![]() 32, available online)ĭespite the whitewashing of the image of Mansa Musa on this map, the caption does seem to contain some authentic information about the trans-Saharan trade in gold. (Translation from Chet Van Duzer, 'Nautical Charts, Texts, and Transmission', eBLJ 2017, p. From this is brought a great quantity of gold dust or tibr, and this is a passage through his kingdom, and these regions abound in all the things that there are above the ground, particularly in dates and manna, and the best of all other things that can be had - they only lack salt’. He has with him excellent mathematicians and men versed in the liberal arts, and he has great riches, as he is near the branch of the Nile which is called the Gulf of Gold. ‘This king Mansa Musa rules the province of Guinea and is no less prudent and knowledgeable than powerful. The image of Mansa Musa on this map is accompanied by a caption in Latin which praises him as a ruler and emphasises his great wealth in gold: In Europe, tales of this gold-drenched ruler made such an impression that he was portrayed on luxurious illustrated maps from the 14th to 16th centuries.ĭetail of Mansa Musa, from a map made in Ancona, Italy (around 1529): Add MS 11548 He is sometimes said to have been the richest person in history. In 1324 Mansa Musa made a pilgrimage to Mecca, bringing so much gold with him that it devalued the price of gold in Egypt, where he stopped on the way, for years afterwards. 1312 to 1337), emperor of Mali, whose empire covered an area larger than Western Europe. One account that made it all the way to medieval Europe was of the phenomenally wealthy Mansa Musa (r. Medieval Europeans had little reliable information about West Africa, but they did know that it was an abundant source of gold. Some of it ended up illuminating manuscripts thousands of miles away. From there, the gold travelled with merchants into the Middle East and Europe. From the 8th to 16th centuries, the kingdoms of West Africa were major suppliers and traders of gold, which was carried by camel caravans across the Sahara Desert to North Africa. One of the questions that we consider in our current Gold exhibition is ‘where did the gold come from?’ In medieval Europe, natural deposits of gold were limited so most gold had to be either recycled by melting down older objects or imported by long-distance trade.
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