The effects, impressions and lessons of Haj on individuals and nations are so numerous, deep and far-reaching that they defy calculation or measurement. Princes and paupers have made this once-in-a-lifetime journey, facing all odds, with humility, piety, generosity and sincerity. One such was Mansa Musa, also called Kankan Musa, the King of Mali, who performed the Haj in 1324. Rulers of West African States had made pilgrimages to Makkah before Mansa (which means king) Musa, but the effect of his journey spread well beyond the African continent, stimulated a desire among kingdoms of North Africa, and among many European nations in the incredible wealth of Mali and the religion that makes a person, even a king, so humble, generous, just and pious.It was the pilgrimage that awakened the world to the richness and humanity of Islam, as well as the wealth of Mali. Whereas Haj has always remained mapped in the hearts and minds of Muslims, it has also put nations on the map of the world. Following Mansa Musa's pilgrimage, Mali appeared on a ‘Map of the World' in 1339 and in 1367, another map of the world showed a road leading from North Africa through the Atlas Mountains into the Western Sudan. In 1375, a third map of the world showed a richly attired Musa, seated on a throne in the center of West Africa, holding a nugget of gold in his right hand. He always encouraged the development of learning and the expansion and growth of Islam. In the early years of his reign, he had sent Sudanese scholars to study at Moroccan universities, and by the end of his reign, they were setting up their own centers of learning in Timbuktu. He was a devout Muslim who strengthened Islam and promoted education, trade and commerce in Mali. On his Haj journey, accompanied by his senior wife, thousands of his subjects, and 500 attendants, Musa traveled from his capital of Niani on the Upper Niger River to Walata (Oualata, Mauritania) and on to Tuat (now in Algeria) before making his way to Cairo, which was ruled by one of the greatest of the Mamluk sultans – Al-Malik Al-Nasir, who received Musa with great respect as a fellow Muslim. Musa's generosity and piety, and exemplary behavior of his followers, did not fail to make a favorable impression. So lavish was the king in spending for charitable causes that he flooded the Cairo market with gold, thereby causing such a decline in the yellow metal's value that, some 12 years later, the market had still not fully recovered. The Arab historian, Al-Umari, who visited Cairo 12 years later after the king's visit, found the inhabitants of the city, with a population estimated at one million, still singing the praises of Musa. Al-Umari noted that the king “gave out so much gold” that he ran out of money and had to borrow for the return trip. Moreover, it “depressed the value of gold in Egypt and caused its value to fall.” It may be noted that as a result of the pilgrimage, trade between Egypt and Mali flourished. According to Al-Umari, Musa traveled with camel-loads of gold, each weighing 300 pounds. Moreover, each one of the 500 attendants carried a four-pound gold staff. All the gold amounted to more than 12 tons. According to Prof. Dr. Sano Koutoub Moustafa, director of international relations and promotions, Office of the Rector, International Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Musa's journey had a lot of impact. “Upon his return, almost the entire kingdom became Muslim. This was the religion where they could find such a king who performed Haj in such a humble, pious, and generous manner, spreading material and spiritual knowledge and riches,” he said. Musa had had brought with him from Makkah Abu Ishaq Ibrahim Al-Sahili, also known as Al-Tuwaijin, a Granada poet and architect, and commissioned him to build mosques. The Gao mosque, built of burnt bricks, which had not until then, been used as a material for building in West Africa, was still being admired as late as the 17th century. Al-Sahili helped turn Timbuktu into a famous city of Islamic scholarship. Ibn Batuta mentions the grave of Al-Sahili in Timbuktu. Musa also brought back with him many Arab scholars and books. He set out to build magnificent mosques, vast libraries, and madrasas (Islamic universities) throughout his kingdom, which was so vast that Musa was reported to have observed that it would take a year to travel from one end of his empire to the other. Al-Sahili built the great mosques at Gao and Timbuktu, and a royal palace. His most famous work was the chamber at Niani. It is said that his style influenced architecture in the Sudan, where, in the absence of stone, the beaten earth is often reinforced with wood, which bristles out of the buildings. The Djingareyber Mosque in Timbuktu, which Al-Sahili was commissioned to build, immediately became the central mosque of the city, and it dominates Timbuktu to this day. It consists of nine rows of square pillars and provides prayer space for 2,000 people. The mosque's mud construction established a 660-year-old tradition that still persists – each year, before torrential rains fall in the summer, Timbuktu's residents re-plaster the mosque's high walls and flat roof with mud.Under Musa' patronage, Timbuktu grew in wealth and prestige, and became a meeting place of the finest poets, scholars, and artists of Africa and the Middle East. It became a cultural center not only of Africa but also of the entire world. During his reign, Timbuktu thrived as a commercial center and flourished into a hub of Islamic learning. Even after the Kingdom of Mali lost control over the region in the fifteenth century, Timbuktu remained the major Islamic center of sub-Saharan Africa. Scholars who were mainly interested in history, Quranic theology, and law were to make the mosque of Sankore in Timbuktu a teaching center and lay the foundation of the University of Sankore. Moustafa said, “The first Islamic university in the world is neither the one in Cairo nor the one in Tunisia. It is the one, which was in Timbuktu, built by Mansa Musa.” The organsation and smooth administration of a purely African empire, the founding of the University of Sankore, the expansion of trade in Timbuktu, the architectural innovations in Gao, Timbuktu, Niani, and indeed, throughout Mali, and in the subsequent Songhai Empire, are all testimony to Musa's superior administrative skills. In addition, the moral and religious principles he had taught his subjects, endured after his death, probably in 1332. Mali achieved the apex of its territorial expansion under Musa. The Kingdom of Mali extended from the Atlantic coast in the west to Songhai far down the Niger bend to the east: from the salt mines of Taghaza in the north to the legendary gold mines of Wangara in the south. Besides good governance, Musa had set an example for his people to lead a just, simple, and honest life. Writing about the people and the country, Ibn Batuta, who visited Mali for nearly eight months between 1352-53, says, “Among their good practices are their avoidance of injustice, ... the universal security in their country, ... and their punctiliousness in praying and compelling their children to do so. They dress in clean white clothes on Fridays; if one of them has only a threadbare shirt, he washes it and cleans it and wears it for Friday prayers. They also pay great attention to memorizing the Holy Quran.” __
