What do you think, who was the richest man in the history of mankind? Reject stereotypes: this is not the Rothschild and Rockefeller, and especially not Bill Gates. Ironically, the most incredible wealth belonged to the black medieval emperor named Mansa Musa. Translated into the present course of his fortune is estimated at 400 billion dollars, and it was enough to make a prolonged economic crisis half of the world - a real Dark Lord of his time.
Mansa Musa (aka Kanku Musa) was the ruler of the Mali Empire of the XIV century and, not surprisingly, a man with an unusual destiny. To understand how some tribal leader turned out to be richer than all the emperors and popes, need a little to shed light on the situation. The fact is that by 1312, ie at the time of the ascent to the throne of Moses, the government of Mali did not have a third-backwater, and quite prosperous power and not for nothing was called "Empire." Thanks to aggressive campaigns, it was more than the whole of Western Europe in size and level of development and culture is not inferior to the majority of its countries. One can imagine an alternative history in which it has entered into a powder Mali century and captured half the world, but it turned out how it happened.
The remaining description of Mansa Musa's incredibly inconsistent, even if they give the same witness. Historian and traveler al-Omari so tells the Emperor:
"This king - the greatest of kings black - Muslims. His country's most extensive, with the largest army. King of Mali the most powerful of them, the greatest of the kings of the property, its most perfect circumstances, the most victorious against the enemies and over all power to do good deeds "
However, all of the same al-Omari, talking about appearance, describes one of the most powerful rulers of the contemporary world as an incredibly ridiculous dressed like a farcical Jester potentates and affected his blatant bad taste:
"Royal apparel distinguished by the fact that the king descended on the forehead end of turban cloth and that his pants were sewn out of 20 bands, no one else would dare to dress this way ... The Sultan of the country sits in his palace on a large dais, flanked by the tusks of an elephant ... his golden gun nearby ... Behind him, a crowd of the sons of the kings of his country ... One of them holds a silk umbrella with gold pommel and a bird. "
As Emperor Mansa Musa became rich like Satan
Mansa Musa is not just ascended the throne and became king: even with the Imperial Throne he was able to plunge into history. His great-uncle, Sundiata Keita, was the leader of the Mandingo tribe, a devotee of Islam, and incidentally the first emperor of Mali. Speaking without exaggeration, for the history of West Africa, it was like a Caesar, the emperor Constantine and Napoleon rolled into one. Contrary to the typical situation where the heirs are incompetent and degenerates, his descendants developed the empire and increase its wealth. And so it was, at least, until the Emperor Abubakar II, who also tried to become the successor of the great cause, but it was all very strange.
Now it is unclear how much Aboubacar II was adequate ruler (at least not collapsed empire, and thanks for that). But somewhere, in 1310-1311, he gathered a huge fleet (from five hundred to a few thousand ships) and went to the intelligence and aggressive campaign, which he did not return.
Empire of Mali.
Now it all looks incredibly strange, why the emperor personally floats to the expanses of the Atlantic Ocean, in the unknown land, so even with a fleet of combat? Of course, there are speculative theories that he proznal of the existence of America, or if Columbus wanted to find circuitous route to India. However, the more likely that Abubakar wanted to invade some of the neighboring countries, but the fleet was lost in the storm.
His successor at the time of departure just stayed Kanku Musa, later crowned Mansa Musa. After a couple of years everything was already clear that suddenly disappeared fleet will not return, and therefore, the emperor is the one who left in charge. Our hero got a big country, inhabited by dozens of nations, which has become famous for the whole oecumene as a source of gold, copper, salt and exotic goods. Moreover, it is not clear what made the country richer.
Board Mansa Musa: how not to stop people live
Mali was famous as one of the centers of Islamic culture, in this case referring to the religion without fanaticism quite (not like the current situation in these lands). The top of the country after the emperors hastened to appeal to the fashion of Islam, and the other without problems professed ancient pagan and animistic cults. Gold is lying almost on the surface, the salt mines were given high-quality expensive salt, and human labor was not worth a penny. The power of the ruler was the belief in his divinity and his army was truly Imperial - 100 thousand soldiers and 10 thousand horsemen - crushing military forces at the time.
At the same time the richest man in history was smart enough to realize that now the most important thing - this is not a new victory and expansion, and the world, and at least some semblance of stability. There were many tribes, but Mali did not seize them, and included in the orbit of their power. For example, Mansa Musa did not attack people dyalonke, who lived in an area rich in precious metals is unthinkable. Instead, he hired all the seed for their protection and recovery. Dyalonke themselves hunted and gave most of their own gold, sincerely believing that Musa circled around her finger - is not it a success? And it happened with most of the tribes: the empire itself was huge, but the scope of its influence - even more.
You might remember that the Emperor on Civilization IV and V.
