And the reason we know a lot about Mali is because it was visited by Ibn Battuta, the Moroccan cleric and scholar who kind of had the best life ever. He was particularly fascinated by gender roles in the Malian empire and by Malian women, writing, They are extremely beautiful and more important than the men. Oh, it must be time for the open letter. An open letter to Ibn Battuta. I wonder what's in the secret compartment today. Oh, appears to be some kind of fake beard. Movie magic!