Latest / Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History / The Timbuktu Scholar Who Wrote a Universe
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Timbuktu's scholars — Ahmad Baba, Mahmud Kati, the big names. But there's one figure I think really deserves his own episode, because he tried to do something almost nobody else attempted: write a complete encyclopedia of the universe. His name was Muhammad al-Mustafa al-Wangari. Luna: An encyclopedia of the universe — that sounds like something out of science fiction. Lucas: Right? But it was real. He called it 'Mīr'āt al-Ālam' — 'The Mirror of the World.' And it wasn't just a list of stars or a legal manual. It was an attempt to synthesize everything: astronomy, Islamic law, Sufi mysticism, even medicine and botany. And he did it in the 17th century, long after the Saadian invasion had shattered the Songhai Empire. Timbuktu was under Moroccan occupation, the great libraries had been looted, and yet here was a scholar producing one of the most ambitious texts of his age. Luna: Before we dive deeper — and I know we're just getting into this — I want to mention something. If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, and especially if you're curious about West Africa and its intellectual traditions, we can only keep doing this because of listeners who chip in. It's a small thing, but it keeps the show ad-free and lets us spend time on stories like this. If you're so inclined, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Absolutely. And honestly, stories like al-Wangari's — they're exactly the kind of thing that doesn't get told in mainstream history. So, thank you to anyone who helps make that possible. Now, back to al-Wangari. He was born in the town of Wangara, which is in present-day Mali, around the 1590s. His family was part of the scholarly elite, connected to the Sankore mosque. He studied under some of the same teachers as Ahmad Baba, though he was a generation younger. Luna: So he was part of that Sankore tradition that we've talked about before. Lucas: Exactly. But where most Sankore scholars specialized — in law, or theology, or medicine — al-Wangari was a polymath. He wrote poetry, he was a Sufi sheikh in the Qadiriyya order, and he was obsessed with astronomy. His Mirror of the World has sections on the celestial spheres, the motion of the planets, the calculation of prayer times, and the determination of the qibla direction. And he uses advanced mathematics: trigonometry, spherical geometry, the works. Luna: Did he have access to instruments? I mean, did he have an astrolabe? Lucas: He did. And he wrote about how to use it. He cites earlier Islamic astronomers like al-Zarqali and al-Battani. But here's the really interesting part: in one passage, he entertains the idea that the Earth rotates on its axis. This is about a century before Galileo was put under house arrest for the same idea. Now, al-Wangari doesn't state it as a fact — he presents it as a possibility, drawing on earlier Islamic debates about the rotation of the Earth. Some scholars had argued that if the Earth rotated, then an arrow shot straight up would land west of where it was fired. Al-Wangari says that's not necessarily true, because the air rotates with the Earth. Luna: That's essentially the same argument that would be used later in Europe — the relativity of motion. Lucas: Exactly. He's thinking about it in the 1600s in Timbuktu. Now, this doesn't mean he was a Copernican — he still describes the Ptolemaic model with the Earth at the center. But he's open to the question, which shows how intellectually vibrant that community was. And his encyclopedia wasn't just for specialists. He wrote it in Arabic, but he tried to make it accessible to students at Sankore. It was meant to be a curriculum in one book. Luna: Did it survive? Is the Mirror of the World still around? Lucas: Parts of it do. There are manuscripts in the Haidara family library and in the Ahmed Baba Institute. But it's not complete. We know from references in other works that the original was probably much longer. And here's a fascinating detail: al-Wangari writes about the 'ilm al-falak — the science of the stars — and he says that it's a religious duty to study the heavens because they reveal the signs of God. So for him, astronomy was an act of worship. Luna: That puts it in a different light. Not just science, but spirituality. Lucas: Right. And his Sufi background is key. He was a member of the Qadiriyya order, which emphasizes inner knowledge and mystical experience. So his encyclopedia bridges the outer sciences — like astronomy and law — with inner spiritual knowledge. He wrote a separate work on Sufi metaphysics too, but that one is lost. We only know of it through references. Luna: What happened to