History is replete with successful personalities who led their nation to a better future. However, on the African level, many of us are ignorant of African history with all its characters and leaders in the past and present, despite the celebration of these figures in Western books and newspapers, perhaps the most prominent of which is Mansa Musa, the emperor of Mali and the richest man in the world.
Kanga Mansa Musa is considered one of the greatest kings of Muslims and Africa during the Middle Ages. Musa was famous for his just rule, knowledge, wisdom, and religiosity, ruling Mali for a long period of more than thirty years.
Mansa Musa was born in 1280, he began his rule of Mali in 1307 and was the tenth king of the Empire of Mali. At that time, it included all parts of the currently known countries (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania).
Almansa Musa built palaces and mosques in his kingdom, and won the love of the Malian people, and his history is still told so far in the folk stories in Africa.
Timbuktu was the capital of culture and science in Africa during the reign of Mansa Musa, besides it being the center of the gold trade and the education of Islam.
The most famous pilgrimage in the world
The pilgrimage journey undertaken by Almansa Musa in the year 1324 was the most famous in the world, and the pilgrimage gained Musa international fame as well, due to the events that took place in that journey, from the distribution of gold along the road.
The pilgrimage journey undertaken by Mansa Musa, accompanied by his wife, took a whole year, during which he distributed gold bars to the princes and the poor along the route of the journey. grams of gold, and some say that the journey consisted of 6000 thousand individuals, including slaves.
For many years, this trip affected the gold prices in the countries it passed through, especially Egypt, where the markets were filled with gold, thus increasing the supply and declining the price.
Almansa Musa returned from the pilgrimage journey carrying camels with valuable books, craftsmen, engineers, and others, to build the Malian empire, and also strengthened Islamic culture, and spread the Islamic religion in West Africa.
The richest man in the world
According to the Celebrity Net Worth website, Mansa Musa tops the list of the 25 richest people in the world and throughout history, with a fortune estimated by the site at $400 billion in today's currency, surpassing the Rothschilds, who are the richest family in the world now.
Mansa Musa died in 1337, after years of prosperous Malian empire, and was succeeded by his son, Mansa Maqan.