Latest / Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History
The Timbuktu Poet Who Lost His Mind to Love
In this episode of Fexingo History, Lucas and Luna explore the life and work of Muhammad al-Mustafa al-Wangari, a 17th-century Timbuktu poet who scandalized the scholarly elite with his ecstatic love poems. Born into a family of qadis at Sankore, al-Wangari abandoned his legal studies to write verses that blurred the line between human and divine love. His poetry, preserved in the Mamma Haidara Library, was denounced by some as heretical, yet defended by others as a legitimate expression of Sufi mysticism. We read from his surviving ghazals, discuss the controversy around his censure by the…
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