Elon Musk is on track to become the world's first trillionaire. However, there have been wealthier people than Musk in history. The person considered to be the richest to have ever lived in the world is an African king: Mansa Musa.
Musa ruled the powerful Mali Empire in Africa from 1312 to 1337. It was a vast empire that included modern-day Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, and Niger. Mali was fully filled with natural resources like gold. At that time, a major portion of the gold needed for the world reached through Mali.
The event that made Mansa Musa world-famous was his Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in 1324. It was a massive travel entourage consisting of thousands of people, including soldiers. Hundreds of camels carried gold. While passing through North Africa, Musa generously distributed gold to the poor people in the towns along the way. Because of this generosity of Musa, even the local economy of Cairo in Egypt was disrupted for quite some time.
Musa was a great patron of education, culture, and architecture. Under his reign, the city of Timbuktu turned into a center of knowledge. Libraries flourished, and students traveled from even far-off lands to study philosophy, law, mathematics, and astronomy.
Mansa Musa's fame spread widely in Europe as well. European mapmakers included him in their maps. In the famous map known as the Catalan Atlas of 1375, Musa is depicted sitting on a throne, holding a gold nugget in his hand.
