Mansa Musa and the Mali Empire

Mali takes shape in the thirteenth century on the upper Niger and inherits the trade routes of Ghana, joining the goldfields of the south to the Saharan caravans. Its ruler Mansa Musa sets out on pilgrimage to Mecca with a great train, and on the way stops in Cairo, where he gives away and spends so much gold that its price in Egypt is depressed for years. The tale reaches Europe: on the Catalan Atlas of 1375 the king of Mali is drawn with a nugget in his hand. On his return, Mansa Musa builds mosques and invites scholars to Timbuktu and Gao.