Mansa Sulayman

Timeline

1. 1337–1340Niani · NianiAfter Mansa Musa's death his son Maghan I acceded, but his rule was unstable. Sulayman, Musa's elder brother of the same mother, built up strength amid court factional struggles and questioned the legitimacy of Maghan's succession; during this period the West African gold trade trunk route and the Timbuktu–Gao caravan road were still maintained by the imperial bureaucracy.
2. 1341Niani · NianiAround 1341 Sulayman launched a coup deposing Maghan I and made himself Mansa. According to later Mamluk historians, his character was stricter and more frugal than Musa's, yet he maintained the system of rewards for subject chieftains and Islamic scholars; the empire nominally continued to control Sahelian trade centers such as Timbuktu.
3. 1342–1360Timbuktu · TimbuktuDuring Sulayman's reign the empire maintained diplomatic exchanges with Mamluk Egypt in North Africa, and the Islamic scholarly tradition of Timbuktu continued. His territory still spanned the middle Niger, but central control over distant chieftains was weaker than under Musa; after his death c. 1360, his successors continued to maintain the imperial framework.