As far as is known, the record for fathering the largest number of children is held by Muali Ismail, a Moroccan Emperor in the 17th to 18th century. During his 60 years of life (from 1646 to 1726) he is thought to have been the father of well over 800 children. It's not sure how many wives and concubines he had, but royal harems in that era were very large. Other rulers have also managed huge families by having large numbers of wives.

The largest number in modern times is of a British man who fathered 600 children, but this is rather different as he did it by 'donating' very freely to a fertility clinic that he ran himself.