Songhai's Astronomical Legacy: Timbuktu's Lost Observatories

Before telescopes and modern observatories, the scholars of Timbuktu studied the stars with naked-eye precision, creating tables, predicting eclipses, and debating the shape of the cosmos. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the astronomical tradition of Songhai's Sankore Madrasa and the wider Sahel. They discuss how astronomers like Ahmad al-Tifashi and al-Qalasadi used instruments like the astrolabe and quadrant, and how their work connected to Islamic and West African intellectual networks. The conversation also touches on the 1492 solar eclipse that coincided with Askia Muhammad's rise, the legacy of Timbuktu's manuscript libraries in preserving astronomical knowledge, and the silencing of this tradition after the Saadian invasion. Learn about specific texts, the social role of astrology, and how Songhai's intellectual culture rivaled that of contemporary Europe and the Islamic world. #SonghaiAstronomy #TimbuktuObservatories #AhmadAlTifashi #SankoreMadrasa #AlQalasadi #Astrolabe #Quadrant #1492Eclipse #AskiaMuhammad #SahelScience #IslamicAstronomy #ManuscriptLibraries #History of Astronomy #WestAfricanScience #FexingoHistory #SonghaiEmpire #PreTelescopeAstronomy #History Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo