Mansa (title)

Mansa (pl. mansaw) is a Maninka[1] and Mandinka[2] word for a ruler, generally translated as "king".[3][4][5] It is particularly known as the title of the rulers of the Mali Empire, such as Mansa Musa, and in this context is sometimes translated as "emperor".[6]

This article is about the Mandinka word. For other uses, see Mansa (disambiguation).
Depiction of Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire in the 14th century, from a 1375 Catalan Atlas of the known world (mappa mundi), created by Abraham Cresques.

The word mansa (Arabic: منسا, romanized: mansā) was recorded in Arabic during the 14th century by North African writers such as Ibn Battuta and Ibn Khaldun, who explained it as meaning "sultan".[7] Cognates of mansa exist in other Mandé languages, such as Soninke manga, Susu menge, and Bamana masa.[1] According to Misiugin and Vydrin, the original meaning of the root word was probably "chief of hunters" or "chief of warriors".[1] An alternate translation of mansa, which Jansen attributes to the followers of Marcel Griaule, is that mansa means "god", "the divine principle", or "priest-king". Jansen notes that they have not provided their reasoning for choosing this translation.[4]

References
  1. Misiugin & Vydrin 1993, p. 105.
  2. Schaffer 2005, p. 333.
  3. Macbrair 1839, p. 40.
  4. Jansen 1998, p. 256.
  5. Conrad & Condé 2004, pp. xv, 198–199.
  6. Sutton 1997, p. 221.
  7. Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, pp. 289, 333.

Works cited
  • Conrad, David C.; Condé, Djanka Tassey (2004). Sunjata: a West African epic of the Mande peoples. Indianapolis: Hackett. ISBN 0-87220-697-1.
  • Jansen, Jan (1998). "Hot Issues: The 1997 Kamabolon Ceremony in Kangaba (Mali)". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 31 (2): 253–278. doi:10.2307/221083. ISSN 0361-7882. JSTOR 221083.
  • Levtzion, Nehemia; Hopkins, John F. P., eds. (2000) [1981]. Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa. New York, NY: Marcus Weiner Press. ISBN 1-55876-241-8.
  • Macbrair, R. Maxwell (1839). A grammar of the Mandingo language: with vocabularies. London.
  • Misiugin, Viacheslav M.; Vydrin, Valentin F. (1993). "Some archaic elements in the Manden epic tradition: the «Sunjata Epic» case". St. Petersburg Journal of African Studies. 2: 98–111. ISSN 1025-4544.
  • Schaffer, Matt (2005). "Bound to Africa: the Mandinka Legacy in the New World". History in Africa. 32: 321–369. doi:10.1353/hia.2005.0021. eISSN 1558-2744. ISSN 0361-5413. Retrieved 2022-04-13.
  • Sutton, J. E. G. (1997). "The African Lords of the Intercontinental Gold Trade Before the Black Death: al-Hasan bin Sulaiman of Kilwa and Mansa Musa of Mali". The Antiquaries Journal. 77: 221–242. doi:10.1017/S000358150007520X. eISSN 1758-5309. ISSN 0003-5815.

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