In 1324 the Malian Emperor, Mansa Musa, made a pilgrimage to Mecca that would stun the Islamic world with its magnificence. If the sources are to be believed, the emperor traveled with an entourage 60 000 fellow pilgrims and untold quantities of pure West African gold. While travelling through Egypt his lavish spending flooded the country with so much gold that he apparently caused an economic crisis. Precious metals were devalued and Egypt fell into a recession that it would take years to recover from… or at least, so goes the story. Is it true that Mansa Musa had enough gold to destabilize one of the strongest economies in the medieval world? Is it even possible to accurately calculate the wealth of someone from the 1300’s? Tune in and find out how tips on copper, half-remembered conversations, and payments in gold-dust all play a role in the story.
Here are the links to some of those dubious lists of “History’s Richest People”. All of these lists suck for different reasons.
https://money.com/the-10-richest-people-of-all-time-2/
Works Cited
“AFRICA | Africa’s ‘Greatest Explorer’.” BBC News, BBC, 13 Dec. 2000, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1068950.stm.
Austen, Ralph A., and Jan Jansen. “History, Oral Transmission and Structure in Ibn Khaldun’s Chronology of Mali Rulers.” History in Africa, vol. 23, 1996, pp. 17–28., doi:10.2307/3171932.
Bell, Nawal Morcos. “The Age of Mansa Musa of Mali: Problems in Succession and Chronology.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 1972, p. 221., doi:10.2307/217515.
Cartwright, Mark. “The Gold Trade of Ancient & Medieval West Africa.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 2 July 2020, www.ancient.eu/article/1383/the-gold-trade-of-ancient–medieval-west-africa/.
Conrad, David C., and Condé Djanka Tassey. Sunjata: a West African Epic of the Mande People. Hackett Pub. Co., 2004.
Goodwin, A. J. H. “The Medieval Empire of Ghana.” The South African Archaeological Bulletin, vol. 12, no. 47, 1957, p. 108., doi:10.2307/3886971.
“Important Announcement.” African Studies Center RSS, www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/teachingresources/history/k_o_mali/.
Levanoni, Amalia. A Turning Point in Mamluk History: the Third Reign of Al-Nāṣir Muḥammad Ibn Qalāwūn (1310-1341). Brill, 1995.
Mohamud, Naima. “Is Mansa Musa the Richest Man Who Ever Lived?” BBC News, BBC, 10 Mar. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47379458#:~:text=With an estimated fortune of,wrecked an entire country’s economy.
Morgan, Thad. “This 14th-Century African Emperor Remains the Richest Person in History.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 19 Mar. 2018, www.history.com/news/who-was-the-richest-man-in-history-mansa-musa.
“There Is No African History.” The Toynbee Convector, 1 Aug. 2015, davidderrick.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/there-is-no-african-history/#:~:text=But at present there is,not a subject for history.Villiers, Marq De, and Sheila Hirtle. Timbuktu: the Sahara’s Fabled City of Gold. Emblem, 2008.