Musa I of Mali

About Musa I of Mali

Musa I of Mali (c. 1280 – c. 1337) stands as one of history's most influential figures, ranked #244 globally by the Historical Popularity Index (HPI) due to his immense power and unparalleled wealth. As the tenth mansa (sultan or emperor) of the Mali Empire, his reign is legendary, most notably for his 1324 Hajj to Mecca. This pilgrimage was so extravagant that it reportedly disrupted the economy of the regions he passed through, introducing massive amounts of gold into circulation and establishing Mali's reputation across the Mediterranean and Middle East.

Despite this profound global impact, Musa I suffers from a significant modern attention deficit when measured against contemporary web traffic. His Wikipedia page garnered only 17K annualized views in 2025. This places him in a state of severe underattention, as his HPI rank suggests he should command roughly 27 times more attention than he receives. For context, a figure like the politician William Ewart Gladstone, ranked significantly lower in historical importance at #804, captured 414K views in the same year-over 24 times the traffic shown for the wealthy emperor of Mali.

Further illustrating this gap, his online interest is also volatile: the 2025 data indicates a 32% drop in momentum between Q1 and Q3, signaling that this already low level of attention is actively declining year-over-year by 6.6%.