THE WORLD’S RICHEST MAN – MUSA IN CAIRO
Abubakr, mansa of Mali, probably never reached America.* ‘That was the last we saw of him,’ said his nephew Musa, ‘and so I became king in my own right.’ The twenty-five-year-old Musa, great-nephew of Sundiata, now mansa, may have assassinated his uncle; but, whatever happened, he started to expand, conquering ‘twenty-four towns’. As a devout Muslim the enslavement of fellow Muslims was banned. Instead the mansa ‘wages a permanent holy war against the pagans of Sudan who are his neighbours’, capturing numerous prisoners who were promptly enslaved. There were hints that Musa may have killed his own mother, perhaps an accident which encouraged him to make a hajj: he asked his lawyers what he could do to earn Allah’s forgiveness. Musa planned a grandiose pilgrimage to Mecca via the greatest city of Islam, Cairo, setting off with an entourage of 20,000 courtiers (some sources claim 60,000), numerous soldiers, 14,000 female slaves and 500 male slaves. ‘Each of the slaves,’ wrote al-Sadi of Timbuktu, ‘bore in his hand a staff fashioned from 500 mithqals of gold [five pounds].’ Camels carried ‘100 loads of gold’. While north Africa was in chaos, the Mamluk sultan, al-Nasir Muhammad, son of Qalawun, was at the height of his prestige, ruler of Egypt, Israel, Syria, Mecca and Medina, yet even the Cairenes were dazzled by the splendours of Musa – and could not wait to relieve him of as much gold as possible. As he approached, Musa sent 50,000 dinars of gold as a present to al-Nasir, who then received him in his palace in Saladin’s Citadel where the mansa ‘refused to kiss the ground’.
‘I don’t prostrate myself before anyone but God,’ Musa said, at which al-Nasir ‘excused him’ and they sat together as equals – the greatest of sultans and the greatest of mansas, the former the son of a slave, the latter a descendant of kings.
Spending a year in Cairo, Musa ‘and his followers bought all kinds of things, they thought their money was inexhaustible’. But the Egyptians systematically bilked the Malians. Musa spent such quantities that the gold market collapsed. During conversations with Egyptian luminaries, he discussed the strange oceanic death of his predecessor and the source of his family’s incredible wealth. After making the hajj, Musa had to borrow to maintain his style on the way home. Most of his slaves died en route, so he bought Turkic, Slavic and Ethiopian replacements, 12,000 of them, whom he took back to west Africa.
Back home, Musa annexed the ancient trading cities of Jenne, Gao and Timbuktu. In the latter city he used his new Andalusian architect al-Sahali to build the Djinguereber Mosque (made of earth) and the Sankoré madrasa (both still stand), as well as the mansa’s palace. Musa and his successors held court in a domed pavilion, guarded by 300 archers and lancers, announced by trumpets and drums. All of this was observed by the sharp eye of a pilgrim from Morocco who made his hajj, passing through Cairo around the same time as Musa: Ibn Battuta then embarked on an incredible journey that saw him meeting the khan of the Golden Horde, serving a psychopathic sultan of Delhi* and bumping into Moroccan friends in Mongol China. After narrowly surviving robberies, tragedies and assassinations, he helped rule the Maldives, where he got married. Everywhere in Asia and Africa, he encountered slavery and enjoyed its benefits – collecting and jettisoning slaves, wives, lovers, their qualities lovingly chronicled.*
When he visited Mali under the Keita dynasty, he was impressed by the magnificence of the mansas, yet ready to lecture the Malians on their relaxed approach to female freedom: women sat chatting freely without confinement to any harem or face covering, while their slave girls and daughters ‘appear naked before them, exposing their genitals’.
On his return, the king of Fez ordered him to write his memoirs. Perhaps the greatest travel book, A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling is an account of the 117,000 miles he had travelled. Marco Polo had managed only 12,000 but he was about to write the other great travel book of its time.
