Read the primary source.
"From the beginning of my coming to stay in Egypt I heard talk of the arrival of this sultan Musa on
his Pilgrimage.... I asked the emir Abu... and he told me of the opulence [great wealth], manly
virtues, and piety of his sultan. "When I went out to meet him [Abu said]... he did me extreme
honour and treated me with the greatest courtesy. He addressed me, however, only through an
interpreter despite his perfect ability to speak in the Arabic tongue. Then he forwarded to the royal
treasury many loads of unworked native gold and other valuables. I tried to persuade him to go up to
the Citadel to meet the sultan, but he refused persistently saying: 'I came for the Pilgrimage and
nothing else. I do not wish to mix anything else with my Pilgrimage.' He had begun to use this
argument but I realized that the audience was repugnant [offensive] to him because he would be
obliged to kiss the ground and the sultan's hand. I continue to cajole [persuade] him and he
continued to make excuses but the sultan's protocol demanded that I should bring him into the royal
presence, so I kept on at him till he agreed.""
-Al-Umari, Arab historian writing about Mansa Musa's 1324 visit, Corpus of Early Arabic Sources
for West African History.
Which of the following details in this historical source would be impossible to verify through other
reference materials?
A
C
300
D
B
"his perfect ability to speak in the Arabic tongue"
"he forwarded to the royal treasury many loads of unworked native gold and other valuables"
"the audience was repugnant to him because he would be obliged to kiss the ground and the
sultan's hand"
"he refused persistently saying: 'I came for the Pilgrimage and nothing else. I do not wish to
mix anything else with my Pilgrimage."