Introduction to Timbuktu

Introduction to Timbuktu S. K. McIntosh Timbuktu sits between the Sahara Desert and the Niger River, which is just over 10 kilometres away. This strategic location, linking riverine trade from Jenné to the south and trans-Saharan camel caravans to the north, was key to the town’s development as a centre of Islamic scholarship and trade. Over many centuries, political leaders and empire-builders sought to control the town and its trade in gold and ivory from the south and salt, glass, books, and cloth from the north. The Europeans were the last to attempt this, but by the time they reached the fabled city of gold in the 19th century, the trans- Saharan gold trade had dwindled to insignificance, with the bulk of the gold transported by sea from coastal ports. Little is known of Timbuktu’s founding, beyond the statement in a 17th-century local history (Tarikh es Soudan) that it began c. 1100 as a nomadic camp centred on a well. During the 14th century, the town apparently experienced a period of prosperity, marked by the construction of the Djinguereber and Sankoré Mosques by Kankan Moussa, the mansa of Mali. He imported an Andalusian architect, Abu Ishaq as-Saheli, who was paid a princely sum of gold to design and build the mosques. Following the collapse of the Empire of Mali in 1433, Timbuktu was incorporated into the Songhay Empire in 1468, and reached its apogee of prosperity and scholarship in the 16th century during the reign of the Songhay Askia Dynasty. The Sankoré and Djinguereber Mosques were rebuilt and enlarged in the 1570s, and the University of Sankoré was reported to have thousands of students studying theology, law, astrology, and other subjects. When the Andalusian-born Leo Africanus visited Timbuktu in the early 1500s, he reported that people were very wealthy, and that books and manuscripts imported from North Africa were the most profitable commodity. Libraries containing these manuscripts are among the most brilliant jewels of the city’s heritage. Leo’s account remained the primary source of European knowledge about sub-Saharan West Africa for several centuries, and was largely responsible for fixing the idea of a ‘city of gold’ in the European imagination. Songhay’s hegemony was broken by a Moroccan army in 1591, and many leading Muslim scholars were exiled from Timbuktu. It is not clear how the city fared after the Moroccans withdrew, leaving only a small garrison behind. By the time René Caillié reached Timbuktu in 1828, there was little evidence of its former glory. Caillié was plainly disappointed by the dull and dusty town he had risked so much to find, although he did win the prize offered by the Geographical Society of Paris for the first written account of Timbuktu. Other Europeans had reached Timbuktu before Caillié, but none had lived to tell the tale, and none of their journals describing the city survived. Archaeology has the potential to tell us a great deal about the early town and its development, but the sandy matrix makes excavations difficult and dangerous. Soundings that have been dug reveal five metres of sandy deposits, all dating to the last two centuries, with deposits continuing below this. Resources of Interest Africanus, Leo. 1526. ‘Description of Timbuktu’, in Reading About the World, Vol. 2 (edited by P. Brians, M. Gallwey, D. Hughes, A. Hussain, R. Law, M. Myers, M. Neville, R. Schlesinger, A. Spitzer, and S. Swan). Harcourt Brace Custom Books. al-Sa’di. 1964. Tarikh al-Sudan (translated by O. Houdas). Paris: Maisonneuve. Bovill, E. W. 1968. The Golden Trade of the Moors, 2nd ed. Oxford: OUP. Caillié, R. 1830 Travels Through Central African to Timbuktu and Across the Great Desert to Morocco: Performed in the Years 1824–1828. London: Colburn and Bentley. Insoll, T. 2001–2002. ‘The archaeology of post-medieval Timbuktu.’ Sahara 13:7–22. Kiabou, B. 2000. ‘Timbuktu: The mythical site.’ World Heritage Review. UNESCO. Kryza, F. 2006. The Race for Timbuktu : In Search of Africa’s City of Gold. New York: Ecco. McIntosh, S. K., and McIntosh, R. J. 1986. ‘Archaeological reconnaissance in the region of Timbuktu, Mali.’ National Geographic Research 2(3):302–319 Saad, E. 1983. Social History of Timbuktu: The Role of Muslim Scholars and Notables 1400–1900. Cambridge University Press..

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