When asked the question 'Who is the richest person in the world?' or 'Who is the richest person in history?' we are likely to mistakenly think of a person from our time.
The first names that pop up would be Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla; or Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon; or Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Meta, or Bill Gates, the creator of Microsoft. However, none of these billionaires is the right answer.
The richest man in the world, to the surprise of many, existed in medieval times between 1280 and 1337 BC. His name is Mansa Musa and he was emperor of Mali, with his empire occupying a vast territory that spread from Nigeria to the coast of Senegal.
According to Celebrity Net Worth magazine, Mansa Musa's wealth would be the largest in the history of mankind, if adjusted for current inflation. Mansa Musa's fortune is due to the fact that he could have as much gold as he wanted. In total, the estimated wealth would be around 400 billion dollars (387.109 billion euros).
What is Musk, Bezos, Gates and Zuckerberg's worth?
If we make a small comparison between the different fortunes, Mansa Musa's wealth (400 billion dollars) exceeds that of Elon Musk (219 billion dollars), Jeff Bezos (171 billion dollars) and Bill Gates (118 billion dollars), for example.
Mansa Musa owned all the gold he needed to mine
The history and subsequent fame of Mansa Musa is due to his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. He travelled 6,500 kilometres to the holy site with 60,000 people, including 12,000 slaves. He was also accompanied by almost a hundred camels, each carrying more than 100 kilos of precious metals.
Mansa Musa left numerous mosques built and his legacy spread to the ears of Mediterranean traders.
A history professor from the University of Michigan once told Money Magazine that Mansa Musa was "the richest man anyone has ever seen''.
"Imagine all the gold you think a human being could have and double it; that's what all the chroniclers are trying to communicate," he said.
