How Mansa Musa Became The Richest Man In History
Mansa Musa came to reign over the Mali Empire through somewhat strange means.
It all started when the former emperor, Abubakari II, deputized Musa to temporarily assume his role. An “on-call” emperor was a common feature throughout the history of this empire. It was somewhat comparable to the modern-day role of a vice president — as the person would be expected to step in on a full-time basis if anything happened to the main emperor.
In a twist of fate, Musa would indeed need to step in. Abubakari set out to explore the far side of the Atlantic Ocean one day — and never returned. And so Musa became Mansa Musa (Mansa means “king”) and inherited the throne in 1312. But Musa hadn’t been plucked from obscurity to lead. His great-uncle was Sundiata Keita, who had founded the Mali Empire.
As many a late-night infomercial will tell you, there are lots of ways to attain wealth. Musa earned his fortune primarily through trading gold and salt, which were found in abundance in West Africa at the time. He used much of his wealth to strengthen important cultural centers, especially Timbuktu.
But despite his massive success, Musa was not very well known beyond the region he ruled — until he journeyed outside of Africa. A devout Muslim, Musa was determined to make his pilgrimage to Mecca (also known as a Hajj) in 1324. And with that, the rest of the world would soon know his name.
Going on a pilgrimage to Mecca is an important part of Islam to this day. And for Musa, it was no small feat. He would have to travel 4,000 miles from his empire to get there. As a rich and powerful emperor, he certainly could not go alone. Musa embarked on his pilgrimage accompanied by a total of 60,000 people — a mix of servants, soldiers, and supporters.
Musa’s servants weren’t dressed in rags, as one might expect. Instead, they were wrapped in Persian silks and carried gold staffs.
The world quickly began to take notice of Musa’s convoy of people, horses, and camels. Not only was Musa’s caravan impossible to miss, but he was also buying as many goods as he could find — and giving away gold to random peasants on the street. As Musa passed through Cairo, Medina, and finally to Mecca, he left the streets basically littered with gold.
But sometimes, Musa left an oversized wake. In Cairo, the emperor gave away so much gold that he actually messed up the economy for a while. There was so much of it that the value went down.
The disruption eventually evened out, in part because Mansa Musa began borrowing from lenders in Cairo (despite the high-interest rate). And by that point, the king almost single-handedly controlled the price of gold in the Mediterranean region. However, it did take over a decade for Cairo’s economy to fully recover from Mansa Musa’s golden touch.
There’s no question that Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca would help cement his place in history. But at the time, he simply saw it as a necessary journey to honor his faith — and a way to expand his growing kingdom. During that historic trip, he acquired the territory of Gao. And by the end of his reign, Musa would extend his empire to include present-day Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Mauritania — in addition to Mali.
