Mansa Musa

Here’s one of our listeners’ most requested episodes of 2019: This famous Queen ruled Egypt during the mid-14th century, BC, over a period of immense religious upheaval. With her husband, she conspired to convert all of Egypt from the traditional polytheistic religion to the wors ... Show More

For centuries, Mexico lived under the rule of Spain. In that time, a discriminatory caste system was created to keep non-Europeans in their place. However, one priest, inspired by the thinkers of the Enlightenment, would cast the first stone and help bring about Mexico’s independ ... Show More

Best remembered for his invention of the calendar we still use today, Pope Gregory XIII became a voice for reform in the Catholic Church by pulling the Vatican out of the dark ages and into the modern era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 

Had there been a version of the Forbes list in the early 14th century, a 20-something-year-old Malian king would reign supreme. Dubbed the “richest man of all time," Mansa Musa’s wealth is unmatched to this day. However, Musa paid a hefty price for his position. In the early year ... Show More

Mansa Musa's wealth is a thing of legend. It's impossible to know exactly how much he was worth, but he himself spread rumours that gold grew like a plant within the Mali Empire. When he embarked on a storied pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, he gave away so much gold in Egypt that th ... Show More

Jeff Bezos's fortune is vast, but he isn't the richest person in history. That title belongs to Mansa Musa, whose wealth, even adjusted for inflation, surpasses Bezos, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates combined. Ruling the Mali Empire in the 1300s, Musa controlled vast gold and salt rese ... Show More

The Ashanti were a kingdom that developed in what is now central Ghana around the 13th century. By the 17th century, they had become powerful and wealthy from both the slave trade and gold trade. After Britain colonized what they called the Gold Coast, the Ashanti were incorporat ... Show More

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes. We’re looking at key moments in Ethiopian history, as it’s 50 years since Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown in a military coup. We start our programme looking at the moment a military junta called the D ... Show More

In 2002 the BBC did a poll where they named the top 100 Britons in history. It had many people you have probably heard of, including Isaac Newton, Princess Diana, John Lenon, and Queen Victoria. The person who was ranked #2, however, is someone that many people outside of the UK ... Show More

Adnan Khashoggi was born in Mecca — but his life was anything but pious. The billionaire had multiple wives, girlfriends and armies of callgirls, not to mention gambling sessions and club nights whose costs ran into the millions of dollars. Khashoggi made his first riches shippin ... Show More

For over six hundred years the Ottoman Empire ruled swathes of the Middle East, North Africa, and Southern Europe. As an Islamic superpower centred on what is now Turkey, theirs is a story of surprising alliances and enemies, trade, war and progress. But who were its leaders? How ... Show More

Africa's story has long been presented in western narratives as one that only 'began' with the arrival of non-Africans – yet modern science has revealed that the African continent was, in fact, the cradle of humanity itself. Zeinab Badawi speaks to Danny Bird about her new book t ... Show More

In the 9th century AD, two years after the Holy Roman Empire was established in Western Christendom, another world-shaking empire was rising in the east, more powerful even than that of Charlemagne and far wealthier. Born in what is today Northern Cambodia but long before the hor ... Show More