Mansa Musa Thesis

Known as the richest man on Earth, Mansa Musa took the famous pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city, Mecca, from his empire, Mali. The journey required trained men as well as skill to protect the king. The pilgrimage proved important to Mali’s great wealth as well as increased awareness to the world of the great kingdom of Mali. Mansa Musa positively and negatively changed the empires he traversed.

On the journey, Mansa Musa traveled with many pounds of gold showing the world his wealth. Musa was the successor of Abu-Bakr and was the first Muslim ruler of West Africa. In order, to start the journey, he brought camels loaded with pounds of gold and thousands of escorts. He would behead those that threatened to steal his wealth. This pilgrimage introduced the world to Mali as one of the wealthiest nations of Africa. Musa proudly showed off his expensive clothes and thousands of slaves. Musa was extremely generous to his followers and offered them lots of gold. In each of these empires, he was capable of controlling the economy

with the amount of his gold. After flooding the Cairo market with gold they went through an economic fall that took around 12 years to recover from. Multiple rulers had taken pilgrimages to Mecca; however none as wealthy as Musa. Individuals from Italy visiting Africa believed that Mali was like El Dorado and informed other Europeans the riches they could find in Africa. This was one of the big factors that made Europe explore Africa.
Along his journey, Musa expanded his empire.

He would build houses all the way from Mecca to Mali depending on the time a city he would visit. While on the journey, Musa captured the capital of Songhai, Gao. Already, his kingdom was so large that his citizens say that it took a year to travel from one end to the other so adding another kingdom increased his power. He commissioned Abu Ishaq as-Sahili, a Granada poet and architect, to build a mosque. Musa also created the first university, University of Sankore, in Timbuktu where individuals all over the world wanted to attend, especially the Europeans and those from the Middle East. He also encouraged trade and commerce in the region. Timbuktu became a pivotal commercial city with its connections to Egypt. The control of Mansa Musa on the region improve the city in every aspect. It attracted visitors from all over the world for its education and riches as well as promoted trade around the

region.
Musa greatly opened awareness of Africa to the world. He did this through wealth and expanding his empire. Europeans believed Mali was the El Dorado of Africa because of all the gold Musa owned. He greatly impacted the areas he was around negatively and positively. In Cairo, Musa’s wealth dramatically changed the economy of the area and it took around twelve years to recover from it. In Timbuktu, he created a university and opened it to trade. All of these changes attracted more attention to Africa.