History Of Timbuktu
About 20 kilometers north of the River Niger, a once-active waterway no longer connects the city of Timbuktu to the river. Northern contemporary Mali. It is not clear where Timbuktu came from originally. The city was established about the year 1100 as a summer nomad camp, according to both local legend and the Tarikh es Soudan, an indigenous chronicle compiled in the seventeenth century. Buktu, a senior slave owner, oversaw a group of slaves who cared for a well. The name Tin Buktu, often spelled Timbuktu, means “the location of Buktu.”
Because of its strategic location at the confluence of riverine and land transit channels, this temporary settlement eventually grew into a more permanent organization. So far, archaeology has been unable to verify this folk story of Timbuktu’s beginnings. After it was first established, Timbuktu was only one of many regional trading hubs. It was under Mali’s empire (1325–1433) that the city appeared to have expanded greatly.
The period of monumental construction that began in the fourteenth century is a reflection of the growing affluence and political stability of the time. There were several notable constructions, including the now-destroyed Madougou royal palace and the still-standing Sankore (about 1400) and Djinguereber (1327) mosques.
Timbuktu’s fortunes dropped when the Mali dynasty crumbled in 1433, when it came under the power of nomadic Berbers and remained in their sphere of influence until 1468. The 1468 conquest and annexation of Timbuktu by Songhai monarch Sonni Ali only accelerated things.
There was a lot of death and destruction during the city’s takeover, as documented by history; Sonni Ali was roundly criticized in the Tarikh es Soudan. Sonni Ali died in 1492, and after his son’s short, bad rule, Timbuktu was taken over by the Askias, a new dynasty within the Songhay empire.
Scholarism and commerce blossomed as Timbuktu reached its “golden era.” Timbuktu became the most significant hub of Islamic learning in Sub-Saharan Africa because the Askias were devoted Muslims. The institution, which sprang up around the Sankore mosque, was dedicated to the study and copying of the Qur’an, Hadith, Sharia, and the Islamic sciences.
Additionally, trade flourished, with gold and ivory being traded for beads, glazed pottery, paper, books, and textiles acquired through trans Saharan trade. The traders’ stories of Timbuktu and West African riches had piqued the interest of the Moroccans up north, who had been slowly making their way north through the desert.As a result, in 1590, an army headed by Judar Pasha formed, and in 1591, after a long march over the desert, they triumphed against the Songhay soldiers at the battle of Tondibi.
Timbuktu’s rapid conquest by the Moroccans had devastating effects. The exile of many prominent Muslim academics is widely documented. However, the Moroccans found it too expensive to continue their objective of dominating the region south of the Sahara, and they abandoned it in 1618. The Moroccan garrison at Timbuktu was abandoned, and the only remnant of the Moroccans’ presence in the city are the Songhai of the Arma tribe, who trace their ancestry back to Morocco.
Between then and the beginning of the eighteenth century, Timbuktu was relatively tranquil and unimportant. It’s possible (but not guaranteed) that intellectual and economic progress slowed, but the country’s reputation in Europe remained strong. When the writings of Leo Africanus, a Spanish Moor who most likely visited the city in the early sixteenth century, were translated for a European audience, the image of a figuratively “gold-plated” metropolis was perpetuated (including an English translation in 1600).
A number of expeditions were sent out in search of Timbuktu. Robert Adams, Shabeeny the Moor, and Mungo Park were just a few of the people who tried to enter the city. However, in August 1826, a European named Major Alexander Gordon Laing reached the city and left a verified narrative in the form of a short letter; His other documents were lost or destroyed after he was assassinated while returning home. René Caillié, a Frenchman who visited Timbuktu in 1828 while passing himself off as an Arab, fared better (in contrast to Laing, who drew attention to himself in his European dress).
Interestingly, Caillié was underwhelmed by the city; Timbuktu had been romanticized in Europe ever since Africanus’s writings were published, and Caillié’s experience did not live up to his expectations. He observed that the population was “indolent” and that the place had a “dull aspect.” While many other European explorers and travelers have since made the journey to Timbuktu, it was the German Heinrich Barth, who spent eight months in and around the city in the middle of the nineteenth century, who wrote one of the most detailed accounts of life there, including descriptions of mosques, trade, markets, manufactures, and the people.
The invasion of Timbuktu by a European force seemed inevitable once the city was made famous by the writings of Caillié, Barth, and others, and French colonial administration was expanded in the region. In December 1893, French soldiers ultimately made it to the city, although they suffered heavy casualties from the Tuaregs and their rescue column.
When Timbuktu and the rest of what was then French Sudan gained their independence in 1960, it marked the beginning of the end of sixty years of colonial control. Since 1960, Timbuktu has served as a commercial and administrative hub for the surrounding region, connecting its nomadic and settled inhabitants. More and more “adventurous” visitors are flocking there, so the infrastructure catering to them is getting a boost.
Also Read: Songhay Empire: The Incredible History of the Askiya Dynasty
