The ‘King of Kings’ carried on his hajj as much as 18 tonnes of gold, which is worth more over US$957 million.
The list of wealthiest people are often names that we come across daily but if we dig deeper into world history there are people who have walked the earth’s surface with unimaginable wealth that amount twice to that of today’s richest. One such figure was Mansa Musa, the African emperor of 14thcentury, who is believed to be the richest man ever to live on earth.
Mansa Musa, who was born in 1280 AD, ruled the large Mali kingdom in West Africa for a while. In 1312 AD, Mansa Musa was crowned king, and it is estimated that his fortune was almost $400 billion USD, adjusted for inflation which is still double than that of Musk and Bezos.
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Mansa Musa’s abundant natural resources were they key areas that contributed to his wealth, gold mined to the south: Bambuk, Wangara, Bure, Galam, Taghaza and other kingdoms and salt from northern regions . Musa ruled over a number of contemporary African nations, including the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso. The imperial capital of Musa was Timbuktu.
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This emperor was known for his generosity and kindness and have been praised throughout history for his wit and judgements. “He gave out so much Malian gold along the way that jelis [griots] don’t like to praise him in their songs because they think he wasted local resources outside the empire,” Lucy Duran of the School of African and Oriental Studies in London told BBC.
Mansa Musa travelled to Mecca in 1324 for the Hajj pilgrimage, and records indicate that his caravan was the largest ever to cross Africa’s Sahara desert. Mansa Musa reportedly travelled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, with 100 camels, enormous sums of gold, 12,000 servants, and 60,000 slaves as per BBC reports. As per historians and scholars, he might have carried on his hajj as much as 18 tonnes of gold, which is worth more over US$957 million in 2022.
