Latest / Mansa Musa: The Richest Man Who Ever Lived — Fexingo History / Mansa Musa's Lost Library: The Scholars of Timbuktu
Transcript
- Lucas: So Luna, we've talked a lot about Mansa Musa's gold, his army, his building projects — but I think one of the most fascinating things he did was build an entire intellectual infrastructure. Not just mosques, but libraries. And not just in Timbuktu. Luna: Libraries? I thought that was more of a later thing, under the Songhai. Lucas: It's a common misconception. Actually, the golden age of Timbuktu's scholarship really took off under Musa. He brought back scholars from his hajj, but also set up a system of royal libraries that collected manuscripts from all over the Islamic world. Al-Umari, writing just a few decades later, describes Musa as a patron of learning who 'brought the books'. Lucas: And these weren't just religious texts. They covered astronomy, mathematics, medicine, law. The Tarikh al-Sudan mentions a library in Timbuktu that had thousands of volumes, some of them imported from as far as Persia and Andalusia. Luna: So he was basically building a medieval Alexandria in the Sahel. Lucas: Exactly. And he staffed these libraries with trained scholars — qadis and imams who were also librarians. One of the most famous was a qadi named Modibo Muhammad al-Wangari, who we've mentioned before. He was the chief judge of the empire, but he also oversaw the collection and copying of manuscripts. Lucas: The copying industry was huge. Scribes would produce multiple copies of key texts, and these would be distributed to libraries in Timbuktu, Djenné, Walata, and even smaller towns along the Niger. It was a state-sponsored intellectual network. Luna: Wait — Walata? That's further north, near the Sahara. Did they have libraries there too? Lucas: Absolutely. Walata was a crucial stop for caravans, and it had a thriving scholarly community. The libraries there were smaller but still significant. Ibn Battuta visited Walata in the 1350s and noted that the qadi there was a man of great learning. And some of the oldest surviving West African manuscripts come from Walata. Lucas: But here's the thing: most of these manuscripts weren't in Arabic alone. Many were in Ajami — West African languages like Hausa, Fulfulde, or Mande written in Arabic script. That was a deliberate choice to make scholarship accessible to people who didn't speak Arabic. Luna: So it wasn't just an elite thing. They were translating knowledge into local languages. Lucas: Right. And this is where the jeliw, the oral historians, come in. They worked alongside the scribes. Some manuscripts were actually transcriptions of oral traditions — histories, genealogies, legal precedents. So the library wasn't just a repository of foreign texts; it was also a way of preserving and standardizing local knowledge. Lucas: Now, one of the most remarkable figures to emerge from this tradition was Ahmad Baba, but he came later, in the 16th century. Still, his work shows the continuity of the system Musa set up. Ahmad Baba was a scholar from Timbuktu who wrote extensively on West African history and law, and his library was said to contain 1,600 volumes. Luna: That's incredible. But what happened to all these libraries? Did they survive? Lucas: Some did, barely. Many were destroyed during the Moroccan invasion in 1591, when the Saadi sultan sent an army across the Sahara. The Moroccans sacked Timbuktu and burned a lot of books. But many were hidden — buried in the desert, sealed in caves, or smuggled south. In the 20th century, scholars rediscovered these hidden libraries, and today there's a huge effort to digitize them. Lucas: The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project, for example, has preserved over 700,000 pages. And they're still finding more. Some families have kept manuscripts in their homes for generations, passed down as heirlooms. Luna: So Mansa Musa's legacy isn't just gold — it's also the written word, preserved across centuries. Lucas: Exactly. And it's a reminder that his empire wasn't just about wealth and military power. It was about knowledge. He invested in education and scholarship in a way that few rulers of his time did. Lucas: You know, talking about all this makes me think about how we're keeping that tradition alive in our own small way — sharing stories, passing on knowledge. If today's episode was worth a coffee to you, there's a link in the show notes. It's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Just a simple way to support ad-free history. Luna: Yeah, it's like being a patron of the show. A little help goes a long way. Lucas: So, back to Musa's libraries. One of the most intriguing aspects is the role of women. We have records of female scholars in Timbuktu who owned libraries and taught students. Al-Umari mentions that Musa's own sister was known for her learning. Luna: Really? I didn't know that. What was her name? Lucas: Unfortunately, we don't have a name for her in the sources — al-Umari just calls her 'the sister of the mansa.' But she was apparently a scholar in her own right, and she had a library that was renowned. There's also mention of a woman named Nana Asma'u, but she's from the Sokoto Caliphate in the 19th century — a different context. Lucas: But in Musa's time, women were active in scholarship, especially in the law. The Tarikh al-Sudan records that some women served as legal experts, giving fatwas and teaching. It wasn't the norm, but it happened. Luna: That's really progressive for the 14th century. Lucas: It shows that the intellectual culture Musa fostered was relatively open. And part of that was because the Mali Empire was a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual state. Scholarship benefited from diverse perspectives. Lucas: Another fascinating detail: the libraries weren't just for reading. They were also centers of debate. Scholars would gather to discuss and challenge ideas. Ibn Battuta describes attending a session in Timbuktu where a scholar from Cairo debated a local jurist on a point of inheritance law. It was a lively intellectual scene. Luna: So they had academic conferences in the 14th century. That's amazing. Lucas: Essentially, yes. And Musa funded all of this. He paid for scholars' salaries, for the construction of libraries, for the importation of paper and ink. Paper was a valuable commodity — most of it came from North Africa or even Italy, via the trans-Saharan trade. Lucas: The farba, the imperial governors, were responsible for managing these resources locally. Each major city had a farba who oversaw the library and its staff. It was a well-organized system. Luna: It sounds like Musa was trying to create a kind of intellectual commonwealth across the empire. Lucas: That's a great way to put it. And it had a lasting impact. Even after the empire declined, the scholarly tradition continued in Timbuktu and Djenné, right up to the 19th century. The libraries remained active, and new manuscripts were produced. Lucas: Today, many of those manuscripts are being digitized. You can actually view them online through projects like the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project. It's a way of connecting with that lost world. Luna: I think I'll check that out. It's incredible that we can still read the books that were copied under Musa's patronage. Lucas: And that's the real treasure — not the gold, but the knowledge. Musa understood that. And that's why, in many ways, he was more than just the richest man who ever lived. He was a builder of minds.