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The Timbuktu Scholar Ahmad Baba Defies a Sultan
When the Moroccan sultan Ahmad al-Mansur conquered Timbuktu in 1591, he expected the city's most famous scholar, Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti, to bow. Instead, the scholar was dragged in chains to Marrakesh, where for over a decade he debated slavery, law, and power with the sultan himself. This episode explores Ahmad Baba's captivity, his authorship of the groundbreaking antislavery treatise Mi'raj al-Su'ud (The Ladder of Ascent), and how his defiance reshaped Maliki jurisprudence across the Sahel. We'll examine the political calculations behind al-Mansur's invasion…
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