Mansa Musa Essay

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Mansa Musa was one of the most prestigious and wealthiest emperors of all time. As the emperor of the Mali Empire, Central West Africa of what is now known as Mauritania from 1312 to 1337, Mansa Musa ascended the kingdom into decades of prosperity and stability. During his reign, Mansa Musa conquered immense territories and stretched the Mali Empire from the Atlantic Ocean to the present-day states of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Mansa Musa was best known for his affluent, flamboyant lifestyle filled of over-the-top extravagances and lavish. To this day he is said to be the richest man of all time. Mansa Musa also played a significant role in the spread of education and Islamic Law to the people of Mali. During his earlier years of rule, his devotion to the religion of Islam put him at odds with groups who maintained traditional African religions, but he was able to avoid conflict being …show more content…

But it was Mansa Musa that would make the hajj to Mecca in such an ostentatious manner that it would never be forgotten. According to Al-Umari, “Mansa Musa was accompanied by 100 camel-loads of gold, each weighing 300 lbs.; 500 slaves, each carrying a 4 lb. gold staff; thousands of his subjects; as well as his senior wife, with her 500 attendants.” The trip took Mansa Musa and his entourage through Cairo, Sudan, Egypt, and the Red Sea. He generously distributed so much of his gold to his hosts and the poor that it began depreciating in value nearly destroying the Egytian economy. The Egyptian historian Al-Omari later quoted a friend as saying, “This man spread upon Cairo the flood of his generosity: there was no person ... who did not receive a sum of gold from him. The people of Cairo earned incalculable sums from him.... So much gold was current in Cairo that it ruined the value of the

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