Qarun The Richest Man Ever

in #history7 years ago

July of 2015 Jacob Davidson published an article "The 10 Richest People of All Time" on Time's Money. The article listed a mix of the rich and wealthy to world leaders and their wealth as the GDP of the country they rule. The article gave the number one spot to Mansa Musa, the king of Timbuktu, Mali from the year 1280 to 1337.

Full Article: http://time.com/money/3977798/the-10-richest-people-of-all-time/

With Augustus Caesar occupying the second spot with a wealth estimated at $4.6 trillion, we can only assume Mansa Musa's wealth to exceed that figure substantially. His wealth was described as "Richer than anyone could describe". But was Mansa Musa really the richest man that ever lived?

From a religious perspective the bible lists these people as the wealthiest of men. Abraham, Isaac, Job, King Solomon, King David, Joseph ( Son Of Jacob), Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Joseph of Arimathaea (A disciple of Jesus). The Koran on the other hand points to one man as the accumulator of the biggest wealth known to man, he is known by the name Qarun.

Who is this Qarun, where did he live, how much was his wealth, and where did it go?


Qarun was one of the sons of Israel, and specifically lived at the time of Moses, he was a minister at the Pharaoh's court. Qarun was very rich beyond the meaning of the word, and had stores of gold and money, that the keys to his safes were very heavy and difficult to move around by men, so difficult that it needed sixty camels to move those keys. The people of Egypt were in awe of his money, and they believed that his wealth would never end.

Qarun of Jewish decent himself was appointed by the Pharaoh to handle the affairs of the Jewish slaves at the time and collect taxes from his own people. Qarun was a tyrant and did not spare anyone from his wrath. The Pharaoh was pleased with him and gave him more power as time went by. Qarun used this power to seize the wealth of many Jews and others. He filled his stores with gold, money, precious gemstones, and jewelry.

The stories surrounding Qarun's wealth spread all over the land, yet an accurate historical account of the extent of his wealth and the location that he stored it in, were not recorded. However, as the story of Qarun goes, it is told that his residence and stores of wealth were struck down with a huge earthquake that took him along with it to the depth of the earth. The location where this supposedly took place is Lake-Qarun southwest of Cairo, Egypt.

The location today is called Lake Moeris or Faiyum Oasis or Qarun lake, at the the time of the Pharaohs it was known as Lake Osiris or the Pure Lake. The following image depicts a historical reflection of the size of the lake at different times in history.

Is the wealth of the richest man ever buried under Lake-Qarun? Historians tend to disagree on that, as the name of the lake was different throughout the times. Some believe the name Qarun given to the lake was a moderate change from the Name Baron given to it by ancient greeks. Others believe the name was given to the lake because it's location corresponds to the huge earthquake crater it represents.

An article in the Egyptian daily news describes the myths and fables surrounding the lake as follows:

Fishermen and many others who live by the lake believe that Qarun’s treasures lurk beneath the surface of the present day lake, and that they are guarded by a fairy or a mermaid. Over the years stories have been told of people diving for the treasures but so far all attempts at recovery have been in vain. Among the fishermen, fables are told of people who claim to have witnessed the mermaid and were mesmerised by her charm and magic. Read More..

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I'd like to add a point the auother may be not included it. Actually, God gave Qarun a knowledge didn't gave it to anyone, which is covert sand to Gold. Because Qarun himself was very claver at chemical.

I have read of such claim but it falls within the exaggerations, it is true however that God did give him knowledge, but added to that was luck beyond any man can ever dream of. Qarun claimed his knowledge was the only source of his wealth.

Man Isn't Mansa Mosa considered to be the richest by all the given evidence.Pardon my rudeness but where is the reference.Is he a part of just an methodology?

Historians tend to ignore any evidence from religious sources although these sources had devoted followers that insured or tried to insure the accuracy of the information. The most evidence I read of Mansa Musa's wealth are true but some might also fall into the fables category so why discredit religious sources and take into account only those provided by assumed historians?

The most evidence I read of Mansa Musa's wealth are true but some might also fall into the fables category so why discredit religious sources and take into account only those provided by assumed historians?
Great point!

I also read, or heard, somewhere that the level of scrutiny was/is much higher for religious sources, particularly for Christianity.

I've never heard about Qarun before. It is incredible how much Gold and Money he had and I just watched a youtube video about how not even 10 big strong chunky men could carry the keys as they struggled in doing so

Truly amazing how it took 60 camels to carry the keys to his safe and I can't believe how tyrannical and cold he was.

As everyone watched in awe I would guess they would want Qaruns money and I would think the same if I saw Qarun but I just listened to Story and it is supposed to act as a symbol of how you should be happy with what you have and how money can make you this despotic and oppressive.

It blows my mind if this story was real but if it isn't there are a lot of morals and principles we can learn from it @joseph

It blows my mind if this story was real but if it isn't there are a lot of morals and principles we can learn from it
Well said.

Qarun was one of the people of Moses –peace be upon him-. It means that he came from the society of whom Prophet Moses was sent to.

Qarun was not a family of Moses, because family of Moses only consisted of faithful men and women, courtesy of the enjoin and treatise he brought. Because the title family doesn’t embedded to unfaithful kins.
It is likely that Qarun was, at the beginning, believing in the enjoin of Prophet Moses. But when Allah the Glorified and Exalted opened for him path to obtain wealth and His treasure, he forgot the enjoin that he was called into because he was busy taking care of his wealth, and then he acted Despotically towards the truth and good.

Nice information you shared with us. Thanke @joseph. Regard from Indonesia.

I wonder, who his descendants are in modern times? Or maybe his fortune was lost or split among many.
Thanks for posting!

i never knew of him before thanks for the share

Very interesting to read.
I did fairly enjoyed the article :)
And now We are creating history because of the Steemit.

Great post and information, thanks for sharing.

if someone can find the treasure of qarun, we can not say how much wealth he has, but in this world I have never heard of anyone who has ever found the treasure qarun, really have qarun, because all the treasure that is found named with qarun treasure.

I'm sorry but this is complete garbage. Even if you believe in the legends they are still just that and probably that man never existed. If books like the Bible and the Koran were written today they would be consider sci-fi and that's what they are.
Any one that doesn't agree with me has the right to do so but we can all agree it's more probable that I'm right.

When I read the Bitcoin whitepaper a few years back I also thought "this is garbage," but I had an open mind and did my research. Believe it or not the first friend I passed the paper to, was a network engineer living in California, his first impression was the same as mine, we could not understand it at first, but we eventually did. Had we taken the attitude of "this is garbage" without giving ourselves the means of knowledge and research, we would have been at a great loss today. Do not discredit anything based on pre-set beliefs. The Bible (old and new testaments) and the Koran are a wealth of information, if you choose to ignore them it's fine, but do not ever discredit written records (books, studies etc..) based on feelings without proper research.