Latest / Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History / The Timbuktu Scholar Who Exposed the Saadian Invasion
Transcript
- Lucas: If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you know Timbuktu wasn't just a city of trade — it was a city of scholars. And few scholars loom larger than Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti. Luna: We've mentioned him before, but I want to dig deeper. Lucas: So let's do that. He's often called the 'Great Scholar of Timbuktu,' and for good reason — he wrote dozens of works, taught at Sankore, and became a symbol of intellectual resistance after the Saadian invasion of 1591. Luna: Resistance in what sense? Lucas: Well, when the Saadians under Judar Pasha crushed the Songhai army at Tondibi and marched into Timbuktu, they rounded up the city's leading scholars and took them back to Marrakech as captives. Ahmad Baba was among them. He was about thirty-five years old. Lucas: But here's the thing — he didn't just sit quietly in exile. He used his time in Marrakech to write. And not just safe, academic treatises. He wrote about the illegitimacy of the invasion and the enslavement of Muslims from Timbuktu. Luna: So he basically turned his captivity into a platform? Lucas: Exactly. And that's what makes his story so remarkable. We should also mention — this show is ad-free by design. If that matters to you and you'd like to support it, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep these conversations going. Lucas: Anyway, back to Ahmad Baba. When he arrived in Marrakech, the Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur tried to win him over, offering him a position at the royal court. But Ahmad Baba refused. He wouldn't legitimize the regime that had sacked his city. Luna: That took guts. Lucas: It did. Instead, he wrote a famous fatwa — a legal opinion — arguing that the Saadian invasion was unlawful because the Songhai Empire was a Muslim state. Under Islamic law, you can't enslave fellow Muslims or conquer their lands without just cause. Luna: Wait — were people being enslaved? Lucas: Yes. After the invasion, thousands of Songhai civilians were taken as slaves, and they were being sold in markets across North Africa. Ahmad Baba wrote specifically about this in a work called Mi'raj al-Su'ud, or 'The Ladder of Ascension,' which dealt with the legality of enslaving West African Muslims. Luna: I didn't realize slavery was such a central issue. Lucas: It was. And Ahmad Baba's position was clear: you cannot enslave a person unless they were born into slavery or captured in a legitimate jihad. The Songhai wars didn't meet that standard. He even named specific ethnic groups, like the Fulani and the Tuareg, who were known to be Muslim and therefore off-limits. Lucas: This fatwa circulated widely — not just in Morocco, but across the Sahara. It became a reference point for scholars debating slavery in the region for centuries. Luna: Did it actually change anything? Lucas: That's the hard question. In the short term, probably not. The Saadians weren't going to free their slaves because of a fatwa. But it did shape the legal conversation. Later scholars in Timbuktu and elsewhere cited Ahmad Baba's arguments. And it gave enslaved people a moral claim to their freedom. Lucas: Ahmad Baba also used his time in Marrakech to write his most famous historical work, the Tarikh al-Sudan — even though that was completed after his return. Luna: I thought he wrote that back in Timbuktu. Lucas: The final version, yes. But he began researching and gathering sources during his exile. He had access to the Saadian royal library, which was quite good. So in a way, his captivity gave him the resources to write the definitive history of the Songhai Empire. Luna: That's almost poetic — his captors ended up giving him the tools to preserve the history they tried to erase. Lucas: Exactly. And when he finally returned to Timbuktu around 1607 — after the death of Ahmad al-Mansur — he was welcomed as a hero. He resumed teaching at Sankore and continued writing until his death in 1627. Lucas: But here's what I find most striking. Ahmad Baba's resistance wasn't violent. He didn't lead an army or start a rebellion. He used his pen. And that pen had lasting power. Luna: It's a reminder that scholarship can be a form of resistance. Lucas: Absolutely. And his legacy endures — the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu is named after him. It houses thousands of manuscripts, many of which survived the jihadist occupation in 2012 thanks to the heroic efforts of librarians who smuggled them to safety. Luna: So his story connects to the present too.