Compare and contrast mansa kankan musa with askiya muhammad ture as rulers of their respective empires

Lecturer: Kankan Musa and Askia Muhammad, a Comparison Introduction In 1443, a son was born of Mohsin Sin and Askia Sino in Fouta Tooro. He was born Mohammed Toure and later came to be called Askia the great. He was an emperor, military commander and political reformer of the Songhai kingdom in the present Mali, West Africa. His empire became the largest country in West Africa and his policies encompassed a rapid expansion of trade with Europe and other far places that made the country equally informed. The empire experienced a cultural revival where he built schools and made Islam religion an integral part of the empire (Gearon).
Earlier on, between 1280 and 1337, another emperor had lived. He was the emperor of the wealthy Mali Empire. With a later reference to this man as Mansa Kankan Musa by the European and Arab scholars, he came to power as a deputy to the then emperor Abubakari II who decided to go on an expedition to explore the Atlantic Ocean but never came back.
Comparison
The first comparison is that the two were Muslims who welcomed the spread of Islam in the kingdom and built mosques everywhere for the people. In fact, Mansa Musa went for pilgrimage to mecca from time to time and when he came back, he ordered that all the five pillars of Islam be observed strictly by all the people. Askia Mohammed on the other hand, during his reign, made Islam the integral part of the empire to be observed by all the people in belonging to this great empire. Mansa came to a level of building mosques every Friday in the week so that all people could embrace the religion.
The second similarity was that these two were traders and had a great commercial mind. Mansa traded his gold widely during his visits to Saudi Arabia and made himself known to the entire king along the way. However, he was not as commercialized as Askia because most of the gold he carried was based on philanthropic aid than exchanging with anything that he would take back to this kingdom. On the other hand, Askia Mohammed was a real trader. He expanded trade far and wide helping him expand the power and viability of his empire.
Kankan Musa has been remembered for bringing order and peace in the empire, promoting trade and commerce. He practically made his empire to be known all over Europe for his use of gold. He developed the Mali Empire and made it an intellectual and economic center through attraction of Arab scholars for trade, religion and development. He also expanded his territory especially on his way to mecca. Similarly, Askia Mohammed expanded his empire from Tangaza in the north, all the way to Yatenga borders in the south. He established a trade zone in his empire by establishing standardized trade measures and regulations. Just like Kankan, he established policies to control the trade routes through his territory (Ohaegbulam).
Contrast
Kankan established everything based on strong Islamic setting as opposed to Askia who, instead of organizing rule along Islamic lines, he organized a combination of traditional system and a bureaucratic government. Secondly, his trade policies were quite open as opposed to Kankan whose trade was based on being a philanthropist and receiving kindness in return.
References
Gearon, Eamonn. ” Empires of Gold.” Historian 113. 6 (2012): 1014-1094.
Ohaegbulam, Festus Ugboaja. Towards an Understanding of the African Experience from Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. New York: University Press of America, 1990.