I heard talk of the arrival of Sultan Musa on his pilgrimage and found the Cairenes eager to recount what they had seen…This man flooded Cairo with his benefactions. The Cairenes made incalculable profits out of him and his entourage, buying and selling, giving and taking. They exchanged gold until they depressed its value and caused its price to fall.
-The Paths of Insight into the Kingdoms of Egypt, Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari (1300-1349)
Al-Umari interviewed Cairenes shortly after the Malian King Mansa Musa passed through the city in the year 1324 en route to Mecca, flooding the gold market with his largesse and suppressing its price…not unlike what happened in the Imbaba Camel Market when several Daboukas arrived in the same week and sent the city’s wholesale butchers into a buying frenzy, dropping prices for live camels and wiping out the profits of any merchants speculating on a tight supply. KhairAllah's benefactions were not on the same level as Mansa Musa’s, but his arrival could move the market in the same direction.
-