Mali and Mansa Musa
An emperor's pilgrimage spends so much gold it depresses Egyptian prices for a decade.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 165 years
- Known to
- ± 10 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
Mali succeeds Ghana under Sundiata around 1235, and reaches its height under Mansa Musa, whose hajj in 1324 passed through Cairo distributing gold on a scale that reportedly disrupted its value there for years. Musa returned with scholars and architects, and Timbuktu became a centre of learning with the Sankore madrasa and a manuscript culture producing tens of thousands of books. Mali appears on the 1375 Catalan Atlas with Musa holding a gold nugget.