Trivia: Richest Man in the History of Mankind
They say, Money cannot buy Happiness. And while that age-old adage may definitely be true, Money does have the capacity to buy you fame.
Don’t believe me? Feel free to ask countless personalities like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, Amancio Ortega, Mukesh Ambani, etc. who seem to be consistently and vehemently involved in the seemingly-eternal tussle for holding the titles for the richest men in the world.
While all of the above individuals are strong contenders for the “Financial Heavyweight Championship” as far as contemporary times go, there is another gentleman, who would be laughing in his grave looking at all of these “mere mortals” fight for the ultimate glory – the title of the richest man in the history of mankind! In fact, would you believe me if I told you that this individual has not been usurped by anyone for nearly 700 years now!!!
Lo and Behold! I present to you, the King of Kings, Former Ruler of the Mali Empire, Mansa Musa – the Richest Man in the History of Mankind!
(Source: allafrica.com)
While it is easy for us to measure the wealth of our current “everyday” billionaires in modern terms, Mansa was leagues ahead of everyone – so much so that it is hard to even amass the extent of his wealth. As per Jacob Davidson for money.com, Mansa was “richer than anyone could describe”. Rudolph Butch Ware from the University of California, meanwhile, has described Mansa’s wealth in the following golden words: “Contemporary accounts of Musa’s wealth are so breathless that it’s almost impossible to get a sense of just how wealthy and powerful he truly was.”
So how rich was Mansa Musa in reality? Well, accounts of historians from the 14th century A.D. (the time when the King and his empire was in existence) claim that Mansa’s habits led to the destruction of the entire Egyptian economy! How? Well, here goes the story…
Mansa, who was born sometime around the year 1280, was one of the greatest rulers of the Mali Empire. Under his reign, his kingdom grew to stretch over 2000 miles in span, covering a number of present-day African nations, including parts of Mali, Senegal, Niger, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, to name a few. And what was the biggest advantage of all this? Unlimited claim over large reservoirs of gold – an Alchemist’s dream!
While on one hand Mansa was a ruthless conqueror, on the other hand he was also an intelligent and astute ruler who was well-versed in the intricacies and importance of trade relations (a sizeable chunk of which consisted of slave and ivory trading) – a quality that enabled him to build upon his already overflowing coffers of wealth.
Along with all of the above, Mansa was also a devout Muslim, who, around the 12th year of his reign, decided to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. On the way, he and his entourage (take a deep breath here) – that consisted of a caravan of 60,000 men (his entire court and officials, countless soldiers, storytellers, musicians, merchants, slaves), goats, sheep, and loads and loads of gold – passed through the unforgiving Sahara Desert and Egypt. It is said that hundreds of camels formed part of this entourage of his, with each of those camels laden with hundreds of pounds of pure gold!
Now, for all his qualities, Mansa was also extremely generous when it came to giving away gifts – so much so that his nature could be even described as a folly. In the end it was the great country of Egypt that bore the brunt of his opulence and generosity. During his three-month stay at the ancient country, Mansa handed out so much gold that it led to a massive downfall in the price of gold in the region for (wait for it)…10 YEARS! Naturally, as you would have understood by now, this destroyed the economy of the region.
However, remember when we were talking about the generous nature of Mansa Musa – while returning from his pilgrimage, he once again stopped in Egypt and tried his level best to revive the fallen economy by borrowing the same gold, that he had donated them, at exorbitant rates.
So, apart from giving away gold to innocent bystanders out of the blue, what else did Mansa Musa do with all his wealth? Well, legend says that he built mosques…and a great deal of them. In fact, it is said that he used to build a mosque EVERY FRIDAY!
A picture of the Djingareyber (Djinguereber) Mosque in Timbuktu, which was commissioned to be designed by Abu Ishaq Al Saheli for a fee of “merely” 200 kg of gold (he must have been quite a designer)!
In addition to this, Mansa also built a number of schools and universities across his kingdom. It comes as no surprise that during his time, the Mali Empire kissed the zenith of its opulence and prosperity.
Mansa Musa ruled his empire for around 25 years, before passing away around 1337 at the age of 57. His successors, meanwhile, were unable to match the unbridled levels of economic prosperity that were achieved by him, which have etched his name in the sands of time.
While extremely conservative estimates have pegged Mansa’s wealth at around $400 billion in today’s terms, most people agree that it is impossible to assign a number to his net worth – and that is definitely saying something, especially as the next person on this enviable list of richest men in the history of mankind is Augustus Caesar, with an estimated net worth of around $4.6tn (£3.5tn). And yes, “tn” means “TRILLION”! And yes, that means that puny figure of $400 billion is definitely way off a realistic estimate.