Latest / Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History
The Timbuktu Scholar Who Calculated the Earth's Circumference
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the life and work of Abou Bakr Ibn Ahmad al-Timbukti, a 15th-century scholar from Timbuktu who produced a remarkably accurate calculation of the Earth's circumference using a method described in his manuscript 'The Gift of the Inquisitive on the Levels of the Spheres.' They discuss how his work drew from earlier Islamic astronomers like al-Battani and al-Zarqali, and how his calculations—only 3% off from modern measurements—were disseminated through the Sankore curriculum via ijazas. The episode also examines the controversy over whether…
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