An Andalusian poet and fiqh expert named Abu Ishaq al-Sahili gained favor at the court of the Mali ruler Mansa Musa. He is the most well-known of the academics who immigrated to Mali in the wake of Mansa Musa's pilgrimage from the larger Muslim world.

Al-Sahili is referred to as an architect in many European publications, and he is credited with many significant advances in West African architecture. His contributions to the architecture of West Africa, however, were not substantial. Construction of an audience chamber for Mansa Musa was his only documented architectural project, to which he may have made contributions that were more organizational and aesthetic than architectural.

Al-Sahili is referred to as an architect in various contemporary texts, and many buildings in West Africa, including the Djinguereber Mosque, a royal palace in Timbuktu, and the mosque in Gao, are attributed to him. Al-Sahili was credited with developing what the French colonial official and academic Maurice Delafosse believed to be the Sudanese architectural style, which was based on Maghrebi architecture. There is, however, very little evidence in favor of al-Sahili playing a significant part in Mali's architectural design. The audience chamber in the city of Mali is the only architectural project he is known to have worked on, although his involvement there may have been more organizational than constructive. The sources do not support the claim that he was Musa's principal architect, and other structures that have been attributed to him are essentially based on this assumption. West African architecture emerged mostly as a result of a blend of native growth and subtly infiltrating North African culture.

• Djingereyber Mosque