TIMBUKTU, THE HISTORIC CITY OF KNOWLEDGE

According to tradition, Timbuktu is said to be the “well of Bouctou”, Bouctou being an old Tuareg woman who settled in the 12th century in the “camel’s hump”, the bend formed by the Niger River. Ideally located between Saharan, Arab-Berber Africa and Sudanic Africa, the city grew considerably under Kanga (or Mansa) Musa, who ruled the Mali Empire in the 14th century.

Mansa Musa assembled a true court of scholars in Timbuktu. This is how the city became the international center of thought. The number of schools in Timbuktu exploded, to the point that its 180 institutions welcomed nearly 20,000 students for 80,000 inhabitants. In this great center of culture, the manuscripts in circulation then numbered in the thousands.

But at the end of the 16th century, after the Battle of Tondibi, Timbuktu was plundered by Spanish mercenaries and its scholars were deported to Morocco. The city fell into a long sleep. It was therefore a lackluster city that was entered clandestinely in 1828 by René Caillié, a young self-taught explorer drawn by the old reputation of the “city of 333 saints”.

Source: Herodote.net