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Timbuktu's Astrolabe Maker: Ahmad al-Wangari's Sky
In the fifteenth century, a scholar named Ahmad al-Wangari crafted an astrolabe in Timbuktu that survived to modern times. This episode traces his life, his travels from Walata to the Niger bend, and his scientific work at Sankore madrasa. We look at how he adapted the Islamic astrolabe to Sahelian skies, what his instrument reveals about trade in knowledge across the Sahara, and why his name appears in the Fondo Kati archive. Through his story, we see Timbuktu not as a remote outpost but as a node in a cosmopolitan network linking Cairo, Fez, and Granada. Al-Wangari's astrolabe, now in…
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