A strong empire

For the most part, however, Musa was able to avoid serious conflicts over religion, primarily because he was a strong ruler and an effective administrator. His armies were constantly active, extending the power of Mali throughout the region. Even while he was away on his pilgrimage to

Harsha

Like Mansa Musa, the Indian ruler Harsha (c. 590-647) built a great empire in which the arts and culture flourished. Harsha was similarly committed to a religion that placed him in conflict with other groups around him, and as with Musa's Malian empire, the vast realm controlled by Harsha did not long outlast him.

Fifty years before Harsha's time, the Gupta Empire of India had fallen, just as the Western Roman Empire had fallen before it, and in part from the same cause: an invasion by the Huns. In the aftermath, India was ruled primarily by rajas or princes such as Harsha's father, who controlled a small kingdom in the northwestern part of the country.

Harsha did not intend to become a ruler, but a series of misfortunes in his family forced him into action. First his father died; then his mother committed suttee (ritual suicide of a widow, a tradition in India); his brother and brother-in-law were murdered; and his sister was placed in danger. Eager for revenge against his brother's murderer, Sanaska (whom he never caught), sixteen-year-old Harsha began a war of conquest that would occupy most of his career.

Over the course of thirty years, Harsha subdued the northern portion of India, the river valleys where most of its people lived. Despite the fact that he was a warrior, he had a great deal of compassion for the poor, an outgrowth of his strong Buddhist faith. The latter placed him in conflict with adherents of the majority Hindu religion, but won him many admirers as well, including the Chinese traveler Hsuan-tsang (shooy-AHND ZAHNG; 602-664). The latter's writings are the principal source of information regarding Harsha's career.

In addition to his skills as a conqueror and ruler, Harsha was also an accomplished playwright. Among his plays was Priyadarsika, a clever work using the play-within-a-play structure. Harsha's final play, Nagananda (translated as The Joy of the Snake-World), explores Buddhist and Hindu themes.

Mecca, they captured a stronghold of the powerful Songhai (SAWNG-hy) nation to the east. Eventually his empire would control some 40 million people—a population two-fifths the size of Europe at the time—over a vast region nearly the size of the United States.

The power of Mali was partly a result of Musa's strong leadership, but undergirding his power was the wealth of the

Nation's gold. That wealth in turn owed something to events far away. For many centuries following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, Europe's economy had been weak; but beginning in about 1100—in part as a result of the Crusades, a series of wars against the Muslims for control of the Middle East—the European economy had begun growing again. This growth created a need for gold coins, which drove up gold prices and in turn increased Mali's wealth. Like the rulers of Ghana before them, the dynasty of Sundiata Keita established a monopoly, or state control, over the gold supply.

A woman walks past a mosque in modern-day Timbuktu, Mali, a country marked by extreme poverty. Under Mansa Musa's rule, the empire of Mali was wealthy and powerful. Reproduced by permission of the Corbis Corporation.

Gold wealth in turn spurred cultural advances under Musa's reign. Upon his return from Mecca, Musa brought with him an Arab architect who designed numerous mosques, Muslim places of worship, as well as other public buildings. Some of those mosques still stand in present-day Mali.

Musa also encouraged the arts and education, and under his leadership, the fabled city of Timbuktu became a renowned center of learning. Professors came from as far away as Egypt to teach in the schools of Timbuktu, but were often so impressed by the learning of the scholars there that they remained as students. It was said that of the many items sold in the vast market at Timbuktu, none was more valuable than books.