Musa of Mali Characters

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The travelling scholar Musa, who often has more respect for a pretty bathmaid than a powerful nobleman, may be a fictional figure, but his origins, name, and even character are based on real people.
The first of these is King Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire, who lived in the early 14th century. Musa contributed significantly to the spread of Islam across North Africa and the Middle East and to the development of the city of Timbuktu, where he built a mosque and university that still stand today. According to modern estimates, Musa was the richest man in history, with a fortune estimated at the current equivalent of 500 billion dollars.
Our other model for Musa is Ibn Battuta. An Arab scholar and one of the most important travelers and cartographers of the 14th century. He spent nearly thirty years on the road, during which time he covered much of the then known world. He visited countries of North Africa, the Middle East, India, China and Europe, surpassing all of his contemporaries in the scope of his travels. At the end of his life, he dictated his experiences in the travelogue Rihla (Journey).

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