What do large scale sea travel, the Hajj, Parson Weems's biography of George Washington, and Welsh naming customs have to do with the richest man in history? EVERYTHING, folks! They all help tell the story of how Mansa Musa became Emperor of Mali, amazed a fortune of $400 BILLION in today's dollars, and used business incentives and savvy PR stunts to do it. Additional Links & Resources Here's the article that started it all for us: "The 25 Richest People Who Ever Lived - Inflation Adjusted". Mansa Musa is, of course, #1. Sorry, Bill and Warren. This is the amazing Catalan Map of 1375 we discuss in the podcast. You can see Mansa Musa sitting in the bottom right corner holding up a nugget of gold. Click through here to get a more up-close look at different parts of the map. Here's the detail of Mansa Musa: John Green did a great 10-minute Crash Course episode on Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa. Watch it here. Here's an excerpt from the African Muslim scholar Mahmud Kati's "The Chronicl...