Peace Be Upon You, Dear readers!
If I ask you who was the Richest Man To Have Ever Lived?Who will you name?
May be Jeff Bezos,Warren Buffett,Bill Gates or clever fellows might say Jon D Rockefeller but sadly you guys would be wrong.The Richest Man To The Known History is Mansa Keita I or Mansa Musa I.Today lets learn about the fellow and his wealth in #Oversimplified Style!
Rise To Power!
Mansa Musa was born in 1280.Musa was the great nephew of Sundiata Keita, who was the founder of the empire Mali .His father was Faga Laye the brother of the king Abubakari II of Mali who abdicated his throne in order to explore "the limits of the ocean" in 1311.After his abdication in 1311, the Faga Laye mini-dynasty would control the empire.In 1312 Musa became the emperor obtaining the title Mansa meaning Emperor or Sultan.At the time, much of Europe was famished and in the middle of civil wars, but many African kingdoms were thriving.Mansa Musa quickly expanded the borders of his empire tremendously. He annexed the city of Timbuktu and reestablished power over Gao.He was quick to crush any civil unrest that was created after his uncle abdicated the throne,in doing so he fortified his power.Musa was in charge of a lot of land. To put it into perspective, he ruled all (or some parts) of modern day Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad.All in all, his empire stretched about 2,000 miles.
His Massive Wealth
According to historians Mansa Musa had a whopping net worth of $400 billion.To put that in perspective Bill Gates net worth is about 85.5 billion USD and Jeff Bezos has 84 Billion USD.But Musa had more wealth then the top 5 of the current richest men combined.
His country sat on a important trade route between Mediterranean and Sub-African coast line that caused a massive boost in trade and commerce of the country from all which the King benefited.And the territory of Mali Kingdom was rich in natural resources like Gold , Salt and Copper.The Empire at its peak mined half of the worlds gold and salt.Gold nuggets were the exclusive property of the mansa, and were illegal to trade within his borders. All gold was immediately handed over to the imperial treasury.The next great unit of exchange in the Mali Empire was salt. Salt was as valuable, if not more valuable, than gold in sub-Saharan Africa. It was cut into pieces and spent on goods with close to equal buying power throughout the empire.While it was as good as gold in the north, it was even better in the south. The people of the south needed salt for their diet, but it was extremely rare.Copper was also a valued commodity in imperial Mali. According to the records of Ibn Battuta, copper which traded in bars was mined from Takedda in the north and traded in the south for gold. Contemporary sources claim 60 copper bars traded for 100 dinars of gold.
The Pilgrimage To Mecca
As you might have guessed,Musa was a Muslim.According to Islam Law it is necessary for a Muslim to perform Hajj once in their life time,if they can afford it(they must have sufficient wealth and they must be healthy enough).Musa was a devoted Muslim so in 1324 he traveled to Makkah for Hajj.It was at that time when the world witnessed the extent of Munsa Musa's wealth.Most of the stories of his travel come from oral testimonies.It is said that his caravan included 60,000 men, including 12,000 slaves who each carried 1.8 kg (4 lb) of gold bars and heralds dressed in silks who bore gold staffs, organized horses, and handled bags. Musa provided all necessities for the procession, feeding the entire company of men and animals.Those animals included 80 camels which each carried 23–136 kg (50–300 lb) of gold dust. Musa gave the gold to the poor he met along his route. Musa not only gave to the cities he passed on the way to Mecca, including Cairo and Medina, but also traded gold for souvenirs. It was reported that he built a mosque every Friday.
Most famously when he reached Alexandria,at that time one of the most cultured cities in the world.He spent so much Gold that it caused massive inflation through out the city that took years to recover.As,he traveled,a lot of people,most noticeably the merchants of Vince saw him in Alexandria and returned to their Homeland(Italy) spreading the tale of massive wealth of Mansa Musa.That created a image in the minds of Europeans that West Africa is a land of Gold!Mansa Musa donated a great amount of gold But Musa's generous actions inadvertently devastated the economy of the regions through which he passed. In the cities of Cairo, Medina, and Mecca, the sudden influx of gold devalued the metal for the next decade. Prices on goods and wares greatly inflated. To rectify the gold market, on his way back from Mecca, Musa borrowed all the gold he could carry from money-lenders in Cairo, at high interest. This is the only time recorded in history that one man directly controlled the price of gold in the Mediterranean.
Mansa Musa's Legacy
Well,Mansa Musa's enormous wealth was not his only legacy.The king Musa embarked on a large building program, raising mosques and madrasas in Timbuktu and Gao. Most notably, the ancient center of learning Sankore Madrasah was constructed during his reign.During this period, there was an advanced level of urban living in the major centers of the Mali. Sergio Domian, an Italian scholar of art and architecture, wrote of this period:
"Thus was laid the foundation of an urban civilization. At the height of its power, Mali had at least 400 cities, and the interior of the Niger Delta was very densely populated."
He brought architects from Andalusia, a region in Spain, and Cairo during his pilgrimage to build his grand palace in Timbuktu and the great Djinguereber Mosque that still stands today.
Timbuktu soon became a center of trade, culture, and Islam; markets brought in merchants from Hausaland, Egypt, and other African kingdoms, a university was founded in the city and Islam was spread through the markets and university, making Timbuktu a new area for Islamic scholarship.The University of Sankore in Timbuktu was restaffed under Musa's reign with jurists, astronomers, and mathematicians.The university became a center of learning and culture, drawing Muslim scholars from around Africa and the Middle East to Timbuktu.By the end of Mansa Musa's reign, the Sankore University had been converted into a fully staffed University with the largest collections of books in Africa since the Library of Alexandria. The Sankore University was capable of housing 25,000 students and had one of the largest libraries in the world with roughly 1,000,000 manuscripts
Death
The death date of Mansa Musa is highly debated among modern historians and the Arab scholars who recorded the history of Mali.But the calculated date of death is 1337.His son Maghan Musa became the next EmperorMansa Musa I is generally regarded as the most successful of the Malian emperors, and Maghan inherited the empire at the height of its glory. He reigned for only four years before being succeeded by his uncle Suleyman in 1341.
That was it folks.I hope you liked my post and learned something form it.If you did please follow me on steemit.So,you can read more quality informative stuff like this one in the future in #Oversimplified style.It will mean a lot for me.Thank you for your time.