BRIA 18:1 Africa -- The United States and the Barbary Pirates, AIDS in Africa, Ibn Battuta: The Greatest Traveler in the Middle Ages

This Bill of Rights in Action explores issues related to Africa. The first article examines the United States' reaction to the Barbary pirates in the early 19th century. The second article explores the current AIDS crisis in Africa. The final article looks at 14th century Mali and other Islamic lands through the eyes of Ibn Battuta, who traveled throughout the Muslim world.

The American Revolution was barely over before the United States faced its first foreign policy test. What should the United States do about North African pirate states that plundered American shipping?

On September 11, 2001, terrorists struck the United States, killing about 4,000 people. The U.S. president responded by declaring a war on terrorism. He got Congress to authorize using force against any nation, organization, or person involved in the attack or against any nation harboring the terrorist organizations.

When the United States began, it faced another foreign policy test: How should it respond to the Barbary pirates who were plundering its ships?

In the 1700s, the countries along the southern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea were called the Barbary States. They included Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. Named after the Berbers, one of North Africa's native peoples, the Barbary States were little pirate kingdoms that plundered the merchant ships of many nations.

The Barbary pirates were mostly Berbers, Arabs, and other Muslims, but some came from Christian Europe. The pirates used small, fast-moving vessels to capture trading ships and their cargoes. They held the crews and passengers for ransom or sold them as slaves.

Each of the four Barbary States had its own ruler. He was usually a military strongman who had grabbed the throne by assassinating the ruler or murdering rival family members.

In 1662, England made the first treaty with a Barbary ruler. This set the pattern for similar treaties by other European nations trading in the Mediterranean. Typically, a Barbary peace treaty required a nation to pay "tribute" to the pirate ruler, who would then call off attacks on the nation's ships. Tribute usually took the form of a large payment of money plus annual payments. The annual payments might be cash, military supplies, or expensive presents for the ruler. A particular treaty might also include ransom money for the release of a nation's citizens held captive by the Barbary country.

The Barbary rulers frequently demanded that nations "renew" their treaties for even greater amounts of tribute. Until a nation agreed to new terms, its ships remained fair game for the pirates.

The war fleets of the European powers could easily have defeated the Barbary pirate ships. Yet the Europeans agreed to the tribute treaties. Nations like England believed that by paying tribute they not only bought protection for themselves but also redirected the pirates to wreak havoc on the merchant ships of competing nations.

The American colonies traded extensively in the Mediterranean before the Revolutionary War. During this time, British tribute treaties with the Barbary States protected American ships. But after the colonies broke away from England, this protection vanished. Many British believed that the Barbary pirates would eliminate American commercial competition in the Mediterranean. One British official gloated, "The Americans cannot protect themselves. They cannot pretend to [have] a navy."

After finding American commerce in the Mediterranean had almost stopped due to the pirates, the Continental Congress agreed in 1784 to negotiate treaties with the four Barbary States. Congress appointed a special commission, consisting of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, to oversee the negotiations. The following year, Congress authorized a maximum of $80,000 to spend on tribute treaties with all the Barbary States.

In 1787, the United States signed a tribute treaty with Morocco. This proved to be a reasonable treaty, costing the United States a one-time only tribute of about $20,000. Except for a few brief disagreements, Morocco never again harassed American shipping.

Algiers, the most powerful of the Barbary States, was a different story. In the summer of 1785, pirates from Algiers captured two American merchant ships and held the 21 men aboard them for ransom. The United States offered $4,200 for the captives. The ruler of Algiers, called the dey, demanded nearly $60,000. The Americans refused, and negotiations dragged on for more than 10 years.

The two commissioners most involved in tribute treaty negotiations were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Adams favored paying tribute as the cheapest way to get American commerce moving again in the Mediterranean. Jefferson disagreed. He saw no end to the demands for tribute. He wanted matters settled "through the medium of war" and proposed a league of trading nations to force the end of Barbary piracy.

In 1790, pirates from Algiers captured 11 American ships and more than 100 prisoners to add to those already held for ransom. This shocking news produced a serious debate in the newly formed U.S. Congress over the need to build a navy. But it took five years before Congress authorized the construction of six warships.

