Latest / Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History
The Timbuktu Librarian Who Defied the Saadians
In 1591, the Saadian army from Morocco conquered Timbuktu, but not all resistance came on the battlefield. This episode tells the story of the librarian who hid the city's most precious manuscripts — including a unique copy of the Tarikh al-Sudan — right under the invaders' noses. We explore how the Qadiriyya Sufi network helped smuggle books to safety, why the Saadians' destruction of books sparked a secret preservation movement, and how a single family's courage saved thousands of pages of West African intellectual history. Featuring the role of the Kunta scholars, the…
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