历史小径·世界史英语30篇（5）

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批次0001-011：曼萨·穆萨朝圣与西非财富

In 1324, Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire, embarked on a hajj to Mecca.
His caravan included thousands of attendants, camels laden with gold, and scholars from Timbuktu.
He distributed so much gold in Cairo that its value dropped and prices soared for years.
His pilgrimage placed Mali on Mediterranean and Middle Eastern maps for the first time.
He commissioned mosques, madrasas, and libraries upon returning to strengthen Islamic learning.
Sankoré Madrasah in Timbuktu grew into a major center of theology and astronomy.
Trade routes linking gold-rich West Africa to North Africa flourished under his stable rule.
European cartographers soon added Mali and its king to world atlases like the Catalan Atlas.
His reign demonstrated how religious devotion, political power, and economic strength could reinforce one another.
The memory of his wealth shaped European perceptions of Africa for centuries afterward.