Finally, in 1796, the United States signed a peace treaty with Algiers. The United States agreed to pay $642,500 plus annual tribute of naval supplies and presents to the dey. In exchange, the dey promised to release of the American captives and protect American shipping. The United States had to borrow money to make the primary tribute payment.

Over the next two years, the United States negotiated similar tribute treaties with Tripoli and Tunis. The treaties with these countries cost a total of $160,000 plus supplies and presents to the Barbary rulers. William Eaton, a former U.S. Army officer who became the American consul (diplomatic representative) at Tunis, disliked the Barbary tribute system. He wrote that "there is no access to the permanent friendship of these states without paving the way with gold or cannonballs; and the proper question is which method is preferable."

Before long, the rulers of Tripoli and Tunis complained about delays in the delivery of the annual tribute supplies. The ruler of Tripoli, the pasha, demanded a new treaty with a much larger tribute. Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to England scrambled to gather expensive presents owed to the pasha of Tunis. One of the gifts was a pair of pistols mounted with gold and set with diamonds.

In May 1801, the pasha of Tripoli canceled his treaty with the United States and declared war on American shipping. Even before he knew that Tripoli had declared war, newly inaugurated President Jefferson ordered a naval squadron of four warships to the Mediterranean. But this squadron did not accomplish much. Nor did a second one sent the following year. U.S. Navy ships did blockade Tripoli harbor, but only for a short time.

Frustrated by the timidity and even incompetence of the U.S. Navy squadron commanders, William Eaton started to work on a plot to overthrow Yusuf Karamanli, the pasha of Tripoli. To seize the throne for himself, Yusuf had murdered his older brother and forced another one, Hamet, into exile. Eaton contacted Hamet and promised him U.S. support in overthrowing his brother. Eaton believed that once on the throne of Tripoli, Hamet would repay the United States with permanent peaceful relations.

A new naval squadron under Commodore Edward Preble arrived in the Mediterranean in 1803. Preble aggressively restored the blockade of Tripoli harbor. But one of Preble's warships, the Philadelphia, ran aground while chasing a Tripolitan vessel. The Tripoli pirates captured more than 300 U.S. Navy officers and crew and imprisoned them. Pasha Yusuf now demanded $3 million for peace and the ransom of the American captives.

Commodore Preble realized that he could not leave the Philadelphia (a frigate with 36 cannons) in the hands of the Tripoli pirates. Fearful that retaking the ship under Tripoli's harbor guns would be too risky, Preble decided to destroy the frigate instead. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur and about 70 officers, sailors, and marines volunteered for what became one of the most heroic actions in the history of the U.S. Navy.

On the night of February 16, 1804, the 25-year-old Decatur and his men boldly sailed a captured pirate vessel next to the Philadelphia in Tripoli harbor. The Americans quickly boarded the ship, overwhelmed the Tripoli pirates guarding it, and set the frigate on fire. Decatur and all his men then escaped aboard their vessel without any casualties. As they sailed out of the harbor, the Philadelphia exploded.

A few months later, Commodore Preble assembled all his warships at Tripoli and bombarded the town and its harbor fortifications. In the meantime, Jefferson ordered a new U.S. Navy squadron to go to the Barbary Coast.

Late in 1804, William Eaton started on his plan to overthrow Pasha Yusuf of Tripoli. Eaton found Yusuf's brother, Hamet, in Egypt. Eaton then recruited with his own and borrowed money an incredible "army" of Arab horsemen, soldiers of fortune, and cutthroats. Eaton, along with Hamet and a handful of American marines, led this band 500 miles across North Africa to Derna, a port town controlled by Pasha Yusuf. With the aid of three U.S. warships, Eaton and his men stormed the town on April 27, 1805, and drove out its defenders. (In honor of this victory, the words: "To the Shores of Tripoli" were put on the Marine Corps' flag and later put in the Marines' Hymn.)

Troops sent by Yusuf arrived to besiege Derna. Much to Eaton's dismay, he received word that Pasha Yusuf had signed a peace treaty with the United States in Tripoli. This ended Eaton's plan to replace Yusuf with his brother.

