The Richest Man in History: How Mansa Musa Crashed an Entire Economy

History remembers conquerors and tyrants, but what about the man who was so ridiculously wealthy that his vacation spending completely crashed the economy of an entire continent? Meet Mansa Musa, the legendary ruler of the Mali Empire, whose net worth is estimated to be over $400 billion today. Before he controlled half of the Old World's gold and salt trade, he was a quiet deputy who unexpectedly inherited a massive empire on the brink of chaos. From his predecessor's mysterious disappearance into the Atlantic Ocean to his awe-inspiring 60,000-person pilgrimage to Mecca, discover how an unlikely successor transformed Timbuktu into the intellectual capital of the world and became the undisputed richest human being to ever live.