{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Kingdoms at Dusk ยท Sleep History","title":"The Richest Man Who Ever Lived | The True Story of Mansa Musa, Told for a Calm Night","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":10801,"description":"Mansa Musa of Mali is often called the richest man who ever lived, and this is his true story, told slowly and gently so you can fall asleep inside it. He ruled the Mali Empire at its height, from about 1312 to about 1337, a realm of gold fields and salt mines and river cities that took months to cross. In 1324 he set out on the pilgrimage to Mecca with a caravan the chroniclers could barely count, crossing the Sahara by starlight, and gave away so much gold in Cairo that the price of gold there, by one careful contemporary account, stayed low for a dozen years. He met the sultan of Egypt in one of history's politest standoffs, ran short of money on the way home like any traveler, and returned with something better than what he had spent: scholars, books, and a poet of Granada who built for him. He raised mosques at Timbuktu and Gao, and the city of Timbuktu grew into one of the great centers of learning on earth, its libraries alive to this day. We tell the story the way the chroniclers told it, al Umari, Ibn Battuta, Ibn Khaldun, and we say so gently wherever the legend has outgrown the evidence.\nReal history for sleep: a real human voice, sources listed below, no mid roll ads, and nothing sudden. This is a Tale episode, our Friday tradition: one true story from history, told at the fireside. The story ends softly around the 65 minute mark and the desert fireside continues to the 100 minute mark. Black screen friendly.\nAnd if you would like to spend a whole night inside the city of books itself, our episode A Night in Timbuktu is waiting on this channel.\nChapters:\n0:00 Welcome\n5:47 The Country Of Gold\n12:09 The King Who Sailed West\n18:04 The Caravan Gathers\n22:19 The Road Of Stars\n26:01 Gold Like Weather\n30:14 The Politest Standoff\n33:13 The Holy City, And The Empty Purse\n39:08 The City Of Books\n45:13 The Traveler, The Historian, And The Map\n52:10 Drifting\nListen with the video on YouTube: add the episode link.\nNew episodes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6pm...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/0gcbnVCv5F4RfxcIdEZG1iCR3jQBtLTMASjeCtTPk70/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS84YzVm/YTU2NDg3MzI5MzQ1/ODVmZmIwYjQ2NTQ2/NGRlNC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}