Mansa Musa | The story of the world's richest man going on hajj
Mansa Musa, a gardener known as the richest man in the history of the world. Mansa Musa of Africa was richer than Bill Gates, Alan Musk, or Carlos Slim in today's world. He was the only person in the history of the world who could determine the value of gold; He had so much gold.
Mansa Musa was born in 1260. When his brother went on an expedition in 1312, he was given the charge of the throne. He conquered 24 states around his kingdom. It is said that the man who ruled the largest region of the world at that time was Mansa Musa. Gold and salt were his main assets.
In 1324, Mansa Musa set out for Hajj. He was accompanied by about 70,000 pilgrims. Of these, 12,000 were soldiers and slaves. Each of the slaves had a 4-pound gold bar. He also had 60 camels with 50 to 300 pounds of gold on each back.
Never before or since has the history of the world gone on Hajj with such a huge amount of wealth. When the army of Mansa Musa was going on Hajj, it seemed that a caravan was going with a fleet of gold.
On the way, Mansa Musa distributed gold among the people around him. The Mamluk sultans were in power in Egypt at that time. He gave innumerable gold to the Egyptians. The famous tourist Al-Umri visited Mansa Musa 12 years after his visit to Egypt and saw the Egyptians praising Mansa Musa even after a decade.
On the way to Hajj, Mansa Musa built numerous mosques. In places where there were few mosques, mosques were built with the help of his army.
In 1324, the people of Makkah saw an unprecedented pilgrimage. At that time, when the communication system was fragile, 80,000 people from Africa came to perform Hajj together. It is not known that such a large number of people in Africa have performed Hajj together before. People in faraway Africa get to see Mecca-Medina for the first time in their lives. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was moved by the sight of two cities.
Manasseh had abundant wealth. He saw that the spread of knowledge in his kingdom was not like that. Although there are not many resources in Makkah-Medina, there are the best scholars, philosophers, and architects in the world. What will happen with so much wealth, if there is no knowledge among the people?
During the Hajj, Mansa Musa came up with a new plan. He wants to take the scholars there to his kingdom. He offered them many honors. He persuaded Abu Ishaq, the famous architect of Andalusia.
The current value of the honor bestowed on Abu Ishaq is estimated at US 8.2 million. Which is more than the money allocated to the education sector in the current budget of Bangladesh!
Mansa Musa established a university in Sankaur. The number of students at that university was about 25,000, which is more than the current Oxford and Cambridge. At the initiative of Mansa Musa, a library was established in Mali, with more than one million books; It was known as one of the richest libraries of the time.
He built Mali in such a way that it became a region of Africa and the center of science. Students from all over the world used to go there to study. Students were given scholarships.
Abdur Rahman al-Tamimi, a Fakbih from Hijaz, went to Mali. Although he was a scholar of Mecca-Medina, he had to go to Phase for his primary education before acquiring knowledge from the scholars of Mali.
In the Middle Ages, when Muslim civilizations were on the verge of collapse, a new civilization developed in Mali. One of the turning points of that civilization was the pilgrimage of Mansa Musa.