Uli I of Mali

Mansa Uli,^[a] also known as Yérélinkon,^[b] was the second mansa of the Mali Empire. He was the son and successor of Sunjata.

Uli I of Mali
Mansa of Mali
Predecessor	Sunjata
Successor	Wati
Issue	Qu
Religion	Islam

Uli was one of the greatest rulers of Mali.^[1] The 20th-century historian Nehemia Levtzion suggested that Uli may have been the first mansa of Mali to extend his rule to Walata, Timbuktu, and Gao, though Timbuktu and Gao are usually regarded as later additions to the empire.^[c]

Uli went on the hajj at some point between 1260 and 1277.^[d]

Uli was apparently succeeded by his brother Wati,^[1] who is not attested by oral tradition.^[3] Some oral traditions assert that Uli was Sunjata's only biological son, though Sunjata may have adopted others.^[3]

Uli had a son, Qu, who would gain the throne during the early 14th century.

Footnotes

1. The Arabic spelling is ولي, which can be read as Walī or Ūlī. Ibn Khaldun reports that the name is equivalent to Ali.^[1] Levtzion has interpreted the name as Walī, which resembles the name Ali more closely, but Conrad has noted that Ūlī is closer to the name Yérélin Kon recorded in oral tradition.^[2] Niane has rendered the name as Oulin.^[3]
2. The name Yerelinkon is recorded from oral tradition. Recorded variants include Yérélin Kon, Dourounin Kon, Jurunin Kon, and Yerélinkong.^[2][4]
3. The primary sources attribute the conquest of Gao to Mansa Sakura or Mansa Musa, and the conquest of Timbuktu to Mansa Musa. They do not record Uli as having done so. Levtzion suggests that control of Timbuktu, and perhaps Gao, would have been necessary for Uli to go on the hajj, and that Mali struggled to keep control of Gao, resulting in the conflicting accounts of which mansa conquered it.^[5] The Timbuktu Chronicles claim that the founder of the Sonni dynasty, Ali Kolon, liberated Gao from Mali and that the fifth member of the Sonni dynasty was ruling during Musa's hajj, suggesting a long period of time elapsed between the initial conquest of Gao and Musa's reign.^[6]
4. His hajj was during the reign of Baibars, which was from 1260 to 1277.^[7]

References

1. Ibn Khaldun translated in Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 333
2. Conrad 1994, p. 363.
3. Niane 1959.
4. Person 1981, p. 632.
5. Levtzion 1980, p. 75.
6. Levtzion 1980, p. 76.
7. Levtzion 1963, p. 344.

Bibliography

• Conrad, David C. (1994). "A Town Called Dakajalan: The Sunjata Tradition and the Question of Ancient Mali's Capital". The Journal of African History. 35 (3): 355–377. doi:10.1017/S002185370002675X. ISSN 0021-8537. S2CID 162273464.
• Ibn Khaldun, Kitab al-'Ibar
• Levtzion, N. (1963). "The thirteenth- and fourteenth-century kings of Mali". The Journal of African History. 4 (3): 341–353. doi:10.1017/S002185370000428X. JSTOR 180027. S2CID 162413528.
• Levtzion, Nehemia (1980) [1973]. Ancient Ghana and Mali. New York, N.Y: Africana Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8419-0431-6.
• Levtzion, Nehemia; Hopkins, John F. P., eds. (2000) [1981], Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa, New York, NY: Marcus Weiner Press, ISBN 1-55876-241-8.
• Niane, Djibril Tamsir (1959). "Recherches sur l'Empire du Mali au Moyen Age". Recherches Africaines (in French). OCLC 2425528. Archived from the original on 2007-05-19.
• Person, Yves (1981). "Nyaani Mansa Mamudu et la fin de l 'empire du Mali". 2: 613–653. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Preceded by Sundiata Keita	Mansa of the Mali Empire 1255–1270	Succeeded by Ouati Keita