My Life In Musas Entourage

It was 1280 B.C., when we started the pilgrimage to Muslim, the holy city of Mecca in
1324. Mansa Musa, our leader of Mali, also controlled all part of the modern nations of
Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad.
During the pilgrimage, our leader brought many valuable resources to us all. He brought gold in
which was distributed along our journey. Later in our journey, we were joined by thousands of
wealthy servants and supporters. Musa gave generous donations to the charitable organizations
and to the rulers of the entourage.
When we had stopped in Cairo, Egypt, Musa was giving out so much gold that its value
was slowly declining. As we were on the way to return to Mecca, he brought Arabian scholars,
government bureaucrats, and architects. Architect Ishaq El Teudjin introduced some advanced
techniques to have in use in Mali. He designed many building and palaces-one in which is
Madagou, the mosque at Gao, the second largest city in Mali. This pilgrimage flourished Islamic
education adding mosques, libraries and universities for the early generations to attend and
become very knowledgable. Our journey was definitely worth taking and we changed West
African history just by taking a big step to greater opportunities.