"Armies of Mansa Musi, “The Richest Man Who Ever Lived?”" Topic
7 Posts
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Parzival | 11 Mar 2019 3:23 p.m. PST |
So read about this fellow today: link link I will admit to my ignorance of him and this period in world history, mirroring the medieval and Renaissance eras of European and Arab history, so I am happy to be a little more informed. (Loved the bit about how his generosity unintentionally collapsed the economy of nations he passed through! Reminds me of the debates about the effects of D&D treasure hauls, not to mention some modern-day arguments in favor of "free money." Careful what you wish for… but I digress…) In any case, I'm curious whether anyone manufactures minis from this period and culture? Reading up, they had quite an extensive military structure involving cavalry, archers, and javelin-equipped infantry, as well as "auxiliaries" made up of enslaved conscripts from nations they had conquered. Given that they had extensive iron-works and metallurgy, and imported chain mail (among other goods), it seems like it would be an impressive-looking and varied force. EDIT: The title should read "Mansa Musa." I blame…oh, heck, my poor retention for new names/terms. I'll cop to that. *sigh*
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GurKhan | 11 Mar 2019 3:33 p.m. PST |
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Rudysnelson | 11 Mar 2019 3:46 p.m. PST |
We did a series of articles on the Saheal in the medieval era and a few on early 1800s. these were in the Time Portal Passages mag. You cannot focus on one area country/empire and ignore the others like the Hausa City States, the Kanum-Burnu, Ghana, Songhai and etc. |
Zephyr1 | 11 Mar 2019 8:46 p.m. PST |
Never heard of him. Guess he should have spent some of that money on a PR firm to ensure his being remembered… |
dbf1676 | 12 Mar 2019 5:00 a.m. PST |
I guess that this other richest man who ever lived must be a pauper.
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Patrick R | 12 Mar 2019 9:14 a.m. PST |
He might well be the richest man in history, but it's not a clear cut case. The Empire of Mali combined the richest trade routes of West Africa with great resources like gold, copper and salt. They levied taxes on all goods transiting through their empire. Some believe that Mansa Musa's vast expenditures in gold and other riches, laid a heavy mortgage on the Empire which helped its decline once the rulers began to fight endless civil wars. It's not clear how much of Mali's resources he spent, some believe he took most of Mali's available gold reserves with him, others think he still had more than enough to do it all over again. Also the value of gold is somewhat relative. Egypt was quite rich, they simply didn't have massive gold reserves, because much of it was tied into currency being spent far and wide, while Mali's gold tended to remain "closer to home" and had a good chance of flowing back into the coffers sooner or later, an Egyptian gold coin spent in places like China or Sweden had little chance of coming back. He may have been the richest, he may not have been, but we are certain he wasn't poor by a longshot. |
Rudysnelson | 12 Mar 2019 4:15 p.m. PST |
Read some accounts about him written in Africa. The main Nigerian university has a historical society that publishes good regional history books. I have a few in my collection. I also got, when I was writing my articles, a number of books through the inter-library loan program in the USA. Worth the effort. |
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