Imagining Musa’s lifestyle in the 21st century. the gold he spent and gave away drew much attention. As he traveled, he built several mosques and gave vast amounts of charity. It was said that he built a new mosque every Friday. Some of the building sites were in Bako, Direy, Gundam, Dukurey and Wanko; many of them still exist today. Musa also stopped in Cairo, Egypt, and met with the sultan there. According to the video Musa I of Mali: The Real Life King Midas, by Biographics, when he arrived, Musa gave Sultan alMalik al-Nasir 50,000 gold dinars (approximately $10.5 million in modern money) as a greeting gift. During his three-month stay in the city, he would go out every day and give gold away to the poor, perhaps donating as much as $1.3 billion in modern terms, according to the video AFRICAN GOLD: The Story of Mansa Musa, the Richest Man in History, by Ancient Origins. Additionally, Musa’s entourage bought goods in the local markets, and when the merchants saw how much they were willing to spend, they raised their prices higher and higher. Then, when he reached the cities of Mecca and Medina, he continued to spend vast amounts of gold. Ultimately,
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there was so much gold floating around in the area that it caused a devaluation of gold for more than a decade in the Middle East. According to the African Studies Center at Boston University, citing the Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History, Al-Umari, a man who visited Cairo years after Musa’s visit, was told the following by a witness of Musa’s visit: This man [Mansa Musa] flooded Cairo with his benefactions. He left no court emir nor holder of a royal office without the gift of a load of gold. The Cairenes made incalculable profits out of him and his suite in buying and selling and giving and taking. They exchanged gold until they depressed its value in Egypt and caused its price to fall. … Gold was at a high price in Egypt until they came in that year. The mithqal did not go below 25 dirhams and was generally above, but from that time its value fell and it cheapened in price and has remained cheap till now. The mithqal does not exceed 22 dirhams or less. This has been the state of affairs for about twelve years until this day by reason of the large amount of gold which they brought into Egypt and spent there.
BAVUAL:
Indeed, Musa’s generosity had accidentally harmed the economies of several nations by bringing down the value of gold, and on the way home, he may have tried to fix the problem by borrowing gold to remove some from the area. It must have been aweinspiring for the people of the time to see Musa’s massive caravan with the vast number of soldiers needed to guard it against bandits and other armies floating across the land and bringing such a vast amount of charity and gifts. The caravan would probably have stretched across the land as far as people could see.
The Return Home When Musa returned home, he brought with him Islamic scholars, intellectuals and architects from various countries. He soon built many mosques and other buildings, including Quranic schools, universities and libraries, some of which were designed by architects he’d brought back from Arabia, Egypt and Andalusia (in Spain). In addition to his palace and other buildings, he made
The African Heritage Magazine
| Winter 2022
