Mansa Musa (1280-1337) was Mansa of the Mali Empire from 1312 to 1337, succeeding Abubakari II and preceding Maghan.
Biography[]
Musa was born in the Mali Empire in 1280 to a Sunni Mande family, and he was appointed deputy of Abubakari II during the king's expedition to the Atlantic. When the king failed to return, Musa inherited the throne in 1312. He distinguished himself by conquering 24 cities and their surrounding districts, and he made his empire the largest producer of gold in the world. A devout Muslim, Musa made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324-25, bringing with him 60,000 men (including 12,000 slaves) carrying 300 pounds of gold dust (worth an estimated $400 billion in 2012, as per Celebrity Net Worth). He used his wealth to feed his entire company, and he distributed gold to the poor during his journey and was said to have built a mosque every Friday. He created a massive ten-year gold recession due to the sudden influx of Malian gold into the Middle East, and he came to control the price of gold in the Mediterranean and put Mali on the map across the Western and Middle Eastern worlds. He died in 1337.