The richest man that ever lived? This is the refrain that is most associated with Mansa Musa, the Mali ruler from 1312 - 1337. I wanted to make kind of an artistic version of Musa I, for whom unfortunately only this one near-contemporary depiction exists. This image is from the Catalan Atlas, which was illustrated by a Jewish Illuminator, Cresques Abraham, who was unlikely to have seen Musa in person. It shows him in a European-style crown and holding a nugget of gold. He’s such a fascinating figure, I really wanted to represent him somehow, even if it meant taking a lot of artistic liberties. What I’ve done is create a version of him from his own time, and then another of the same man in the modern day.
We do have some loose descriptions of him by contemporaries, which describe him as “A young handsome man.” and “[a] young man, brown skinned, with a pleasant face and handsome appearance”..Not my usual precision (which was impossible here), but I hope you all enjoy it anyway!Mansa Musa (meaning “King Musa” in the Mandinka language), was a Muslim ruler who expanded the reaches of the Mali Empire in Africa, especially in regards to trade networks. He amassed his riches from the gold and salt trade. Mansa Musa undertook a famous pilgrimage to the Hajj in 1324-5, and his retinue was so extravagant that it was recorded in great detail to the historic record. There are differences in various accounts, but what we know for certain is that the king’s opulence during this pilgrimage was second to none. Out of 60,000 travelers, 12,000 slaves allegedly carried 4lb of gold EACH. There was said to be 80 camels, each carrying 50-300 lb of gold dust. Musa gave gold to the poor in each city on his way. The amount of gold that Mansa held onto at this time literally sent Cairo into a 10 year gold recession - the sheer influx of gold wherever Mansa Musa went would drastically reduce it’s value. A witness to the pilgrimage said: “[it was] a lavish display of power, wealth, and unprecedented by its size and pageantry”.
Shoutout to @mooreannaa for the research here.Left Image: Public Domain, Right Image Base: iStock photo.
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