The treaty of peace with Pasha Yusuf, under the guns of U.S. warships at Tripoli and Eaton's forces at Derna, disappointed many Americans. Yusuf released the prisoners from the Philadelphia and several American merchant ships. The United States still agreed, however, to pay $60,000 for them.

Following the war with Tripoli, the United States ordered its Navy ships in the Mediterranean to return home. Conflict with England was heating up and finally exploded in the War of 1812.

By this time, a new dey, Omar, had taken over in Algiers. He ordered the capture of American merchant ships because of overdue U.S. tribute. President Madison responded by getting Congress to authorize military action against Algiers in February 1815. He sent a squadron of nine warships to end Barbary tribute. Commodore Stephen Decatur (the leader of the group that set fire of the Philadelphia 11 years earlier) commanded the squadron.

After capturing several of the dey's pirate ships, Decatur coolly sailed into Algiers harbor on June 29, 1815. The next day, under the threat of Decatur's warships, Dey Omar agreed to a peace treaty and the release of all American prisons without any ransom payment. In addition, Article II of the treaty stated, "No tribute, either as biennial presents or under any other form shall ever be required by Algiers from the United States on any pretext." Then in an unprecedented act, the Americans demanded that Dey Omar pay the United States $10,000 as compensation for property taken from its citizens. Decatur sailed on to Tunis and Tripoli, where he won similar concessions.

About a year later, Dey Omar wrote to President Madison, proposing a renewal of the tribute treaty the United States had signed with Algiers in 1796. Madison wrote back that "the United States, whilst they wish for war with no nation, will buy peace with none." He concluded that it was the "settled policy" of the United States "that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute."

Divide the class into five groups. Each group should discuss one of the ransom scenarios described below. Each group will decide whether the U.S. government should pay the ransom demanded in the scenario. Finally, the groups should report their decisions and reasoning to the rest of the class.

The worldwide AIDS epidemic has already caused more deaths than the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages. Three-quarters of the AIDS cases and deaths today are taking place in Africa.

About 22 million people in the world, including more than a million children, have died of AIDS since the epidemic began in the early 1980s. Currently, the AIDS virus has infected 36 million individuals, who are likely to die because of its effects. The AIDS epidemic is most prominent in southern and eastern Africa, where about a quarter of the population is infected.

AIDS stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. It is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). HIV is transmitted through blood or other bodily fluid from an infected person. When HIV enters the body, it attacks the immune system, gradually weakening it. Diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) then overwhelm the weakened immune system. These secondary or so-called "opportunistic infections" actually cause the death of AIDS victims.

Unlike most other deadly diseases, such as the bubonic plague, AIDS takes a long time to kill. After a person is infected with the AIDS virus, he or she will not start to suffer the effects of "opportunistic infections" for another six to 10 years. Once this occurs, however, death usually follows in a year or so. Powerful drugs, called antiretrovirals, can help an AIDS victim live longer. But they do not kill HIV. There is no cure for AIDS yet.

HIV is one of the few viruses that have "crossed over" from an animal species to humans. Scientists believe that HIV originated in African monkeys or chimpanzees. They speculate that sometime in the 1930s the infected blood of one of these animals entered an open wound on an African hunter. The virus then spread slowly from person to person through sexual contact. The virus remained isolated in remote areas of Africa until the 1980s, when improved transportation and increased human migration caused the virus to spread rapidly throughout Africa and the world.

The most common way for HIV to be spread is through sexual contact. In some places, like the United States, the majority of cases result from male homosexual relations. Most cases worldwide, however, are spread through heterosexual intercourse. HIV is also spread through infected blood transfusions, use of infected drug or tattoo needles, and, rarely, in contact sports like boxing. In addition, mothers may pass the virus on to their babies during pregnancy or by breast-feeding. The best way to prevent HIV infections is to avoid risky behaviors like unprotected sex and drug abuse.

About 27 million Africans are currently living with HIV/AIDS. All may die of AIDS within the next decade. Why has the AIDS epidemic become so severe in Africa, and what can be done about it?

