Mansa Musa
This 14th-century African king is widely recognised as one of the richest people in world history. Mansa Musa of Mali was a man of unspeakable wealth and authority.
He ruled West Africa’s Malian Empire in the early 1300s, making his fortune by exploiting his country’s salt and gold production. Many mosques he built as a young man still stand today. After his death in 1331, however, his heirs were unable to hang on to the fortune, and it was substantially depleted by civil wars and invading armies.
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In 1324, he became the first Muslim ruler to make the four-thousand-mile pilgrimage, where he met rulers from the Middle East and Europe, putting Mali on European maps.
He brought back scholars from his pilgrimage to improve Islamic education while building many mosques.
He also played a huge role in the development of Timbuktu and its famous university, the University of Timbuktu, which has since been a major learning institution for Africa and the rest of the world.
With an inflation adjusted fortune of $400 billion, Mansa Musa I would have been considerably richer than the world’s current richest man.
