MOC: the lost palace at Timbuktu

[oo7]

When Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire, returned to West Africa from his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325 CE, he annexed the Tuareg-Mandinka trading city of Timbuktu and there built a grand mosque and royal palace on the banks of the River Niger.

Part of the mosque still stands today, but the palace no longer exists, and no accounts of its architecture are known to modern scholarship. Thus, I have built this speculative model in the Sudano-Sahelian style of several contemporaneous Malian structures, such as the Great Mosque of Djenné.

The Lost Palace at Timbuktu by Nathan, on Flickr

In the courtyard, Mansa Musa holds an audience with his subjects. This scene, attested by the medieval Arab historian Shihāb al-‘Umarī (c. 1300 – 1349 CE), features a wide ebony throne flanked by elephant tusks mounted on a dais in front of which stand in two rows the lesser kings of Mali and behind which are assembled enslaved Turks and other mamalik brought from Cairo. One slave holds a silk sunshade topped by a golden falcon, while others play West African instruments including a goblet drum called the djembe and a double-headed drum called the dunun.

The photo I've used for the background was uploaded by Ralf Steinberger under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

[Skalldyr]

Very special building you choose there! I really like all the details you put in the minifigures. They all look amazing and really fitting the style. Nice army you have there 

[scroggle]

i like the hat on the woman in the green dress.

[oo7]

Thanks, folks. That head tie, or kufi, on the lone woman is an old technique. I linked a preceding example of it in a comment on this photo's flickr page.

[Littleworlds]

Wow! This is excellent! I remember seeing pictures of a mosque in that style in a book and was utterly impressed. Its built with sun-dried clay, if I remember correct, and has to be refurbished quite regularily. Anyway, I really like your choice of subject (which is a welcome change from the usually europe-centric historic MOCs) and the execution is just wonderful. The authentic architecture, the proper bold colours of the outfits and accessories, the setting of the scene - great work!

 

[oo7]

Thanks! That's right, they're built with sun-dried mud bricks covered in earthen plaster. The palm boughs sticking out the structure provide structural support as well as scaffolding mounts for annual resurfacing of the plaster. And yeah, one of motivations to build this was that I had never seen any Lego models pertaining to precolonial sub-Saharan Africa.

[Gary The Procrastinator]

Now that is a throne!  Well-done, I like the golden falcon above Mansa Musa in particular.

[oo7]

Thank you, Gary. Always nice to receive feedback from you!