Timbuktu: The African City of Great Scholars
Hundreds of years ago, a city in Mali became a place where students and scholars came from far away to learn. That city was Timbuktu.
Imagine a city on the edge of the Sahara where people studied mathematics, astronomy, medicine, law and literature. In Timbuktu, books were precious and learning was highly valued.
From the Middle Ages, the city became an important centre of learning in West Africa. Students came to study with teachers in schools and places of learning, including around the famous Sankoré Mosque.
Scholars also wrote down their knowledge by hand. For centuries, families kept thousands of manuscripts — books and texts about science, religion, history and everyday life.
Timbuktu was also a busy trading city. Its location near the routes across the Sahara connected different parts of Africa.
Today, its ancient manuscripts still tell this story: Africa has also been a land of books, schools and great scholars.
