Mansa Musa: The Biggest Fraud in History
Mansa Musa, the king of Mali in the 1300s, is frequently cited by a variety of seemingly reputable sources as the richest man to ever live, but this is completely false. In this video, I analyze what the actual primary sources tell us about Mansa Musa as well as the origin and motivation for recent exaggerations of his wealth.
Sources cited:
The History and Description of Africa and the Notable Things Therein Contained by Leo Africanus (1550)
Mansa Musa's Gold in Mamluk Cairo: A Reappraisal of a World Civilizations Anecdote by Professor Warren Schultz
The Rihla by Ibn Battuta (1354-55), the Africa/Mali section is volume 4 of most translations
Masalik al-Absar fi Mamalik al-Amsar by Ibn Al-Umari, the section on 'the Land of the Blacks' is found in volume 2 of this 25 volume encyclopedia and was completed ~1349
Kitāb al-ʿIbar by Ibn Khaldun, the section relevant to Mansa Musa was completed in 1377 at the earliest.
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Infados Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Reuploaded with improved audio quality