Inside Songhai's Great Library of Timbuktu

Long before the fall of Gao, Timbuktu was a city of books. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the legendary libraries of Songhai — not the Sankore Madrasa, but the private book collections that turned Timbuktu into a center of global learning. They follow the story of a single manuscript: a 16th-century copy of al-Maghili's legal writings, annotated by the great scholar Ahmed Baba himself. Lucas explains how the trans-Saharan book trade brought works from as far as Baghdad and Andalusia, how Timbuktu's scholars built personal libraries of thousands of volumes, and how the city's book culture survived — and then didn't survive — the Saadian invasion in 1591. Along the way, they meet the librarian Mahmud Kati, whose Tarikh al-Fattash became a priceless source; hear about a book that was ransomed for salt; and grapple with the tragedy of what was lost when Judar Pasha's men used priceless manuscripts as packing paper. This episode is a love letter to the written word in the Sahel. #Timbuktu #AhmedBaba #SonghaiLibraries #TransSaharanBookTrade #TarikhAlFattash #MahmudKati #BookCulture #SahelHistory #Manuscript #AlMaghili #JudarPasha #SaadianInvasion #WestAfricanHistory #SonghaiEmpire #AfricanLibraries #History #FexingoHistory #LostKnowledge Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo