Mansa Musa's journey to Mecca · Grade 8

The passage and its 7 questions

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions in full sentences.

• In 1324 the ruler of the Mali Empire set out from West Africa on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim who is able is expected to make once. Mansa Musa did not travel lightly. Writers in the 1300s described a caravan of thousands of people, including officials, soldiers and attendants, with camels carrying large amounts of gold.
• Where did the gold come from? Mali controlled trade routes linking gold fields in the south with salt mines in the Sahara. Camel caravans carried salt south and gold north to
• North Africa and the Mediterranean. Mali also ruled trading cities along the Niger River, such as Timbuktu and Gao. Taxes on this trade made Mali's rulers enormously rich.
• The journey passed through Cairo, one of the largest cities in the Islamic world. There,
• Mansa Musa and his followers spent and gave away so much gold that its value in Cairo fell. According to the historian al-Umari, it still had not recovered about twelve years later. Al-Umari did not see the visit himself. He collected the story from Cairo residents who remembered it.
• News of the pilgrimage spread far beyond Africa. In 1375 a mapmaker on the
• Mediterranean island of Majorca drew Mansa Musa on a richly decorated map called the
• Catalan Atlas, seated on a throne and holding a large piece of gold. To many Europeans,
• Mali now appeared as a land of fabulous wealth.
• The journey also changed Mali itself. Mansa Musa returned with Muslim scholars and an architect from the wider Islamic world. New mosques were built, including the
• Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu, and the city grew into a center of learning whose libraries held manuscripts on law, astronomy and medicine. The pilgrimage showed the world that West Africa was wealthy, well connected and deeply involved in the learning of its time.
• 1. What is the central idea of the passage?
• 2. What happened to the value of gold in Cairo, and why?
• 3. What does 'pilgrimage' mean in paragraph 1?
• 4. Al-Umari did not witness the visit. How should a historian use his account?
• 5. Copy the sentence that shows Europeans learned about Mansa Musa.
• 6. How did the pilgrimage change Timbuktu?
• 7. State the central idea and explain how one paragraph develops it.