Timbuktu's Lost Botanical Gardens: Healing Plants of the Sahara

Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History · Jul 1, 2026 · 5m · transcript

Episode 132 of Fexingo History turns to a forgotten chapter of Timbuktu's intellectual legacy: its botanical gardens and medicinal plant knowledge. Before the Saadian invasion, Songhai and Tuareg scholars cultivated medicinal herbs from across West Africa and the Maghreb near Sankore and Djinguereber. Lucas and Luna explore how the Tarikh al-Sudan mentions treatments for fever, dysentery, and snakebite using native species like aloe vera, myrrh, and baobab. They discuss the exchange of plant knowledge via trans-Saharan caravans, the writings of Ahmad Baba on herbal remedies, and the…