Latest / The Songhai Empire: Africa's Powerful Forgotten Kingdom — Fexingo History / The Songhai Empire's Lost Libraries of Timbuktu
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Songhai's trade — gold, salt, copper — but I want to get into something that's easy to overlook when you think of an empire: its books. Luna: Books? Like, manuscripts? Lucas: Exactly. Timbuktu wasn't just a market for salt and slaves — it was one of the great intellectual centers of the medieval world. At its peak, under Askia Muhammad and his successors, the city had hundreds of libraries, both public and private, holding tens of thousands of manuscripts. Lucas: These weren't just religious texts, though there were plenty of Qurans. They covered astronomy, medicine, mathematics, law, poetry — even things like architecture and agriculture. Scholars from North Africa, Egypt, even as far as Mecca would send their works to be copied and studied here. Luna: So it was like a university city, in a way? Lucas: Absolutely. The Sankore Madrasa was the most famous institution, but there were dozens of schools throughout Timbuktu. A scholar named Ahmed Baba — he's probably the most famous intellectual from the period — wrote over forty books and had a personal library of 1,600 volumes. When the Saadians invaded in 1591, they captured him and took him to Marrakech. His library was scattered or destroyed. Luna: That's devastating. What happened to the manuscripts that survived? Lucas: Many were hidden by families — buried in the desert, sealed in caves, or tucked away in secret rooms. Over the centuries, they were passed down as heirlooms. And in recent decades, there's been a huge effort to preserve and digitize them. The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project, spearheaded by the Ahmed Baba Institute, has recovered and restored thousands of them. Luna: So some of those texts are still around today? Lucas: They are. And they give us incredible insight into Songhai's intellectual life. For example, there's a manuscript on astronomy that calculates the position of planets with remarkable accuracy. Another on medicine lists treatments for everything from snakebites to mental illness. It really shows that this wasn't just a trading empire — it was a learning empire. Lucas: And you know, the very existence of these manuscripts challenges the old stereotype that pre-colonial Africa had no written tradition. People like Leo Africanus, who visited Timbuktu in the early 1500s, wrote about the thriving book trade — he said books were the most profitable goods in the city. Luna: Now I'm thinking about how much was lost. The Saadians destroyed so much. Lucas: It's true. When Judar Pasha's forces sacked Timbuktu in 1591, they burned libraries and used manuscripts as fuel. But what's remarkable is how much survived despite that. The manuscripts that remain are a window into a world we're still discovering. Luna: It really makes you appreciate the work of preserving history. Lucas: Speaking of which — and I don't want to break the flow — but this is actually a good moment to mention something about our own work. This podcast is entirely listener-supported, no ads. A handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making episodes like this one. Luna: Yeah, it's a small group, but it's what keeps us ad-free and focused on the stories that matter. Lucas: So if you're finding value in these conversations, that's the way to keep them coming. No pressure — just a genuine thank you to those who already do. Lucas: Anyway, back to Timbuktu's libraries. One of the most fascinating things is that many manuscripts are written in Arabic, but some use local languages like Songhai or Fulfulde written in Arabic script — what's called Ajami. That shows how knowledge was adapted to local contexts. Luna: Ajami — I've heard of that. It's like a fusion of languages and scripts. Lucas: Exactly. And it wasn't just Timbuktu. Cities like Gao and Djenne also had vibrant scholarly communities. The Tarikh al-Sudan, written in the 17th century, is one of the key chronicles of the empire, and it was based on earlier sources that are now lost. So the manuscripts we have are just fragments of a much larger intellectual universe. Luna: It's mind-boggling to think what else might be out there, buried or hidden. Lucas: Absolutely. And that's the exciting part — every time a cache of manuscripts is discovered, it's like opening a time capsule. In 2012, when jihadists occupied Timbuktu, librarians and families risked their lives to smuggle thousands of manuscripts to safety in Bamako. That act of preservation is a modern echo of what happened after the Saadian invasion. Luna: So the legacy of Songhai's scholarship lives on through those efforts. Lucas: It does. And it reminds us that knowledge — and the preservation of it — is a form of resistance. The Songhai Empire may have fallen, but its ideas are still being read, studied, and debated today.