Mansa Musa: The Richest Man in History

In 1324, the emperor of Mali left his capital on a journey that would echo across two continents. Mansa Musa I, ruler of the Mali Empire, set out on the hajj to Mecca, and his caravan carried gold on a scale the medieval world had never seen.

Cairo chronicles describe a procession of tens of thousands of people and hundreds of camels, and spending so generous that the value of gold in the city fell and stayed low for years. Writers of the era estimated the caravan moved with around a hundred camel loads of gold dust.

Mansa Musa ruled an empire that stretched from the Atlantic coast deep into the Sahara. Its wealth rested on the gold fields of the south and on the trans Saharan trade routes that passed through cities like Timbuktu and Gao.

On the return journey, he brought scholars and architects back to Mali. Under his reign, Timbuktu grew into a center of learning, and the Sankore mosque and its school drew students and books from across North Africa.

Estimates of his fortune vary widely, but historians routinely rank Mansa Musa as one of the wealthiest people who has ever lived. His story is a reminder that medieval Africa was not on the edge of the world economy. It was one of its centers.