It was under Mansa Musa of Mali reached its greatest prosperity and power. No stories about how he ruled, and what he did in his post, has not been preserved - but not for the prescription of years: about policies and administrative decisions of the same grandfather, Musa, Sundiata, is pretty much known. In general, our hero was the best embodiment of the idea that if something works, do not touch it, and everything will be fine.
Morals in Mali were far from the ideal of Islamic morality, and they can be called quite free. When, soon after the death of Mansa Musa arrived here the great traveler Ibn Battuta, he was very impressed by two things: the wasteful wealth of the local nobility and the frivolity of local women. They were both incredibly hot and willful. Willfully, in the sense that the thought of men as equals and allow the plant to a lover for the amusement. A man came home, he could find his wife, and saddled one of his "friends" reacted calmly, hello, sorry to trouble and retire. Wives do not interfere with a good time on the side of their husbands, and husbands - wives. For educated in the Arab tradition of Ibn Battuta is the unthinkable, and it cast a shamefaced in the heat at the thought of such customs.
Reckless pilgrimage Mansa Musa
But even the most wise ruler who allows everything to take their course, bound to be a quirk. Mansa Musa have a fixed idea was the desire to show the world that the Mali - is not an African backwater, and the rich region and the empire to be reckoned with everyone. In other words, it seemed insufficient to be the richest king of the world, he wanted to know about it the whole world. In 1324, after 12 years of rule, Mansa Musa went to Hajj, ie pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim is obliged to make. But we know that the richest man in the world could not just go out there like a mere mortal.
Then it begins what can be considered a PR-campaign of His Majesty. For the sake of Hajj from the country have been squeezed all the juice: the march of the emperor was accompanied by 80 thousand servants of both sexes - the rulers of the countries through which passed Mansa Musa, not without reason, feared that he came to the pilgrimage under the pretext to invade. The whole crowd lined up in a huge caravan, laden with supplies, goods, gifts, weapons and, of course, gold.
At the head of the column were 500 slaves, each of which was based on a staff of gold. Mansa Musa himself daily freed one of those slaves, thus showing generosity to his people. According to current estimates, in this way the ruler of Mali took at least 12 750 tonnes of gold, which he is every bit as a result, gave the road. He returned home not empty, but with huge debts.
In a way the emperor does not mortify the flesh, like the righteous. Through e-mail system, even in the midst of the Sahara emperor feasted on fish and fresh fruit. But most of his contemporaries remember indulging the whims of fancy wife, Nieriby Conde, who also participated in the Hajj. Right in the middle of the desert she felt faint, and then Musa ordered the creation of this place Pool: eight thousand workers toiled all night and the next morning the Empress and five hundred of its concubines have frolicked in the man-made lake, is the servant using wineskins arranged in it something such as a jacuzzi. All this seems to do anything, but not on a modest pilgrimage to the holy places.
Tips seasoned: how to spend the 12 tons of gold and get into debt
Image Mansa Musa on Portuguese map.
In his way to Mecca and back Mansamusa squandered gold as if it were manure, which will increase its future greatness. When he reached the Egyptian ruler with whom he was in good relations, the emperor gave gold literally every official in the country; presents the bigwigs of Cairo were generally obscene luxury. Everyone was delighted with the black ruler: to tell them stories passed from mouth to mouth, and the whole town remembered a generous pilgrim with tears of joy in his eyes, even Twelve years later, after the event.
On caravan, full of gold, began preying rude and disgusting: seeing blacks, traders lomili unimaginable amount, and begging from Mansa Musa could become a source of instant wealth. As a result, even before reaching Mecca, the emperor spent all their gold reserves, and even managed to get into debt. Instead celebration of goodness and generosity began to show hostility and antipathy to the Egyptians: Musa realized that his cruelly deceived.
And here it begins the most interesting part of the history of gold. It was so much that all of these gifts just fallen off the precious metals markets, first in Egypt and then throughout the Mediterranean. Began a terrible inflation and the financial crisis, gold depreciated at least the next 12 years (ironically, the same Egyptians worshiped Musa). In a sense, ruler of Mali was able to avenge excessively greedy owners, who stripped to the skin guest.
A year later, Mansa Musa, may no longer be the richest man in the world, he returned to his homeland. In his absence, the imperial generals seized the kingdom of Songhai, and with it a powerful trading hub. Perhaps only because of this Mali was able to withstand the loss of their gold, and even flourish again under the leadership of the emperor. In addition, he brought from the campaign a lot of talented people: poets, architects, theologians - and with them a huge library of books, which made Mali a bastion of culture and science.
However, Mansa Musa interrupted incredible dynastic fortune country after a series of great rulers came to the descendants of Moses, who managed to fuck up and just squander all acquired empire. His son and all renounced Islam and to spite his devout parent moved back to paganism - is not wicked irony of fate?