Mansa Musa I was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa from 1312 to 1337 CE. Controlling territories rich in gold and copper, as well as monopolising trade between the north and interior of the continent, the Mali elite grew extremely wealthy. A Muslim like his royal predecessors, Mansa Musa brought back architects and scholars from his pilgrimage to Mecca who would build mosques and universities that made such cities as Timbuktu internationally famous. Mansa Musa’s 1324 CE stopover in Cairo, though, would spread Mali’s fame even further and on to Europe where tall tales of this king’s fabulous wealth in gold began to stir the interest of traders and explorers. Mansa Musa, the Mali Empire’s greatest ever ruler, was said to have spent so much gold in the markets of the Egyptian city that the value of bullion crashed by 20%.
