Mansa Musa: the Mali emperor whose gold moved markets in Cairo
Seven centuries ago, the ruler of the Mali Empire crossed the Sahara with so much gold that he changed its price in Egypt.
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Bamako — Mansa Musa, who ruled the Mali Empire in the early 14th century, is often called the richest person who ever lived. Historians say there is no reliable way to put a number on his fortune, but those who met him described riches beyond anything they could compare.
An empire built on gold and salt
Musa was the ninth mansa, or king, of Mali, and the empire reached its greatest size under him. It covered about 1.3 million square kilometres, land that today lies in Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania and The Gambia. Its wealth came from taxing the salt trade from the north and from gold mined and panned in Bambuk and Bure to the south. West Africa is thought to have supplied around two-thirds of the gold circulating in the medieval Mediterranean. Archaeologists near Tadmekka have found that Malians developed their own method of refining gold using melted glass.
The pilgrimage the world remembered
In 1324 Musa set out on the Hajj to Mecca with a huge caravan and a vast supply of gold. In Cairo he gave gifts so generously that he is said to have pushed down the value of gold in Egypt, and news of Mali spread across the Muslim world.
He brought Gao and Timbuktu into the empire, built closer ties with the Mamluk and Marinid sultanates, and brought scholars and architects home, helping to make Timbuktu a centre of learning.
Fifty years later, a Catalan mapmaker drew him on a throne holding gold, on one of the most famous maps of the Middle Ages.
Background: Wikipedia.
