Mansa Musa: The man who was richer than Elon Musk back in his time - HT School (2024)

FAQs

How did Mansa Musa become the richest man in history? ›

Mansa Musa inherited a kingdom that was already wealthy, but his work in expanding trade made Mali the wealthiest kingdom in Africa. His riches came from mining significant salt and gold deposits in the Mali kingdom.

Mansa Musa ruled over the Mali empire in the 14th Century, and his incredible access to gold made him arguably the richest human to have ever lived. So, why is it that he has largely disappeared from the western historical imagination?

Key Takeaways. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is the richest person and the richest man in the world with a net worth of $239 billion. After Musk is Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. Other billionaires with some of the largest net worths include LVMH's Arnault, Microsoft's Bill Gates, and Oracle's Larry Ellison.

After Elon Musk and Gautam Adani, NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang, Indonesian mogul Prajogo Pangestu, French businessman Bernard Arnault, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg come next as prospective trillionaires.

In November 2021, Musk became the first person to have a net worth of more than $300 billion.

Top 10 Richest Persons In the World by September 2024

As of September 2024, Elon Musk, with a remarkable net worth of $247.2 billion, holds the title of the richest man in the world, followed by Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Bernard Arnault & Family.

With his lavish spending and generosity in Cairo, (Mansa Musa) ran out of money and had to borrow at high rates of interest for the return journey. Ibn Battuta says that Mansa Musa borrowed 50,000 dinars from Siraj al-Din ibn al-Kuwayk, a rich merchant from Alexandria, after he had spent all his wealth.

A trillion is such a huge number, followed by twelve zeros. That is one thousand times a billion (nine zeros followed by 1). Do you know that only 6 trillionaires ever lived on the face of earth?

How rich was Mansa Musa today? ›

He was the first African ruler to be famous in all of Europe and the Middle East. Historians say he was the richest person to have ever lived. Today, his wealth would be worth more than 400 billion USD.

According to a 2021 billionaire census, women make up 11.9% of the billionaire cohort, and "just over half of all female billionaires are heiresses, with an additional 30% having a combination of inherited and created wealth." In the overall female billionaire cohort, 16.9% of billionaires are "self-made" and 53.5% ...

The world's youngest billionaire is 19-year-old Livia Voigt, who is still in university. The Brazilian teenager is worth around US$1.1 billion as a result of her minority stake in the electrical equipment company WEG, co-founded by her late grandfather.

He was the first African ruler to be famous in all of Europe and the Middle East. Historians say he was the richest person to have ever lived. Today, his wealth would be worth more than 400 billion USD.

When Musa gave away his gold, he probably did it with good intentions. He was sharing his wealth with those around him. However, some scholars argue that he intentionally distributed the gold to disrupt other kingdom's economies, especially Egypt's. At the time, Egypt was the leading gold market.

As of October 2022, Dewji has an estimated net worth of US$1.5 billion, Africa's 17th richest person and youngest billionaire.