion in Niger and Mali in the early 1990s, and an ongoing conflict in Côte d ' Ivoire that began in 2002.

He was born in Bamako, Mali, and began his career in his local club, Djoliba AC.

Ghana declined in the 11th century but was succeeded by the Mali Empire which consolidated much of western Sudan in the 13th century.

It is known by historians that at its height the Mali Empire built a large naval fleet under Emperor Mansa Musa in the late 13th and early 14th century.

Two other major political entities were formed and grew during the 13th and 14th century: the Mali Empire and the Jolof Empire which become the vassal of the first in its heyday.

The ruler of the 13th century Mali empire, Mansa Musa, brought a large number of his court with him on the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Bamana originated as a section of the Mandinka people, the founders of the Mali Empire in the 13th Century.

Djenné dominated the gold and salt trade across West Africa, from the 11th C. ( fall of Ghana ) until the 13th C. ( when the Mali invasion disrupted its routes and redirected trade to Timbuktu, hitherto just a small Djenné outpost ).

Category: 13th century in Mali

The Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali, first built in the 13th century and reconstructed in 1906 – 1909, is the largest clay building in the world.