19 Hey Big Spender

You can do a lot of things with wealth. You can buy stuff, make things happen, bribe officials, give to the poor… Or, if you’re Mansa Musa of Mali (one of the richest people in the history of the world) you can give away so much gold that you single-handedly cause inflation in Cairo. The small image below is a detail from the Catalan Atlas, a 1375 Spanish map with a small detail that depicts Mansa Musa in the approximate location of Mali. Related Links: A Huffington Post article declaring Mansa Musa the “richest man of all time.” Mansa Musa on Crash Course World History. More images from the Catalan Atlas, which shows the best-known image of Mansa Musa.