10 Wealthiest Historical Figures That Ever Lived

By Christopher Harty /

6. Mir Osman Ali Khan - £135.2 Billion

Mir Osman Ali Khan€™s official title was €˜His Exalted Highness Nizam Sir Mir Osman Ali Khan Siddiqi Asaf Jah VII€™, and the man was as voracious in his collection of money as he was in his collection of titles. He was born in 1886 and became Nizam (ruler) of Hyderabad (now in India) upon the death of his father in 1911. Hyderabad was unique in that it was the world€™s sole provider of diamonds in the 19th century, and the accumulated family wealth made Ali Khan fabulously wealthy from birth.

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He appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1937, which described him as the world€™s richest living man. In 1948 the state of Hyderabad was annexed by the newly independent nation of India, but Mir Osman Ali Khan remained influential and ridiculously wealthy long after. He died in 1967, at the ripe old age of 80.

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