The richest bad ass in history
Mansa Musa of Mali was and still is the richest person to have ever lived on this planet. He reigned over the kingdom of Mali located in west Africa during the 14th century. Originally he was an adviser to the king who went on a boat trip across the ocean only to never return again. Mansa then took the crown as being next in the line of succession.
He traded many spices and also owned many of the gold mines in Mali at the time. To say they produced an inconceivable amount of gold would be a very large understatement. Adjusting for inflation, its estimated he had $400 billion. The second richest person to ever live was John D. Rockefeller with an estimated $318 billion dollars. If you are too lazy to do the math, that’s an $82 billion difference. You and I are lucky to see $1 million in our lifetime to put that in perspective.
Mansa Musa was also a devout Muslim and believed that it was his duty to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. With him on this pilgrimage he took 60,000 companions and 80 camels carrying 50 to 300 pounds of gold each. Along his way he would hand out gold to beggars, overpay purposely at markets, and tip insane amounts of gold to servants he crossed paths with in good will as he believed it was his duty to his god to give to his fellow man.
Many of the places he traveled through were great cities like Cairo, Medina, and you guessed it, Mecca. These places, although being very large and wealthy trading cities, had such an influx of gold due to his generosity it actually affected the global economy and the value of gold dropped significantly.
His vast wealth was so great and talked about that even the European countries (which typically ignored African kingdoms) noted the kingdom of Mali on their maps and even illustrated Mansa Musa’s wealth on those maps!
Once returned home from his pilgrimage, Mansa Musa used his money for funding great libraries and schools, funding many of the large cities construction projects in his kingdom, and even built a new Mosque every Friday to worship in. Many of the structures he built stand to this day and the most notable one is The Great Mosque of Djenne.
Mansa Musa died in 1337 handing over the crown to his son. There are many ways for soldiers and generals to be remembered in time but little is more bad ass than charity
Sources:
https://smartasset.com/insights/four-people-who-singlehandedly-caused-economic-crises