Many African countries south of the Sahara Desert are very poor. To survive, workers often must travel long distances across national borders to find work. For example, a man may leave his wife in Botswana to work in a diamond mine in South Africa. For months, he lives in a dormitory at the mine. He begins to sleep with women, some of whom are infected with HIV. He refuses to use a condom, which many African males disdain as "unmanly." When he finally returns home, he is infected with HIV and may not even know it. When he has sex with his wife, he passes the HIV to her. If she later becomes pregnant, she is likely to pass on the virus to her baby. In a very real sense, all three are doomed.

Most women in south and east African countries have low social status, few rights, and traditionally submit to male demands such as having sex without a condom. Also, many males with HIV/AIDS persist in believing that if they sleep with one or more virgins, they will be cured.

African societies have strong cultural and religious taboos against openly discussing matters related to sex. This makes it difficult for health clinics, schools, and the media to educate the people about how to prevent AIDS. Until recently, most African countries have been in denial about the AIDS epidemic.

AIDS in Africa infects not only millions of individuals, but also society itself. The stigma of AIDS causes many victims to hide their illness for fear of losing a job or being shunned by relatives and neighbors. Moreover, the relentless funerals of those who have died of AIDS sap the will of the living to have hope for the future.

AIDS affects African economies. It is the young, the strong, and the most productive members of society who are most often struck down by AIDS. Many African countries are suffering from the loss of farmers, skilled industrial workers, teachers, health professionals, business owners, government employees, and university students.

The epidemic in Africa is also producing millions of orphans whose parents have died from AIDS. These orphans have overwhelmed African families, who traditionally take in the children of relatives who have died. Consequently, "child-headed" households and homeless "street children" are becoming much more common in African societies.

African countries have responded in different ways to the AIDS epidemic. Zambia, with 100,000 AIDS deaths and 25 percent of its people infected with HIV, has done little. It doesn't even provide HIV/AIDS awareness education. Uganda, which has a sad violent history, is the surprising success story of Africa in combating AIDS.

Twenty years ago, Uganda started an HIV/AIDS prevention campaign. It consisted of sex education in the schools and an improved health care system. Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has said, "When a lion comes to your village, you must raise the alarm loudly." As a result, HIV infections have dropped from 15 to 8 percent of the population.

South Africa has a large population that is relatively well educated and economically well off compared with the rest of Africa. Yet, HIV has infected 20 percent of its people. South Africa could lose more than 6 million of its citizens to AIDS by 2010. After democracy replaced the racist apartheid system in South Africa, the people were much freer to travel. Tragically, this increased mobility helped spread the AIDS virus to all races, classes, occupations, and locations in South Africa.

The response of the South African government has been mixed. Prevention information is widely available, but the government has been slow to approve certain anti-AIDS drugs. One of these drugs reduces the chance of a mother passing HIV to her baby. President Thabo Mbeki has even publicly doubted that HIV causes AIDS.

In 1997, South Africa passed a law that allowed importing generic antiretroviral drugs that can prolong the lives of AIDS victims. These generic drugs are much cheaper ($600 per person per year) than the antiretrovirals originally developed and now sold by American and European companies ($10,000-$15,000 per person per year).

In March 2001, the American and European companies went to court in South Africa. They sued to stop the sale of generic antiretroviral dugs. The lawsuit claimed that the companies that made the generic drugs violated international patents. These patents granted the original developers of the drugs the exclusive right to own and sell them for 20 years.

The American and European drug companies argued that they had the right to charge high prices to recover the high cost of developing the drugs. To deny them this, they said, would take away their motivation to do further research. They explained that research will be needed to keep up with the ever-changing AIDS virus and to find a cure for AIDS itself. The companies also pointed out that generics sometimes have safety and quality problems.

After many protest demonstrations against the American and European drug companies, they withdrew their lawsuit and cut their prices. At least one company has licensed a South African company to distribute its antiretroviral drugs generically. The drugs now cost from $200 to $800 per person per year in Africa.

This price cut, however, will not solve the problem. Considering the huge number of people involved, AIDS prevention programs and anti-AIDS drugs cost much more than most African countries can afford. The annual health budget for the poorest African countries amounts to about $10 per person. A special U.N. session on the HIV/AIDS crisis was held in June 2001. The nations of the world set a goal of raising $7-$10 billion per year to stem the AIDS epidemic in Africa and the rest of the world.

