This ranking of the richest people of all time is based on hours of interviews with academic economists and historians. To read more ... Others said Musa's army consisted of 200,000 men, including 40,000 archers—troop numbers even modern superpowers would have a difficult time bringing to the field. read more
Far and away the richest man to ever walk the face of the Earth was Mansa Musa, or Musa I of Mali. As the reigning emperor of the Mali empire, Musa commanded a fortune worth a jaw-dropping $400 billion. That’s worth more than four times the current richest person in the world, to put things in perspective. read more