History

Mansa Musa gave away so much gold on his hajj, he crashed Cairo's economy

In 1324, Mali's emperor Mansa Musa passed through Cairo on his pilgrimage to Mecca with a caravan reportedly carrying tons of gold, which he handed out so freely that the metal's value in Egypt collapsed. Contemporary Arab chronicler al-Umari recorded merchants still complaining about depressed gold prices more than a decade later.

Michael A. Gomez, African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa — Princeton University Press, 2018; corroborated by 14th-century chronicler al-Umari
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