him? Did he live out his life in Timbuktu? Lucas: We don't know exactly. The Tarikh al-Sudan, which is one of our main sources, doesn't mention him much. He seems to have died around the 1650s, but we're not sure. After the Saadian occupation, the historical record becomes patchy. A lot of scholars fled Timbuktu for other cities like Djenné or Gao, or even further south. But al-Wangari stayed. He was teaching at Sankore until his death, as far as we can tell. Luna: So he was a bridge between the golden age of Timbuktu and the later period of decline. Lucas: That's a good way to put it. He's a symbol of continuity. The Moroccan invasion didn't kill the intellectual tradition — it survived, though in a reduced form. And al-Wangari's work shows that even under occupation, the scholars of Timbuktu were still engaging with the big questions. His Mirror of the World is a testament to that resilience. Luna: You mentioned that he wrote about medicine and botany too. What did he say about those? Lucas: The sections on medicine are mostly about humoral theory — the four humors — which was standard in Islamic medicine. But he also includes herbal remedies from the Sahel, local plants that wouldn't be found in Greek or Persian texts. So he's combining the learned tradition with local knowledge. For botany, he describes the uses of plants for food, medicine, and even dyeing cloth. It's a kind of natural history of the region. Luna: So the 'Mirror of the World' really was a mirror — it reflected the world of the Sahel. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why it's so valuable. It's not just a copy of earlier works — it's an original synthesis, shaped by the environment and culture of Timbuktu. For instance, he discusses the proper times for prayer based on the shadow lengths in the Sahel, which is different from calculations done in Cairo or Baghdad. He's adapting universal knowledge to local conditions. Luna: That's something you don't get from European encyclopedias of the same period. Lucas: Not at all. And speaking of Europe, there's a debate about whether al-Wangari's ideas ever reached European scholars. Some historians have speculated that knowledge from Timbuktu might have filtered into North Africa and then into Europe via the trans-Saharan trade. But there's no direct evidence. It's one of those tantalizing possibilities. Luna: I want to go back to his claim about the Earth rotating. Was he the only one in Timbuktu thinking about that? Lucas: No, there was a tradition. Earlier scholars in the Islamic world had debated it — like al-Biruni in the 11th century. And in Timbuktu, there were probably discussions within the scholarly circles. But al-Wangari is the one who wrote it down in a systematic way. His argument about the air moving with the Earth is actually quite sophisticated. He says, imagine a ship moving smoothly — if you jump, you land in the same spot, not behind. So why would an arrow behave differently? It's the same principle. Luna: That's exactly the thought experiment that later physicists used. Lucas: Yes. And he applies it to the Earth's rotation. Now, he doesn't go so far as to say the Earth orbits the sun — that would have contradicted the Quranic view of the cosmos at the time. But he's pushing the boundaries. It's a reminder that scientific thought wasn't a monopoly of Europe. Luna: And his work survived the jihadist occupation in 2012, right? Because the Haidara family hid the manuscripts. Lucas: That's right. The same rescue operation that saved thousands of other manuscripts also saved copies of the Mirror of the World. So we still have access to it. It's been digitized in part, but a full critical edition hasn't been done yet. There's still so much to learn from these texts. Luna: It's incredible to think that a book written in Timbuktu in the 1600s could be read today, online, by anyone. Lucas: It is. And it challenges the narrative that Africa didn't have a written intellectual tradition. Here we have a scholar writing a comprehensive encyclopedia that covers astronomy, law, mysticism, and natural history, all in one book. And he's not an anomaly — he's part of a community. Al-Wangari was just one of many scholars at Sankore who were engaged in this kind of work. Luna: I'm glad we're giving him his due. So what's next? Are there other figures like him we haven't covered? Lucas: There are quite a few. We've focused a lot on the scholars of law and history, but there were also mathematicians, astronomers, and physicians whose works survive in fragments. In a future episode, I'd like to look at the medical texts — there's a treatise on ophthalmology from Timbuktu that's very advanced. But that's for another time. Luna: I'll hold you to that. For now, let's remember al-Wangari and his mirror of the world.