Timbuktu's Medical Traditions: Healing in the Sahel

Long before European medicine reached West Africa, Timbuktu was a center of medical knowledge, where scholars like Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti and the Kunta doctors blended Islamic medicine with local herbal remedies. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the medical manuscripts of the Mamma Haidara and Ahmed Baba collections, the role of the humoral theory of Galen and Hippocrates adapted to the Sahel, and the healing practices of the Tuareg and Fulani. They discuss specific remedies like the use of the baobab tree, treatments for guinea worm, and the influence of the Qadiriyya Sufi order on public health. The episode also touches on the decline of this knowledge during the French colonial period and how modern scholars are now digitizing these texts to revive lost cures. #Timbuktu #MedicalHistory #AhmadBaba #MammaHaidara #Kunta #Qadiriyya #Sahel #HerbalMedicine #HumoralTheory #Galen #Hippocrates #Baobab #Tuareg #Fulani #FrenchColonial #Digitization #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo