Latest / Mansa Musa: The Richest Man Who Ever Lived — Fexingo History / Mansa Musa's Lost Library The Scholars of Timbuktu
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Mansa Musa's wealth and his building projects, but one thing that doesn't get enough attention is what he did for scholarship. I mean, he turned Timbuktu into one of the great intellectual centers of the medieval world. Luna: Really? I thought Timbuktu was always a trading city. Lucas: It started as a seasonal camp for Tuareg nomads, and it grew because of the salt and gold trade. But Mansa Musa saw its potential. After his hajj in 1324, he brought back scholars and architects, and he poured money into education. The Sankore Mosque became a university, and the city filled with private libraries. Luna: Wait, private libraries? So it wasn't just one big library? Lucas: Exactly. Most of the manuscripts were held by individual families and scholars. The historian al-Umari, who wrote a generation after Mansa Musa, described Timbuktu as a place where books were more valuable than any other good. People would buy manuscripts from North Africa and the Middle East, and they'd copy them by hand. Luna: What kinds of books were they collecting? Lucas: Everything. The Quran and commentaries, hadith, Maliki law — that was the school of Islamic law in West Africa — but also astronomy, mathematics, medicine, poetry. There were works by Al-Ghazali and Ibn Sina. Some of these manuscripts were beautifully illuminated, with geometric designs and gold leaf. The Tarikh al-Sudan, a chronicle written in the 17th century, mentions a scholar named Ahmad Baba who had a library of over 1,600 volumes. Luna: 1,600 volumes? That's huge for the time. Lucas: It was. Ahmad Baba was one of the last great scholars of Timbuktu before the Moroccan invasion in 1591. He was taken captive and sent to Marrakesh, but he kept writing. He even corresponded with scholars in North Africa about slavery and Islamic law. His work shows how connected Timbuktu was to the broader Islamic world. Luna: So what happened to all those manuscripts? Lucas: That's the tragedy. When the Songhai Empire fell to the Moroccans, Timbuktu was sacked. Many libraries were destroyed or scattered. But a lot of manuscripts survived because families hid them. They buried them in the desert, or walled them up in their homes. In the 20th century, scholars started rediscovering these collections. There are thought to be hundreds of thousands of manuscripts still in private hands in Mali. Luna: And now they're at risk from conflict and climate. Lucas: Yes. In 2012, when militants took over Timbuktu, librarians and families smuggled thousands of manuscripts to Bamako to save them. It's an ongoing effort. The Ahmed Baba Institute, named after the scholar, is trying to digitize and preserve them. But it's a race against time. Lucas: You know, it's remarkable that these texts survive at all. The medieval scholars of Timbuktu were writing on paper made from mulberry bark or imported from Europe. In the dry Sahel, paper can last centuries if it's kept away from moisture and insects. Luna: I've heard that some of the manuscripts include mathematical proofs. Is that true? Lucas: Absolutely. There are manuscripts on algebra and geometry, including commentaries on Euclid. And they were used for practical purposes — calculating inheritance shares under Islamic law, dividing land, predicting the phases of the moon. The scholars of Timbuktu weren't just copying old texts; they were producing original work. Luna: So Mansa Musa really did set something in motion that lasted centuries. Lucas: He did. And I think that's part of his legacy that often gets overshadowed by the gold. But the intellectual infrastructure he funded — the mosques, the schools, the patronage of scholars — created a tradition that survived even after the empire declined. Lucas: And here's something else: a lot of that scholarship was written in Arabic, but there's also material in local languages like Songhai and Tamasheq, written in Arabic script. It's a multilingual record of West African history. Luna: That's incredible. It's like a whole lost world of knowledge. Lucas: It really is. And it's a reminder that the story of Africa isn't just about trade and empires — it's also about ideas. People sometimes assume that precolonial Africa had no written tradition, but the manuscripts of Timbuktu prove otherwise. Lucas: A quick thing before we move on — we keep this show going without any ads. If that kind of independence matters to you, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small way to keep these conversations ad-free. Luna: Yeah, and we really appreciate everyone who chips in. It lets us dig into topics like this without worrying about sponsors. Lucas: Exactly. So back to Timbuktu — one of the most famous manuscripts from there is the 'Timbuktu Chronicles,' actually two texts: the Tarikh al-Sudan and the Tarikh al-Fattash. They give us most of what we know about the Songhai Empire and the earlier Mali period. Luna: So those chronicles were written after Mansa Musa's time, right? Lucas: Yes, they date from the 16th and 17th centuries. But they draw on oral traditions and earlier written sources that go back to his era. So they're invaluable for reconstructing the history of the region. Luna: What about the scholars who came during Mansa Musa's reign? Were any of them from Spain or North Africa? Lucas: Yes, the most famous is Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, who we've talked about before — he designed the Djinguereber Mosque. He was a poet and architect from Granada. But there were others: jurists from Fez, astronomers from Cairo. Mansa Musa actively recruited them. He even asked the Marinid sultan in Fez to send scholars. Lucas: And it wasn't just about importing knowledge. Local scholars like Muhammad al-Kabari, a native of Timbuktu, studied in Egypt and then returned to teach at Sankore. So there was a real exchange. Luna: So the intellectual life of Timbuktu was dynamic, not just a one-way transfer. Lucas: Right. And that's what made it so resilient. Even after the Mali Empire weakened and the Songhai took over, Timbuktu remained a center of learning. The tradition continued until the Moroccan invasion disrupted it. Luna: How many of those manuscripts do you think are still out there, undiscovered? Lucas: No one knows for sure. The Ahmed Baba Institute has about 40,000, but many more are in private hands. Some estimates go into the hundreds of thousands. And every year, new collections are found in old trunks or hidden in caves. It's a slow process of recovery. Lucas: There's also the challenge of conservation. These are fragile objects, and the climate is harsh. But projects like the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project at the University of Oslo are working to digitize them and make them accessible worldwide. Luna: That's amazing. It's like the digital age is helping to undo some of the damage from the invasion. Lucas: In a way, yes. And the manuscripts themselves are a testament to the value Mansa Musa placed on knowledge. He didn't just want his empire to be rich — he wanted it to be learned. Luna: It's a different side of him than the gold and the hajj. Lucas: Absolutely. And it's a side that deserves more attention. The libraries of Timbuktu are one of the great legacies of his reign.