The following description of the visit to Cairo in 1324 by the King of Mali, Mansa Musa, was written by Al-Umari, who visited Cairo several years after the Mansa Musa\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n
From the beginning of my coming to stay in Egypt I heard talk of the arrival of this sultan Musa on his Pilgrimage and found the Cairenes eager to recount what they had seem of the Africans\u2019 prodigal spending.\u00a0 I asked the emir Abu\u2026and he told me of the opulence, manly virtues, and piety of his sultan.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I went out to meet him {he said} that is, on behalf of the mighty sultan al-Malik al-Nasir, he did me extreme honour and treated me with the greatest courtesy.\u00a0 He addressed me, however, only through an interpreter despite his perfect ability to speak in the Arabic tongue.\u00a0 Then he forwarded to the royal treasury many loads of unworked native gold and other valuables.\u00a0 I tried to persuade him to go up to the Citadel to meet the sultan, but he refused persistently saying: \u201cI came for the Pilgrimage and nothing else.\u00a0 I do not wish to mix anything else with my Pilgrimage.\u201d\u00a0 He had begun to use this argument but I realized that the audience was repugnant to him because he would be obliged to kiss the ground and the sultan\u2019s hand.\u00a0 I continue to cajole him and he continued to make excuses but the sultan\u2019s protocol demanded that I should bring him into the royal presence, so I kept on at him till he agreed.<\/p>\n
When we came in the sultan\u2019s presence we said to him: \u2018Kiss the ground!\u2019 but he refused outright saying: \u2018How may this be?\u2019\u00a0 Then an intelligent man who was with him whispered to him something we could not understand and he said: \u2018I make obeisance to God who created me!\u2019 then he prostrated himself and went forward to the sultan.\u00a0 The sultan half rose to greet him and sat him by his side.\u00a0 They conversed together for a long time, then sultan Musa went out.\u00a0 The sultan sent to him several complete suits of honour for himself, his courtiers, and all those who had come with him, and saddled and bridled horses for himself and his chief courtiers\u2026.<\/p>\n
This man [Mansa Musa] flooded Cairo with his benefactions.\u00a0 He left no court emir nor holder of a royal office without the gift of a load of gold.\u00a0 The Cairenes made incalculable profits out of him and his suite in buying and selling and giving and taking.\u00a0 They exchanged gold until they depressed its value in Egypt and caused its price to fall.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n
Gold was at a high price in Egypt until they came in that year.\u00a0 The mithqal did not go below 25 dirhams<\/em> and was generally above, but from that time its value fell and it cheapened in price and has remained cheap till now.\u00a0 The mithqal does not exceed 22 dirhams<\/em> or less.\u00a0 This has been the state of affairs for about twelve years until this day by reason of the large amount of gold which they brought into Egypt and spent there. \u2026<\/p>\n Questions:<\/em><\/p>\n Selected by Dorian Bowman, Winsor School<\/p>\n Al-Umari cited in Levitzion and Hopkins Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History (Cambridge University Press 1981) pp. 269-273.<\/p>\n\n