Golden City in the Desert
By Dr Syed Amir
Bethesda, MD
The fabled city of Timbuktu in the present-day Republic of Mali in West Africa has been much in the news lately. In the West, the name has become synonymous with an exotic place, both distant and forsaken. However, during its golden age in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Timbuktu was a renowned center of Islamic and secular learning, research and scholarship. Based on its past contributions to knowledge and human civilization, it has been designated a world heritage site by UNESCO.
Modern Mali had been a functioning democracy until January 2012, when its legitimate Government was undermined by a rebellion in the north, followed by a military coup. Since then, the country has been tormented by a civil war, characterized by the ascendency of some radical, Jihadist Islamic elements, much like the Taliban. Timbuktu has long been known as the city of 333 Sufi saints, as the people follow a tolerant version of Sufi school of theology. The militants attempted to force their own adaptation of the Shari law, showing scant respect for the religious, pluralistic traditions, or the rich literary and architectural heritage of the city.
Calling themselves, Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, the insurgents destroyed the ancient Sufi shrines the people had revered for generations, branding them un-Islamic . They banned music and entertainments, while instituting harsh punishments. These excesses raised world-wide concern that centuries-old Islamic manuscripts assiduously protected by local families might be destroyed. The danger receded somewhat when, in February, the militants were finally driven out by a joint French-Malian task-force. Fortunately, the earlier reports about large-scale destructions of Timbuktu’s prized scholarly manuscripts proved exaggerated.
In recent times, interest has grown in that period in the Middle Ages when Timbuktu was a center of learning. In the thirteenth century, this city located at the edge of the great Saharan desert became the crossroad of commerce where traders, Arabs and Africans, would exchange precious commodities -- salt, gold, slaves, clothing and other goods. It was part of the Malian Empire whose power reached its zenith between the years of 1250-1450 AD. According to legend, its most powerful ruler, Munsa Moussa (1280-1337) embarked on Hajj in1324, accompanied by 60,000 men, 12,000 slave and 200 camels, laden with large amounts of gold, clothing and food. On his way to Mecca, he distributed so much gold among the poor that the value of the precious metal went down in the markets of Cairo. The stories of wealth of the Malian Kingdom and the scholarly reputation of the city of Timbuktu soon spread afar.
Moussa was determined to promote Islamic religious scholarship and enhance the splendor of Timbuktu. He brought back with him from Hajj some Arab and Andalusia architects. They designed and built his palace as well as the Djingareyber mosque, one of the three oldest mosques in Timbuktu. Constructed mostly of mud and limestone, the great mosque today is admired for its simple majesty, and has been recognized as a world heritage site.
Timbuktu was visited by several world travelers who have left perceptive accounts of their observations. The city had not yet reached its pinnacle when, in 1353, it was visited by the celebrated Muslim traveler, Ibn Battuta. He was impressed with the solemn observance of Friday prayers and joyous celebration of the two Eids. In his travelogue, Rihla, however, he expressed no great admiration for the city or its scholarly institutions. Later, the Andalusian Muslim traveler, Hasan al-Wazzan, known in the west as Leo Africanus, who visited the city in the early sixteenth century, was overwhelmed by the prosperity and the gentle disposition of the people. He noted with approbation that they much cherished instrumental music and dancing. He also recorded the presence of a large number of scholars, preachers, Sufis and judges who enjoyed a highly honored status.
Attracted by Timbuktu’s reputation as a place of learning, many religious scholars and mystics made it their home. At the University of Sankore, one of the three centers of learning, scholars taught subjects as diverse as religion, law, physics, mathematics and astronomy and authored erudite texts many of which still exist. There was the popular saying, as cited by Steven Kemper in his book, A labyrinth of Kingdoms: “Salt comes from the North, gold from the South, silver from the country of white man but the word of God and the treasures of wisdom are only to be found in Timbuktu.”
After the death of Munsa Moussa, the fortunes of Mali and Timbuktu waned temporarily, but were revived under the reign of King Askia Mohammed (1493-1528). A wise and astute king, he established public libraries and encouraged the growth and expansion of education and scholarship opportunities at Timbuktu, ushering in a new era of scientific inquiry and intellectual creativity. The most illustrious scholar at the time was Ahmed Baba (1556-1627), an authority on Malekite jurisprudence and Islamic law, a jurist and prolific author. He is credited with authoring at least 70 books in Arabic and his personal library is reputed to have had a collection of 1600 books.
The storied period of Timbuktu’s history came to an end in 1591 when it was conquered by Sultan Al Mansur of Morocco. The scholars were harshly treated and forced into exile to Marrakesh. Many perished either on the way or in captivity. After ten years, following the death of the Sultan, they were permitted to return but by that time only Ahmed Baba had survived.
As understanding of the value of Timbuktu’s cultural and religious heritage has emerged, attempts have been launched for their preservation. The new Institute of Higher Learning named after Ahmed Baba was opened in 2009 in Timbuktu, and later renovated at a cost of millions of dollars. It is equipped with facilities to preserve the precious manuscripts that had been in varying stages of decay. So far, it has acquired some 30,000 privately owned manuscripts; almost all are in Arabic and many going back to nine-hundred years. They are being systematically cataloged, categorized and photocopied.
It has long been an adage in the West that black Africa did not have any written record of scholarly endeavors, only oral traditions. The rediscovery of the ancient Islamic manuscripts in Timbuktu has unequivocally refuted these misperceptions. They also offer an invaluable opportunity for researchers to study them for the status of knowledge as it existed centuries ago, and the contributions made by Muslim scholars in a remote corner of Africa.
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