So far, many countries, companies, and individuals have pledged money for the U.N.'s Global AIDS and Health Fund. The United States pledged $200 million, which Secretary of State Colin Powell called a down payment. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged another $100 million. Even so, the U.N. fund had pledges of only $1.4 billion by midyear 2001. Meanwhile, at a single South African funeral parlor, relatives and friends mourn 50-100 AIDS victims each week.

Imagine that the U.S. Department of State is holding a meeting to decide on its recommendation to the president about what to do about the AIDS crisis in Africa. The three main choices are:

A. Send unilateral foreign aid from the United States to the affected African countries.

B. Let the United Nations handle the problem and increase the U.S.'s contribution to the United Nations for this purpose.

Divide the class into small groups. Each group will role play a State Department meeting on the question of what to do about AIDS in Africa. Each group should do the following:

After each group decides, have the groups report their choices to the whole class and hold a discussion. Close the activity by taking a class vote on the options.

Ibn Battuta traveled further and visited more countries than any other person in medieval times. His final journey took him to Mali, a Muslim empire in West Africa. The report of his travels reveals a vivid portrait of the Muslim world at its height.

Marco Polo was a youthful traveler from Venice who crossed Asia to visit the Mongol empire. While serving at the emperor's court, he journeyed through much of China. Twenty-four years later, he returned to Venice and attained fame by writing a book about his travels.

In 1325, the year after Marco Polo's death, another young traveler, Ibn Battuta, embarked on a tour of Asia and Africa that lasted nearly 30 years. His travels took him throughout the Islamic world. In total, he traveled an astonishing 75,000 miles, much more than Marco Polo. When he finished his journeys, he dictated his story to a scribe. His travel book provides the best eyewitness account of the diverse Muslim cultures of the 14th century.

Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta was born in 1304 in Tangier, Morocco, across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain. He came from a Muslim family of legal scholars and judges. Like them, he studied the Sharia, the sacred law of the Muslims based on the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. This prepared him to become a qadi, a Muslim judge.

In 1325, at age 21, Ibn Battuta left his parents to go on a hajj. This was a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy city of Islam. After traveling across North Africa to Egypt, he took a detour through Palestine and Syria.

By 1300, the Muslims had expelled the last of the Christian crusaders from the Holy Land. The end of the Crusades brought peace to the eastern Mediterranean, which greatly stimulated commerce and allowed individuals like Ibn Battuta to travel freely through the area.

In 1326, he finally reached Mecca. Somewhere along the way, he decided what he really wanted to do was to visit every part of the Muslim world and even beyond. Early on, he vowed "never to travel any road a second time."

In Ibn Battuta's time, Dar al-Islam (The Home of Islam) extended from West Africa across North Africa to the Middle East, Persia, Central Asia, India, and the East Indies. Throughout these regions, Islam unified many different peoples with a common religion and system of law.

After Ibn Battuta studied for a while in Mecca, he left in 1328 to make his way down the Red Sea. He boarded a trading ship and sailed halfway down the east coast of Africa. Muslim merchants had established trading ports in East Africa, mainly to trade for African gold.

Ibn Battuta next traveled north through the Middle East and Persia to Russia and then eastward into Central Asia. The Mongols under Genghis Khan had conquered the Muslims in many of these regions during the mid-1200s. But by the time of Ibn Battuta's travels, a hundred years later, the Mongols had settled down and were rapidly adopting Islam.

Ibn Battuta reached India in 1333. Muslim sultans (kings) ruled most of India. By now, many had heard of Ibn Battuta and his travels. The sultan of Delhi welcomed him with gifts and money, a form of hospitality that he came to expect from the rulers he visited. His fame had earned him wealth. He no longer traveled alone, but with servants and a harem.

The sultan also made him a qadi, a Muslim judge. He held this post for several years. When a rebellion broke out, however, the sultan grew suspicious of many around him, even of Ibn Battuta. Ibn Battuta was briefly arrested. When released, he fled Delhi. But the sultan called him back. Much to Ibn Battuta's surprise, the sultan appointed him as his ambassador to the emperor of China. He set sail for China in 1342, but was shipwrecked. He eventually arrived by sea in southern China in 1346. This was about a half-century after Marco Polo had left China.

