Inside Sankore Timbuktu's Medieval University

Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History · Jul 27, 2026 · 6m · transcript

This episode pulls back the curtain on the Sankore Madrasa, the intellectual heart of Timbuktu that flourished from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Lucas and Luna explore how Sankore functioned as a full-fledged university, long before similar institutions in Europe. They discuss the rigorous curriculum—spanning Maliki fiqh, Arabic grammar, astronomy, medicine, and logic—taught by renowned scholars like Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti. The conversation covers the ijaza degree system, the role of endowments (waqf) in supporting students and teachers, and the cosmopolitan atmosphere that drew scholars…