TIMBUKTU: THE LOST CITY OF SCHOLARS
The story of a city that traded gold for books
Hello,
Welcome to another weekly issue of Untold Africa, my name is Hammed and I hope this letter meets you well? The last issue was about Mansa Musa and his enormous wealth and fortunately, this week’s newsletter will also carry some tales of the wealthy king.
Yes, I know this letter is coming a week late. I was unavailable last week because I took 7 days social fast; sometimes when you basically ‘live online’ it’s easy to get drowned in all the noises & oceans of opinions online that you struggle to connect with that inner self. So, I took a social fast, cutting off from the internet and messaging services to do some ‘soul searching.’ But I’m back and better than before.
Seated at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, it is difficult to imagine that this ancient city used to be the seat of learning for the Islamic world; not just teaching Arabic, but also medicine, law, architecture, mathematics etc. European scholars used to troop in from all across the world to come and learn in the ancient city.
Far from being just a seat of knowledge, Timbuktu was a major trading hub in the old age mainly because of its location near River Niger. The city traded in salt, gold, copper, ivory, horses, sugar, etc. and these commercial activities brought wealth to the city. Perhaps, the greatest display of this wealth was shown when Mansa Musa made his pilgrimage to mecca and brought one of the largest entourages that world has ever seen with him.
But Mansa Musa wasn’t just a show-off, he was a devoted Muslim and built mosques, invited Islamic scholars from all over the world to the city. When Mansa Musa returned from his pilgrimage to Mecca, he brought Islamic scholars from Mecca, thousands of Arabic materials and he set up libraries in the city to store the materials.
He also constructed Djinguere Ber (also known as the Great Mosque) in the southern part of the city and another mosque called Sankore was built in the northern part of the city. Sankore was the seat of learning and became a university where many scholars came to teach, live and study.
Although Timbuktu’s major export was gold, the city largest import was books, and would frequently trade golds for books. Such was the devotion of the city to learning and which such obsession for books and learning materials, it quickly became home to the largest libraries of learning materials in the world. Thus, scholars began to troop into the city.
Mansa Musa focused on making Timbuktu a centre of learning for Islamic studies in Africa. But the city didn’t only focus on Islamic studies, its study and practice of medicine also made the city famous for his doctors all across the African continent. Musa continued to build more mosques, libraries and universities until his death.
Musa’s death led to the decline of the city and when Moroccan soldiers captured the city in the 1500s, they drove out the scholars, bled the city of its gold, salt and other economically valuable goods.
Most of the city’s ancient buildings still stand today and although the city is now one of the poorest cities in the world, and has plunged into armed conflicts, it’s still a wonderful and ancient sight to behold.
That’s all for now.
Till next week!!