The Mongols still ruled China when Ibn Battuta made his visit. Unlike the other areas that the Mongols had conquered, China never became a Muslim land. But Ibn Battuta did visit Muslim merchant communities in China, especially in Hangzhou, which may have been the largest city in the world at this time. He might have traveled to Peking, but never met the ruling emperor.

When Ibn Battuta returned from China by way of India and the Middle East, he encountered the first outbreak of the bubonic plague, the Black Death, in 1348. Surviving the plague, he made another pilgrimage to Mecca and then headed for home.

Ibn Battuta arrived in Tangier late in 1349. He had been away from home for 24 years. He learned that his mother had died of the plague a few months earlier, and his father had died years before.

At age 45, Ibn Battuta had not yet finished traveling. He crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to tour Granada in southern Spain. This was the last Muslim kingdom left in Spain, which the Christians had been trying to reconquer for several hundred years.

One last part of Dar al-Islam remained that Ibn Battuta had not visited--the West African empire of Mali. It lay a thousand miles south of Morocco across "the empty waste" of the Sahara Desert. In 1352, Ibn Battuta joined a desert caravan headed for Mali on his last great adventure.

Mali was known for its gold and great wealth. The year before Ibn Battuta left home to start his world travels, the Muslim emperor of Mali, Mansa Musa, had made a spectacular appearance in Cairo, Egypt. He was on a hajj to Mecca. The royal caravan of the mansa (sultan or king) included thousands of attendants and slaves along with 100 camels loaded with bags of gold. During his stay in Cairo, Mansa Musa spent and gave away so much gold that its market value temporarily fell.

Islam had spread south to Mali many years before. Arabs and Berber peoples from North Africa had begun trading with black Africans around A.D. 800. Soon, large caravans crossed the Sahara, carrying slabs of mined salt to trade for gold in African market towns along the southern border of the forbidding desert. Many Arab and Berber traders gradually settled in these towns as merchants. They were Muslims, and they were the ones who first brought Islam to black Africa.

From their ties with the Muslim merchants, many African rulers and merchants along the lands bordering the Sahara adopted Islam. Most of the common people, though, still held on to their traditional religious beliefs.

Because of the gold trade, several successive empires arose in West Africa south of the Sahara. The Empire of Mali took over this area in the early 1200s and soon adopted Islam as its official religion. Mali included many different African peoples as well as Arab and Berber immigrants. Its gold financed a strong army of bowmen and an armored cavalry. But the real source of Mali's success was its flourishing commerce with Muslim merchants and caravan traders. Africans traded gold, ivory, hides, and slaves for Arab and Berber salt, cloth, paper, and horses. The peak of Mali power and wealth took place under Mansa Musa and his successor, Mansa Sulayman whom Ibn Battuta met on his journey.

Ibn Battuta reached the Mali capital in the spring of 1352. He was pleased that the Muslims of Mali strictly observed traditional Islamic practices and had a "zeal for learning the Koran by heart." But he disapproved that the sexes were not segregated as he was accustomed to in other Muslim lands. He wrote that "their women show no bashfulness before men, and do not veil themselves."

Mansa Sulayman largely ignored him and gave him only small gifts, which greatly displeased the famous world traveler. Ibn Battuta did, however, get to witness an audience before Mansa Sulayman in the palace courtyard. The mansa did not speak directly to the people, but only through a spokesman. Ibn Battuta reported, with some disgust, "If anyone addresses the king and receives a reply from him, he uncovers his back and throws dust over his head and back . . . like a bather splashing himself with water. I used to wonder how it was [that the people the king spoke to] did not blind themselves. "

Ibn Battuta also observed a state ceremony that began with Muslim prayers. But afterward came several dancers, dressed as birds, chanting before the mansa. Ibn Battuta viewed this as an insult to Islam. He did not recognize that the mansa needed to satisfy the common people, most of whom still held on to the old religious beliefs.

