Who is the richest person in human history?
The man richer than Augustus Caesar was the wealthiest man who ever lived on Earth.
With his meaningless wealth, this man gave away gold and silver to all the poor and miserable people he met.
We are talking about Mansa Musa, the king of the Mali Empire, who ruled West Africa from 1312 until his death in 1337. During his reign on the throne, Musa amassed a fortune
Perhaps the wealth of the Mali Empire came from natural gold mines in West Africa.
If King Musa’s wealth is estimated at the current exchange rate, he once owned a fortune twice that of Jeff Bezos, equivalent to more than 400 billion USD.
A legendary character but little known
King Musa was born in 1280 in the Mali Empire.
Musa himself later participated in such a legendary pilgrimage, which wrote his name into history – a history not well known outside of Africa.
Kathleen Berzock, curator of Caravans of Gold, an exhibition that aims to showcase the role of medieval West African states and their impact on the global economy and culture, said:
Before the pilgrimages of Abu-Bakr and Musa, West African history was an unknown mystery.
For example, Mali was once an extremely rich and prosperous empire, a commercial and cultural center whose influence spanned both the Sahara and West Africa, spreading to the Middle East and even the East.
Stretching 3,200 km from the Atlantic coast, the area of the Mali Empire was as large as nine present-day African countries combined, including Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger
During his reign, King Musa had great success in expanding his empire three times.
Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu was built by Musa in 1327 after his pilgrimage to Mecca.
In fact, Musa was an ambitious king.
The most famous of them were the mines of pure gold, the most valuable metal in the world at that time.
`Mansu Musa ruled a country that possessed large gold reserves,` Berzock said.
`I don’t know if you want to call it a ‘tax’ or not, the tributes you had to pay the king were probably very different at the time. But there is no doubt that Musa was paid tribute
The 14th century was a time when European nations were struggling with civil war and resource shortages.
According to estimates by the British Museum, during Musa’s reign, the Mali Empire possessed nearly half of the gold reserves of the Old World (lands known to Europeans before Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas).
The pilgrimage went down in history, dominating the Egyptian market
Despite his wealth, Musa’s fame only became known after he made a pilgrimage to the legendary holy city of Mecca in 1324. It was a calculated trip for Musa.
According to the documents of Ibn Faḍl Allah al-Umarī (1301-1349), an Arab scholar and historian who lived at the same time as King Musa in Egypt, the scale of the 1324 pilgrimage of the Mali Empire was extremely large
He also built long trains just to carry cattle, goods and of course a large amount of wealth including gold and gold.
Ibn Khaldun, a historian at that time, asked one of the participants in Musa’s pilgrimage and was told: `Every time he stopped, Musa entertained his entourage with foods and sweets.
Arriving in Cairo, he immediately showed everyone his arrogance.
Historians estimate that Musa’s pilgrimage spent a total of 12.3 tons of gold.
During his time in Cairo, King Musa spent very generously.
Historians estimate that Musa’s pilgrimage spent a total of 12.3 tons of gold, leading to devaluation across the Middle East, causing about $1.5 billion in damage to the economy during this period.
According to Al-Umari’s writings, King Musa spent all his gold in Egypt, but when it ran out, he continued to borrow from Cairo merchants to spend.
Returning from Mecca, Musa brought back several Muslim scholars including a descendant of the prophet Muhammad, a poet and the architect Abu Es Haq es Saheli.
Not only flaunting his wealth, King Musa is credited with building many of the most elaborate mosques in history, some of which still exist today.
In 1337, after 25 years of ruling the Mali Empire, King Musa died at the age of 57 and passed the throne to his son, Mansa Maghan.
At the end of the 14th century, the lands of Mali were gradually occupied by the Songhay empire.
Synthetic