Mansa musa pilgrimage primary source

Running head: KINGDOM OF MALI 1

KINGDOM OF MALI 4

Kingdom of Mali

Ivory D Coachman

National University

February 15, 2019

The primary source, “Kingdom of Mali,” is a scholarly electronic source which encompasses the topic of empires in western Africa. The author is Al-Umari who is cited within the Cambridge University Press in Levitzion and Hopkins Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. The document was written to recount events following the visit of the King of Mali, Mansa Musa to Cairo in 1324 (Boston University, n.d.). Al-Umari who visited Cairo several years later was able to report on how the Sultan was received in Cairo including how treated the residents. The source mainly reveals the level of wealth and powers that sultan Mansa Musa had.

The authors’ main aim for writing the primary source was to illuminate on the visit of the King of Mali in Cairo including the events that occurred while he was there. Al-Umari reports that upon his visit to Egypt, the residents were very willing to share the visit of the sultan Musa during his Pilgrimage where most were awed by his opulence and wealth (Boston University, n.d.). This personal account by Al-Umari gives more credibility to the fact that Mansa Musa was a Muslim hence traveling for the pilgrimage in Mecca and was equally a very wealthy ruler. The author also wanted to reveal the generosity of the Sultan towards his hosts in Cairo. Al-Umari reveals that the sultan gifted every court emir and royal office holder with a gift of gold and that the residents profited immensely from his presence and influence (Boston University, n.d.).

The source’s tone is admiring throughout the essay. The author reveals how highly he thinks of the King of Mali through several words and phrases. One of the sentences is how the author was able to know of the sultan’s opulence, manly virtues and piety from the emir Abu (Boston University, n.d.). The author further adds that the sultan was able to cause the depreciation of gold in Egypt where the mithqal had never dropped below 25 dirhams in value (Boston University, n.d.). The above phrases reveal that the author was utterly awed by the power, wealth and generosity of the King of Mali.

The author seems to be biased towards the King of Sultan. First, his tone is admiring throughout to the end where the sultan’s gold caused the value of the dirham to drop (Boston University, n.d). It is expected that when the value of the currency goes down, inflation goes up which undermines the economy. However, the author views this as admirable instead of damaging to the livelihood of the Cairo residents. The author, however, mainly relies on the reports of others who were physically present during the Sultan’s visit. The author first reports that upon visiting Cairo he immediately heard people talk of the sultan’s visit and most were eager to share their experiences (Boson University, n.d.) One of the stories is from emir Abu who received the sultan who treated him with respect and courtesy and gifted him with some of the gifts he came with together with his entourage (Boston University, n.d.). Throughout the essay, it is Emir Abu who reveals what happened including how the sultan refused to kiss the ground to honor the hosting sultan as well as how his gold flooded the economy of Cairo (Boston University, n.d.).

Based on the reports the author talks about the visit of the sultan and how it affected the economy of Cairo as well as the ambiance it generated. One of the outstanding issues is how the sultan gifted many people with gold and how the vast amounts of gold led to the drop in the value of the mithqal to below 25 dirhams. Overall, the source offers a very personal account of the historical visit of sultan Mansa Musa to Cairo. It helps to make the source very credible given that he obtained information from one of the authorities in Cairo.

References

Boston University.(n.d.). Kingdom of Mali. Retrieved from http://wwww.bu.edu/africa/utreach/k_o_mali/