Timbuktu's Lost Diplomat: The Saadian Embassy of al-Wazzan

Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History · Jul 21, 2026 · 9m · transcript

In the early 1500s, a young man named al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan—known later as Leo Africanus—was captured by pirates and taken to Rome. But before that, he had served as a diplomat for the Saadian sultan of Morocco, crossing the Sahara to the Songhai Empire and into Timbuktu. This episode follows al-Wazzan's journey from Fez to Gao, his audience with Askia Muhammad, and the detailed account he later wrote of Timbuktu's libraries, scholars, and king. We explore what his Description of Africa reveals about the city's golden age and the diplomatic ties between North and West…