The Timbuktu Scholar Who Preserved Africa's Written Heritage

Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History · Jun 23, 2026 · 7m · transcript

In this episode, we explore the remarkable story of Mahmud Kati and his son al-Hajj al-Mukhtar, the compilers of the Tarikh al-Fattash, one of the most essential chronicles of West African history. Unlike the well-known Tarikh al-Sudan by al-Sadi, the Tarikh al-Fattash was a family project spanning generations from the 16th to the 17th century. We delve into how Mahmud Kati, a scholar from Timbuktu of Soninke origin, began recording the history of the Songhai Empire, its rulers like Askia Muhammad, and the intellectual life of the Niger Bend. The manuscript was later completed by his…