ScienceSub-Saharan Africa

Timbuktu

Jan 1327

Books cost more than gold in the Sahel's city of learning

In depth

The manuscripts refute a persistent notion that sub-Saharan Africa was without written culture. In 2012 a large portion of them were smuggled out of the city in donkey carts and trunks when Islamist groups took control and began destroying shrines — one of the most remarkable cultural rescues of recent times.

For children

Timbuktu had universities, libraries and thousands of hand-written books on astronomy, medicine and law. A traveller wrote that books were the most profitable goods in the city. Many of the manuscripts survive.

Connects to

Mansa Musa and MaliJan 1324
Songhai at its heightApr 20, 1493
The trans-Saharan caravansJan 700 – Jan 1600
The universitiesJan 1088

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org