University of Timbuktu
The university contributed to the modern understanding of Islamic and academic studies in West Africa during the medieval period and produced a number of scholars and manuscripts taught under the Maliki school of thought.
The city of Timbuktu developed out of a semi-permanent campsite established by the Tuareg people in the late 1100s A.D. to early 1200s A.D.[2][3] Due to the Tuaregs having established the area as a way-station for supplies and provisions, which was often visited by travelers and merchants passing by, it eventually became a large trading city.
Timbuktu may be hard to get to but it played an essential role as a centre of scholarship under the Songhay state until the invasion from the rulers of Marrakesh in 1591, and even thereafter it was revived.
These mosques are also prime examples of earthen architecture, which are maintained by traditional maintenance techniques which continues to the present day.
The Sankoré mosque was originally built in the 14th-15th centuries with the financial backing of a Tuareg woman of the Aghlal tribe.
[13]The Djinguereber Mosque was initially built when Mansa Musa I had returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca, but was reconstructed between 1570 and 1583 by Imam Al-Aqib ibn Mahmud, who was the qadi of Timbuktu.
It was built with the expectation of a holy man who would emerge some forty years later as Cherif Sidi Yahia, who would then be chosen as the Imam.
Scholars in the Djinguereber and Sidi Yahya mosques more often would hold classes privately in their own houses where personal libraries could be used to assist the teachers.
[20] Students would write their teacher's dictation in vocalized texts (harakat), which is only seen in the Quran and educational works such as grammars and law.
He then went to make the hajj, where he studied under leading scholars like al-Nasir al-Laqani who certified him to teach a number of manuscripts.
Little is known about Ahmad's scholarly work in Timbuktu prior to his and some of his family's deportation to Morocco in 1594, as they were accused of undermining the rule and authority of the Moroccan invaders.
His two-year house arrest in Morocco was liberal, as Ahmad was able to teach at the Jami' al-Shurafa' in Marrakesh and attracted many students scholars until his release on 21 Ramadan 1004–19 May 1596.
After being released by Sultan Moulay Zaidan, Ahmad arrived back in Timbuktu on 10 Dhu 'l-Qa'da 1016 AH (26 February 1608).
The Nail al-ibtihaj bi-tatriz al-Dibaj was a biographical dictionary of Maliki jurisprudents, containing within it a voluminous amount of information on North African scholars and is the primary source of information for when it comes to the life and works produced by medieval West African Muslim scholars.
It details the history of the Middle Niger region beginning from the founding of Timbuktu until the invasion and occupation of Ahmed al-Mansur of Morocco.
This work is highly credited as being one of the most important primary sources that discusses about the history of the Middle Niger region.
[10] The Soninke author of Ta'rikh al-Fattash, Ibn al-Mukhtar, recorded the oral tradition surrounding the origin of the Mali kingdom four hundred years earlier.
A manuscript could consist of a variety of texts and documents and can be made of a varying number of leaves ranging from just a few to a few hundred.
Today, the Timbuktu manuscripts are primarily preserved in private families which are where they have traditionally been kept and in the Ahmed Baba Institute, a state run entity.
[29] However, AQIM had only destroyed a portion of the manuscripts as most of them were taken outside of the city to the capital, Bamako, in an initiative led by Abdel Kader Haidara [fr], the son of a respected Malian scholar, Mohammed 'Mamma' Haidara, who in addition to being a scholar was also the owner of a family library which had a considerable number of manuscripts.
Haidara worked alongside members of the local community in an effort to remove the manuscripts from areas which were susceptible to AQIM activity.
