Mansa Musa's Pilgrimage and the Cairo Gold Crash
The Mali Empire: The Richest Civilization in History — Fexingo HistoryPlay episode
Show notes
In this episode of Fexingo History, we look past the legends of Mansa Musa’s wealth to examine the concrete economic shockwave his 1324 hajj sent through the Mamluk Sultanate. While earlier episodes covered Mali’s internal bureaucracy and the Kouroukan Fouga, here we focus on the external impact of that pilgrimage. We trace Musa’s route from Niani to Cairo, where his generous distribution of gold dinars caused a market crash that took over a decade to heal. Using accounts from contemporary historians like al-Umari and Ibn Battuta, we explore how this single event reshaped the value of gold across the Mediterranean and Middle East. You will learn about the mithqal standard, the specific inflation rates in Cairo, and how the Mali Empire’s presence was permanently etched into medieval geography maps by this act of royal generosity. This conversation connects West African imperial power directly to global medieval economics. #MansaMusa #MaliEmpire #CairoCrash #GoldInflation #Hajj1324 #MamlukSultanate #AlUmari #IbnBattuta #Niani #Dinar #Mithqal #MedievalEconomics #TransSaharanTrade #WestAfricanHistory #IslamicGoldenAge #Timbuktu #FexingoHistory #History Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
