Middle Ages
Yekuno Amlak and the Solomonic Dynasty of Ethiopia (1270)
The Zagwe dynasty was overthrown and the Solomonic dynasty took power, ruling Ethiopia, with interruptions, until the deposition of Haile Selassie in 1974.
Region
Africa
Middle Ages
Abu Bakr II's Atlantic Voyage: Mali's Lost Expedition (c. 1311)
According to Mansa Musa, the ruler and his fleet vanished at sea, leaving Musa on the throne; there is no evidence that any of the ships reached the Americas.
Middle Ages
Kebra Nagast: Ethiopia's Book of the Glory of Kings
The book gave definitive form to the legend that Ethiopia's kings descended from Solomon and that the Ark of the Covenant rests in Ethiopia, legitimising the Solomonic dynasty for 650 years.
Middle Ages
Husuni Kubwa: The Sultan's Palace at Kilwa (c. 1320s)
A vast palace and trading complex was built for the sultans of Kilwa but was abandoned, apparently unfinished, within a few decades.
Middle Ages
Mansa Musa's Hajj (1324): Mali's Gold Pilgrimage to Mecca
Mansa Musa's lavish pilgrimage made Mali famous across the Islamic world and Europe and brought scholars and an architect back to West Africa.
Middle Ages
Ibn Battuta's Travels (1325-1354): Journeys Across Islam
Ibn Battuta's dictated account, the Rihla (completed 1355), became one of the most important sources on the 14th-century Islamic world.
Middle Ages
Djinguereber Mosque (1327): Mansa Musa's Mosque in Timbuktu
Timbuktu gained its great Friday mosque, which survives as one of the oldest earthen mosques in West Africa and part of a World Heritage Site.
Middle Ages
Amda Seyon's Campaigns of 1332: Ethiopia Against Ifat
Amda Seyon defeated Ifat and its allies, making the Muslim states of the region tributaries of the Christian Ethiopian kingdom.
Middle Ages
Jolof Empire: Wolof Kingdom of Medieval Senegal (c. 1350)
A Wolof confederation dominated the Senegambian coast and interior for about two centuries before its vassal kingdoms broke away.
Middle Ages
Ibn Battuta in Mali (1352): A Traveller at Mansa Sulayman's Court
Ibn Battuta's account became the only detailed eyewitness description of the medieval Mali Empire written by an outsider.
Middle Ages
Catalan Atlas (1375): Mansa Musa on a Medieval European Map
The atlas became one of the most important medieval world maps, giving Europeans a vivid image of West African gold and of Asia.
Middle Ages
Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah (1377): A New Science of History
Ibn Khaldun produced a theoretical introduction to history that analysed society, politics and economics, now regarded as a founding work of social science.