Despite his disappointments, Ibn Battuta was impressed that the Mali people "have a greater hatred of injustice than any other people." He related that the mansa showed little mercy to the guilty. "There is complete security in their country," he wrote. "Neither traveler nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence."

Ibn Battuta left the Mali capital early in 1353, heading down the Niger River for Timbuktu. This city of about 10,000 people was never a military stronghold or seat of a king. Instead, its fame rested on its reputation as a city of scholars.

Timbuktu was founded around 1100 as a market town bordering the Sahara. Almost from the beginning, it seems to have been a Muslim town. It was self-governing until Mansa Musa annexed it without bloodshed to the Mali Empire in 1325. Even after that, the city continued running its own affairs with little control from the Mali kings.

Black African farmers and river people as well as white Arab and Berber merchants populated the city, making it an ethnically mixed settlement. It became known as a place open to newcomers and a city of refuge.

When Ibn Battuta came to Timbuktu in 1353, it was becoming the major center of Islamic learning in black Africa. Because it had a large Muslim population and was also on the pilgrimage route to Mecca, the city drew many Muslim scholars. The sons of wealthy Timbuktu merchant families studied under them to become Islamic scholars, too. They studied Islamic religion, law, literature, science, and medicine. Islamic books became expensive import items.

Elementary schools, sometimes supported by rich merchants, taught boys to read and memorize the Koran. Most Muslim males, both black and white, learned to read. (Muslim countries at this time normally excluded females from formal schooling.)

Timbuktu reached the height of its influence in the 1500s as part of the Muslim Songhai Empire, which replaced Mali. Many colleges, elementary schools, and libraries flourished in Timbuktu, whose population had grown to about 50,000. All of this became possible because of the leadership and financial contributions of wealthy black and white Muslim merchant families.

Although the Mali and Songhai kings appointed a governor for Timbuktu, the qadi, or judge, was the real leader of the community. The most important scholars of the city selected the qadi from a few long-established families. The qadi had to be a scholar of the law and above suspicion of ever accepting bribes.

The qadi heard lawsuits argued by legal scholars, who acted as lawyers for each side of the case. He relied on the testimony of witnesses and other types of evidence presented in his court. He made judgments and ordered punishments, which included beating and imprisonment. He enforced his own decisions, calling on the help of his personal followers or the people of the city. He directed a police force made up of lower-ranking scholars. He also represented the Muslim community when the king came to call.

Occasionally, qadis interpreted the law and established precedents. For example, a Timbuktu qadi made an important ruling on slaves captured in war. If they claimed that they were Muslims, they had to be given the benefit of doubt and freed. (Islamic law prohibited Muslims enslaving other Muslims.)

After visiting with the qadi, scholars, and merchants of Timbuktu, Ibn Battuta joined a caravan going north to Morocco. He arrived home early in 1354. This ended his travels to foreign lands. Altogether, he covered about 75,000 miles in 29 years, meeting with 60 rulers in Asia and Africa. He probably had several wives. (Islamic law permitted a man up to four wives at once.)

Like Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta dictated a report of his travels. He then served as the qadi of a Moroccan town and disappeared from history. The scribe who wrote down Ibn Battuta's account of his travels added these words: "It is plain to any man of intelligence that this [learned man] is the traveler of the age."

In the late medieval period, Ibn Battuta traveled through many countries and saw many different cultures. In this activity, students will use their textbooks and other resources to describe the elements of different cultures in the late Middle Ages.

Officers: Marjorie S. Steinberg, President; Jerome L. Coben, President-Elect; Publications Committee: Marvin S. Sears, Chairperson; Gerald Chaleff, Lee S. Edmond, Alice A. Herald, Louis M. Meisinger, Gail Midgal Title, Michael W. Monk, Thomas D. Phelps, Peggy Saferstein, Sandor E. Samuels, Deborah C. Saxe, Lois Thompson, Carlton Varner. Staff: Todd Clark, Executive Director; Marshall L. Croddy, Director of Program and Materials Development; Carlton Martz, Writer; Bill Hayes, Editor; Andrew Costly, Production Manager; Gerald Chaleff, CRF Board Reviewer.

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