Islam in Africa and Asia: Mali, the Mughals and Indonesia

Islam's spread beyond the Middle East took many local forms. In West Africa, Muslim merchants crossing the Sahara brought Islam to the courts of Ghana, Mali and Songhai. Mansa Musa of Mali made a famous hajj in 1324, spending so much gold in Cairo that he reportedly depressed its value, and Timbuktu became a center of Islamic scholarship with libraries of manuscripts. In South Asia, Muslim rule culminated in the Mughal Empire (1526–1857); the emperor Akbar (r.

1556–1605) abolished the jizya on non-Muslims and hosted debates among scholars of different faiths, while later rulers such as Aurangzeb pursued more orthodox policies, a contrast historians debate. In Southeast Asia, Islam spread through Indian Ocean trade and Sufi teachers, especially from the 13th century, blending with local traditions in Java and Malaysia. These cases show that Islam became a world civilization by interacting with many cultures, not by a single model.