Mali isn’t the only geographical phrase in Africa that needs to be clarified. Similarly, the Sudan is not to be mistaken with the current Sudan: the Sudan is an arid territory covering around 2 million square miles (3.2 million square kilometers), roughly the size of the United States west of the Mississippi River. It spans from the Atlantic coast in the west virtually to the Red Sea coast in the east, just south of the Sahara desert. Farming is tough there, yet the region became home to a variety of empires spanning trade routes across Africa during the Middle Ages.
The first of these was Ghana, which is not to be mistaken with the modern-day country of the same name: the modern-day Ghana is located to the south of the medieval Ghanaian empire. In what is now southern Mauritania, the latter was founded in the fifth century. Despite the environment, Ghana’s population were originally farmers, but conquest helped the empire grow: by the eleventh century, the empire had amassed a force of 200,000 men. Ghana grew wealthy in gold, which was so plentiful that the king’s counsellors wore gold-plated swords. The horses wore spun gold blankets, while the dogs wore gold collars. The king, regarded as divine by his subjects, had complete control over the gold supply and grew his wealth by taxing trade caravans passing through the region.
Kumbi-Saleh, Ghana’s capital, was established from two surrounding towns. One of these towns became a hub for Islam, a religion brought into the region by traders from across the desert, while the other remained devoted to the indigenous religion. Muslims did destroy Ghana, but not from within: in 1080, the Almoravids of Morocco pushed southward, putting an end to the monarchy.
Mali, whose name means “where the king lives,” was the next great power in the region. Sundiata Keita (d. 1255) was the ruler of the country, and his biography is so full of mythological elementsfor example, he was deformed from birth but miraculously restored in his twentiesthat it’s difficult to decipher the exact facts of his story. What is known is that Sundiata led his people on a series of conquests beginning around 1235, and founded a capital in the town of Niana. By the fourteenth century, his dynasty ruled over a region stretching from the upper Niger River to the Atlantic, with a population of up to 40 million peopleroughly two-fifths that of Europe at the time.
Mansa Sundiata’s grandson or grandnephew, Musaor rather, Musa, since “Mansa” was a title equivalent to highnessbecame Mali’s ninth ruler in around 1307. Little is known about his early life, though it appears that he was schooled in the Muslim faith.
Musa’s dedication to Islam put him at odds with groups in Mali who practiced traditional African religions in his early years as a leader. The latter were pagan, featuring a large number of gods, the most of whom had some sort of relationship with nature (such as a sun god.) Musa, on the other hand, was mostly able to sidestep the religious conflicts that had afflicted Ghana’s political atmosphere, owing to his status as a powerful ruler and administrator. His soldiers were always on the move, extending Mali’s authority across the area.
The richness of the nation’s gold underpinned that power, wealth that owed something to events far away. Europe’s economy had been sluggish for many years following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476; however, beginning around 1100ironically, in part as a result of the Crusades against Muslims in the Middle Eastthe European economies began to flourish again. This raised demand for gold coins, which drove up gold prices and enhanced Mali’s prosperity, thanks to trade with Arab caravans on the Sahara. The Sundiata Keita dynasty, like the Ghanaian emperors before them, imposed a monopoly on gold supply.
Musa’s reign was marked by cultural advancements as a result of his gold wealth. Musa took an Arab architect with him when he returned from Mecca, and he designed a number of mosques and other public structures. Some of the mosques are still standing today. Musa also promoted the arts and education, and the famous city of Timbuktu became a recognized center of learning during his administration. Professors traveled from as far as Egypt to lecture in Timbuktu’s schools, but they were often so impressed by the scholars’ knowledge that they stayed as pupils. It was thought that of all the products sold in Timbuktu’s huge market, books were the most precious.
Musa set out on his historic hajj in 1324, a pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are required to make at least once in their lifetimes if they can afford it. Musa must have cut a magnificent figure when he arrived at Cairo, surrounded by thousands of advisors and servants clothed in fine clothing and riding horses covered with gold jewelry. Al-Omari, an Egyptian historian, later reported a friend as stating, “This man poured out his charity on Cairo, and there was no one… who did not get an amount of wealth from him. He made untold sums of money for the people of Cairo…. There was so much gold in Cairo that it undermined the currency’s worth.” Indeed, Musa generated an overstock of gold by spending so much of it, and as a result, gold’s value plunged throughout most of the Middle East for several years.
