Imagine having so many children, you could run a factory. That’s what Moulay Ismail’s family looked like. He was a brutal emperor of the Moroccan Alaouite dynasty from 1672 – 1727. And is reported to have had at least 1,171 children.
But he wasn’t the only one who used his power to have sex with any woman, whether she was interested or not. Other rulers like Augustus the Strong and Genghis Khan had hundreds of children. And while these were some of the more ruthless rulers of their time it raises a more fundamental, scientific question.
Women can reproduce for about half of their lifetime and can only give birth about once every year or so. So it makes sense that women can only have a fraction as many children as men. One study estimated a woman can have around 15 pregnancies in a lifetime. And depending on how many babies she births for each pregnancy, she’d probably have around 15-30 children.
But the “most prolific mother ever,” according to Guinness World Records, was Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev in 19th century Russia. She’s said to have given birth to 69 children over 27 pregnancies. It’s a lot for a woman. But nothing compared to Moulay Ismail, for example. According to records, he had 4 wives and 500 women in his harem.
But, there are factors not even an emperor can control. Like how a man’s sperm becomes less mobile and more abnormal as he grows older. Which ultimately reduces his chances of fathering children later in life. In fact, studies suggest that men over 50 have up to a 38% lower chance of impregnating a woman compared to men under 30.
