thousand persons, including twelve thousand young slaves gowned in figured
cotton and Persian silk. He took eighty camel loads of gold dust (worth
about five million dollars) to defray his expenses, and greatly impressed
the people of the East with his magnificence.

On his return he found that Timbuktu had been sacked by the Mossi, but he
rebuilt the town and filled the new mosque with learned blacks from the
University of Fez. Mansa Musa reigned twenty-five years and "was
distinguished by his ability and by the holiness of his life. The justice
of his administration was such that the memory of it still lives."[18] The
Mellestine preserved its preëminence until the beginning of the sixteenth
century, when the rod of Sudanese empire passed to Songhay, the largest
and most famous of the black empires.

The known history of Songhay covers a thousand years and three dynasties
and centers in the great bend of the Niger. There were thirty kings of the
First Dynasty, reigning from 700 to 1335. During the reign of one of these
the Songhay kingdom became the vassal kingdom of Melle, then at the height
of its glory. In addition to this the Mossi crossed the valley, plundered
Timbuktu in 1339, and separated Jenne, the original seat of the Songhay,
from the main empire. The sixteenth king was converted to Mohammedanism in
1009, and after that all the Songhay princes were Mohammedans. Mansa Musa
took two young Songhay princes to the court of Melle to be educated in
1326. These boys when grown ran away and founded a new dynasty in Songhay,
that of the Sonnis, in 1355. Seventeen of these kings reigned, the last
and greatest being Sonni Ali, who ascended the throne in 1464. Melle was
at this time declining, other cities like Jenne, with its seven thousand
villages, were rising, and the Tuaregs (Berbers with Negro blood) had
captured Timbuktu.