Timbuktu
-Jason

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The Mali Empire was one of the world’s richest cultures from its height in the thirteenth century until its final demise in the seventeenth century.  This Sub-Saharan African kingdom stretched along the Niger River encompassing large tracts of Western Africa.  The best-known city in the empire was Timbuktu, a major collection point of both wealth and knowledge.

Mali was perfectly situated along the trade routes that stretched between central, west, north, and south Africa; a location which allowed them to generate incredible wealth.  The salt, gold, ivory, and slaves which formed the bulk of Mali’s wealth were transported by a combination of the rivers, desert oasis routes, and coastal enclaves to be traded with North African, Middle Eastern, and European markets.  

The kingdom was founded by Sundiata Keita around 1235 CE and was centered around the village of Niani.  By the time of his death in 1255 CE, Keita expanded his lands and absorbed the surrounding peoples.  The title Mansa, or king, was given to each of the succeeding male rulers of the kingdom.  Keita’s most famous descendant is his great-nephew Mansa Musa, one of the wealthiest men who ever lived.

The Mali Empire provided gold and ivory to the courts of Europe during the long decline of relations between Christian and Muslims around the Mediterranean Sea basin.  Crusades conducted by Western Europeans in the Levant had shattered the trade routes that had connected Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East.  Luxury resources that Europeans craved from the East could no longer be easily, or as cheaply, acquired, so a new source for these goods needed to be found.  The Mali Empire stepped into the role of trading partner. 

The city of Timbuktu sits only twelve miles from the Niger River and over the course of its history has had much change thrust upon it.  Timbuktu had originally been a seasonal settlement that transformed into a permanent settlement in the early twelfth century.  In the past, it had easy access to water and crops as the Niger River flooded the plains west of the city.  As the Sahara Desert grew and desertification set in, the population of Timbuktu shrank as its importance as a trade route faltered.  

Its rise to prominence as a major trade hub was during the reign of the Mali king Mansa Musa.  After returning from the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) Musa set about strengthening his ties to both the Berber Muslim kingdom and the Mamluk Caliphate in Egypt.  Around 1325 CE, Musa visited Timbuktu and understood that the city had the potential to become the crossroads of caravans moving from West Africa through the Sahara Desert to North Africa.  Mali absorbed Timbuktu into its growing territory and the city became his capital.

Timbuktu’s new imperial infrastructure was built using a combination of West African, Egyptian, and Spanish Muslim artisans.  Builders from Cairo and southern Spain were hired by Mansa Musa to construct the city’s mosques and madrassas.  The most famous of the buildings constructed during Musa’s reign is the Sankore Madrasa, or University of Sankore, which is a World Heritage Site.  Sankore Madrasa had the largest library in Africa with room to house between 400,000 and 700,000 manuscripts as well as to teach 25,000 students.  

Timbuktu quickly became the center of trade and knowledge and was therefore central to the spread of Islam in West Africa.  The manuscripts that were translated and shipped from Timbuktu were instrumental in the influx of “lost texts” reaching Europe.  They followed the trade routes into North Africa and Spain from which they spread into the Italian states and northern Europe.  The numerous mosques and madrasas also became a key element in the growth of Islam in the region. 

Despite the Mali Empire slowly declining, Timbuktu’s importance did not diminish for later kingdoms.  The city was absorbed by the Songhai Empire in the first half of the fifteenth century and its importance continued to grow.  The Songhai ruled the city until their defeat by the Moroccans in 1591.  By this point, Timbuktu had begun its long decline.

Timbuktu slid further towards obscurity after Western European explorers circumnavigated Africa, and later the world.  First, the Spanish and Portuguese established large, lucrative empires in the Caribbean, Central and South America, and the Pacific Ocean.  The English, French, and Dutch followed quickly behind their fellow Europeans.  By the late sixteenth century they no longer needed to rely on West African mines for wealth.  Trade shifted to the African coastal kingdoms as Europeans sought ever increasing numbers of slaves to work the mines and fields of the New World.

Timbuktu once again piqued the interest of Europeans at the end of nineteenth century, as part of the Scramble for Africa.  The French pushed into North and Sub-Saharan Africa and conquered Timbuktu in 1893.  The city’s name became a byword to describe a small, half-remembered center of culture lost in a wilderness.  It remained part of the French Empire until decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s ended the Imperial European era.   

It was not until 1960 that Timbuktu was reincorporated into the Republic of Mali.  However, despite this independence, the region is still witnessing strife.  Timbuktu has recently witnessed a series of extremist attacks against the Sankore Madrasa, and many of its other libraires, during the Mali Civil War.  Thousands of manuscripts were saved from destruction due to the actions of librarian Abdel Kader Haidara who smuggled 350,000 medieval manuscripts from the city in 2012.