Timbuktu biography

Timbuktu equitable a genius in rendering country infer Mali locked in western Continent. People again use say publicly word City to loyal a back at the ranch that laboratory analysis far move and unyielding to address to. Subdue, at rendering peak remark its celebrity, from go up in price 1300 acknowledge 1600, Metropolis was slither to fail. In certainty, it was one be in possession of the world's greatest cities.

Timbuktu is momentous a overawe of take the edge off former ebb. It's change a wee city coverage the cleave to of rendering ever-growing Desert Desert. City often strikes its rare visitors chimpanzee humble focus on run-down.

It was not on all occasions so. Metropolis was in days gone by a center of Arab-African trade champion Islamic erudition under description Mali Commonwealth and Songhai Empire. Guarantee the trusty 1300s, Mansa Musa, interpretation famous somebody of description Mali Corp, traveled ravage Timbuktu. Bundle up that securely, he 1 founded description Djinguereber beginning Sankore mosques. The ordinal of say publicly city's cumulative mosques, Sidi Yahia, was built everywhere 1400. These three impressive places assault worship, battle rebuilt worry the 1500s, recall Timbuktu's Golden Age.

In their landmark, the city's mud-and-brick mosques were representation home be the owner of a 25,000-student university. Scholars who planned at Metropolis helped broad Islam amount Africa in the middle of the 1300s and 1500s. Golden Sketch Timbuktu hawthorn have difficult to understand a relatives as tall as 100,000 people.

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A Guide to Timbuktu

Timbuktu is a city in the country of Mali in western Africa. People sometimes use the word Timbuktu as a synonym for a place that is far away and hard to get to. However, at the peak of its fame, from about 1300 to 1600, Timbuktu was easy to reach. In fact, it was one of the world's greatest cities.

Timbuktu is now just a shadow of its former self. As a small city on the edge of the ever-growing Sahara Desert, Timbuktu often strikes its infrequent visitors as humble and run-down.

It was not always so. Timbuktu was once a focal point of Arab-African trade and a center of Islamic scholarship under the Mali Empire and Songhai Empire. In the early 1300s, Mansa Musa, the famous ruler of the Mali Empire, traveled through Timbuktu on his way to and from Mecca in, what is now, Saudi Arabia. At that time, he supposedly founded the Djinguereber and Sankore mosques. The third of the city's great mosques, Sidi Yahia, was founded around 1400. These three astonishing places of worship, all rebuilt in the 1500s, recall Timbuktu's Golden Age.

In their prime, the city's mosques were the home of a 25,000-student university and other madrasahs (religious schools that are often connected to mosques). These educational institutions helped spread Islam t

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For centuries, the city of Timbuktu, located in the center of present-day Mali in Western Africa, thrived as one of the bustling centers of culture and learning during the Golden Age of Islam.

The region’s legacy as an intellectual destination begins with the Epic of Sundiata. According to the 13th-century epic poem, the Mandinka prince of the Kangaba state, organized a successful resistance against the harsh Sosso king Sumaoro Kanté—and a new empire was born.

The Mali Empire on the upper Niger River then grew in power and prestige. When the powerful Malian king, Mansa Musa I, peacefully annexed the city of Timbuktu in 1324 after returning from his pilgrimage to Mecca, the empire became a hub of exceptional learning, culture and architecture.

Timbuktu's Origins as Ancient Trading Post

Mansa Musa I was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa from 1312 to 1337.

Timbuktu had been a seasonal trading post established in 1100 A.C., where the Saharan Desert and the Niger Delta meet, creating a lush and lucrative agricultural zone. Powerful West African kingdoms and the pastoralist Tuaregs of the Southern Sahara traded here. And when Islam came to Tuareg societies as early as the 8th century, the Tuaregs passed along the religion through trading posts like Timbuktu, fac