Masks and the Mosque. The Mali Empire (13th-14th centuries).
CNRS editions| N° d'inventaire | 26970 |
| Format | 15 x 23 |
| Détails | 296 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2022 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782271143709 |
What do we know about the Mali Empire? Starting with an analysis of the Wikipedia entry on this major political formation of the Middle Ages, François-Xavier Fauvelle questions the reasons for the obscurity that continues to surround it. Then, patiently, he reconstructs modest yet solid knowledge, before skillfully assembling the multiple pieces, drawn from Arabic texts, oral tradition, and archaeological excavations, of the vast documentary "puzzle" that is the history of Mali.
What do Sundiata and Charlemagne have in common? What role does Musa's famous pilgrimage to Mecca play in legitimizing power? Attentive to the echoes of the deeds of the mansa, the Malian emperors, even in Walt Disney's The Lion King, this investigation sheds light on the dynastic history of imperial Mali in the 13th and 14th centuries, before taking us very closely to the rituals of a court where, on feast days, masks dance in front of the mosque. Understanding the economic, religious, and political logic of medieval Mali allows us, as a culmination, to propose a new hypothesis for the location of the capital of the empire, the search for which has agitated historians and archaeologists since the mid- 19th century.
Beyond this long-vanished city, it is the intelligence of medieval Africa that this renewed history brings into play.
What do we know about the Mali Empire? Starting with an analysis of the Wikipedia entry on this major political formation of the Middle Ages, François-Xavier Fauvelle questions the reasons for the obscurity that continues to surround it. Then, patiently, he reconstructs modest yet solid knowledge, before skillfully assembling the multiple pieces, drawn from Arabic texts, oral tradition, and archaeological excavations, of the vast documentary "puzzle" that is the history of Mali.
What do Sundiata and Charlemagne have in common? What role does Musa's famous pilgrimage to Mecca play in legitimizing power? Attentive to the echoes of the deeds of the mansa, the Malian emperors, even in Walt Disney's The Lion King, this investigation sheds light on the dynastic history of imperial Mali in the 13th and 14th centuries, before taking us very closely to the rituals of a court where, on feast days, masks dance in front of the mosque. Understanding the economic, religious, and political logic of medieval Mali allows us, as a culmination, to propose a new hypothesis for the location of the capital of the empire, the search for which has agitated historians and archaeologists since the mid- 19th century.
Beyond this long-vanished city, it is the intelligence of medieval Africa that this renewed history brings into play.