Musa’s status as a leader was demonstrated by his ability to pay to go on the hajj, which required several years. In reality, his forces waged a victorious battle against the mighty Songhai nation to the east while he was away. However, none of his successors proved to be equal to him after his death in 1337 (some sources claim 1332), and following kings found the huge realm increasingly difficult to administer. Furthermore, they were beset by theological and political strife, and by the mid-fifteenth century, the Songhai had broken away from Mali and founded their own state, rejecting Islam in favor of their tribal religions.
What did Mansa Musa have an impact on?
In 1324, Ms I led a pilgrimage caravan to Mecca that had 60,000 individuals and an incalculable sum of treasure. He stopped at Cairo along the journey, and his lavish spending and gift-giving were so comprehensive that the value of gold was diluted by 10 to 25%, and the economy of Cairo was harmed for at least 12 years.
What was the problem with Mansa Musa?
Musa and his caravan passed through Cairo on their way to Mecca, when the Egyptian Sultan, An Nasir, insisted on seeing Musa. Musa originally resisted the pleas, but eventually changed his mind.
The encounter was extremely fruitful: the two sultans formed solid diplomatic relations as a result of it, and the Kingdoms of Egypt and Mali signed a trade pact. Mansa Musa expressed his gratitude by spending a large sum of gold in Egypt’s capital.
However, Musa accidentally caused major problems: he spent so much gold that the value of the resource fell and remained very low for many years, causing Cairo’s economy to collapse.
Not just in Cairo, but also in Medina and Mecca, Musa’s lavish spending produced severe inflation.
Which African royalty induced inflation by travelling to Mecca and paying zakat along the way?
#2 He was the Empire of Mali’s tenth ruler. #3 Mansa Musa’s Mecca journey is legendary. #4 He brought a lot of money with him and squandered it. #5 Inflation in the Mediterranean was driven by Mansa Musa’s excess.
When Mansa Musa handed away gold, what happened?
Musa was a pious Muslim whose hajj pilgrimage to Mecca made him famous throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East. Islam was “an entre into the sophisticated milieu of the Eastern Mediterranean,” according to Musa. He would have spent a lot of time encouraging the spread of religion throughout his realm.
Musa traveled 2,700 miles between 1324 and 1325 on his trek. According to legend, his procession included 60,000 men clothed in brocade and Persian silk, including 12,000 slaves carrying 1.8 kg (4 lb) gold bars and heralds clad in silks who wielded gold staffs, organized horses, and handled luggage. Musa furnished the procession with all it needed, including food for the full company of men and animals. There were 80 camels among them, each carrying 23136 kg (50300 lb) of gold dust. Musa distributed the riches to the destitute people he encountered along his journey. Musa not only donated to the cities he traveled through on his trip to Mecca, such as Cairo and Medina, but he also exchanged gold for keepsakes. Every Friday, it was said, he erected a mosque.
Musa’s journey was reported by multiple eyewitnesses who were awestruck by his wealth and procession, and documents can be found in a number of places, including notebooks, oral reports, and history. Musa is said to have paid a visit to Egypt’s Mamluk king, Al-Nasir Muhammad, in July 1324. Some historians feel the Hajj was more about drawing international attention to Mali’s burgeoning state than about religious devotion. It was “a spectacular display of power, wealth, and unprecedented by its magnitude and pomp,” according to Al-Umari, who visited Cairo immediately after Musa’s voyage to Mecca. Musa made a point of displaying his country’s wealth. His purpose was to cause a ripple, and he was successful to such an extent that he and Mali were included in the 1375 Catalan Atlas.
Was Musa’s entire fortune spent on construction?
Q: Did Musa spend all of his money on construction projects? A: He did a lot of construction. Musa’s construction costs were not the only thing he had to pay for. He spent a lot of time buying at Cairo’s world-famous marketplaces on his pilgrimage, for example.
Who is Mali’s wealthiest man?
Mansa Musa I of Mali, the first king of Timbuktu, may not be a household name, yet he was one of the wealthiest persons in history, with a fortune of roughly $400 billion in today’s money. Musa controlled West Africa’s Malian Empire in the early 14th century, drawing his fortune from his country’s massive salt and gold resources, which once accounted for half of the world’s supply. He built hundreds of mosques across the continent, many of which still stand today.
Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (Nicholas II) of Russia was deposed and executed by the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, with a fortune estimated at $300-$400 billion in today’s money.
He is also the richest saint in history, according to the Independent, following his canonization by the Russian Orthodox Church.
The list of the world’s richest-ever men and they are always males is dominated by the so-called robber barons of 19th and early 20th century America, excluding monarchs, princes, and those who inherited their money.
John D. Rockefeller, the first individual to achieve a net worth of more than $1 billion in today’s money, is sometimes referred to as the richest person who has lived. His fortune was projected to be worth $340 billion in today’s money at the time of his death, accounting for about 2% of total US economic output.
Andrew Carnegie, a steel magnate and Rockefeller contemporary, sold his Carnegie Steel Company to JP Morgan for $480 million in 1901, and went on to make a name for himself through his humanitarian donations.
At the time of his death in 1947, Henry Ford, the inventor of the assembly line and a byword for American business, had a wealth of roughly $199 billion.
Mansa Musa had how many slaves?
Every few years, the title of richest person on Earth appears to ping-pong between tech titans. But, despite their wealth, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates will never surpass Augustus Caesar, who owned all of Egypt for a time, or Song Dynasty Emperor Shenzong, whose dominion once accounted for 25 to 30 percent of global GDP. Mansa Musa, the monarch of the Mali Empire, is thought to be the wealthiest of them all.
If you’re unfamiliar with the name, “Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange Across Medieval Saharan Africa,” a new exhibition at Northwestern University’s Block Museum, will explore Musa’s legacy as part of a new exhibition titled “Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange Across Medieval Saharan Africa.” According to Stephanie Pappas of LiveScience, the show explores the impact of Saharan trade routes throughout the medieval world, demonstrating that, contrary to popular belief, West Africa and the Sahara were home to robust, dynamic, affluent, and artistic societies during that time.
In a press release, Kathleen Bickford Berzock, associate director of curatorial affairs at the Block, says, “The legacy of medieval trans-Saharan exchange has largely been omitted from Western historical narratives and art histories, and certainly from the way that Africa is presented in art museums.”
“Caravans of Gold,” an eight-year project, debunks myths and illustrates Africa’s “pivotal role” in world history through 250 works of art and fragments from West African countries such as Mali, Morocco, and Niger.
A replica of the Catalan Atlas, which was produced on the island of Majorca around 1375 and includes pages portraying the enormous trade routes around and via the Sahara, is one of these objects. It has a Mansa Musa image in the center.
Despite his immense fortune, Musa was unknown to the rest of the world until a pious Muslim trip to Mecca in 1324. Musa traveled with “8,000 courtiers, 12,000 slaves, and 100 camels each carrying 300 pounds of gold,” according to the opening to “Caravans of Gold,” according to Steve Johnson of The Chicago Tribune.
According to Morgan, when Musa traveled through Egypt, there was so much gold flowing that it undervalued the commodity and caused a currency crisis that took Egypt 12 years to recover from.
In current terms, there’s probably no way to know just how wealthy Musa was. People had problems simply describing Musa’s wealth, according to the late Richard Ware of Ferrum College in Virginia, who told Jacob Davidson at Money in 2015. “This is the wealthiest man anyone has ever seen,” Ware explained. “They’re attempting to come up with words to describe it.” He is depicted holding a gold scepter, sitting on a gold throne, carrying a gold cup, and wearing a golden crown. Imagine twice as much gold as you imagine a human being could have; that’s what all the accounts are attempting to convey.”
During the Middle Ages, gold was what made West Africa indispensable to the rest of the world. According to Berzock, the Block exhibition should illustrate “Africa’s significance as a kind of fulcrum in that connection.”
“The push for this commerce to really expand is because of the gold resources and the importance of gold in economies of that period,” she explains. But it also brings with it a slew of additional issues: people move, ideas move, and various materials move. And what the exhibition does is trace all of those things, allowing you to see how these networks truly spread over a large area.”
Musa’s storyand the fact that many people outside of West Africa have never heard of himillustrates how deeply the region’s history and artifacts have been buried through time. “Why didn’t we grasp how significant Africa was to that period?” Lisa Graziose Corrin, director of the Block Museum, wonders. “You know, the richest and purest gold reserves in the world were in Mali and in the hands of the ruler of Mali?”
The show will be on display at the Block until July 21, after which it will go to the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto in September and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in April 2020.