Mali empire

Cultural  

1. A huge territorial empire that flourished in west Africa during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Its capital was Timbuktu, which became a center of Islamic learning (see Islam). The empire controlled trade routes that stretched from the edge of the Sahara in the north to forests in the south and that carried gold and other luxuries.

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Example Sentences

Originally colonised as a slave trading outpost at the edge of the Mali empire, it stood apart in its placidity.

From The Guardian • Jul. 21, 2015

Unable to conquer its enemies from without, it finally became the vassal of the Mali empire on the west.

From The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 by Various