Informative and entertaining I chose to read this as I have long been fascinated by Mansa Musa and the Mali Empire。 The book does a good job of not only setting the scene but also for explaining details that I did not previously know。 The writing style is relaxed and easy to follow with helpful word translations。 The book starts with pre-empire， walks you through the beginning of the empire， how it was formed， how it evolved and grew over time and it’s eventual decline。 Something that I think wo Informative and entertaining I chose to read this as I have long been fascinated by Mansa Musa and the Mali Empire。 The book does a good job of not only setting the scene but also for explaining details that I did not previously know。 The writing style is relaxed and easy to follow with helpful word translations。 The book starts with pre-empire， walks you through the beginning of the empire， how it was formed， how it evolved and grew over time and it’s eventual decline。 Something that I think would have been good to include is what the present day country of Mali is， how different it is from the empire and why it shares the same name。 。。。more