THE CITY OF TIMBUKTUfounded around a well

THE CITY OF TIMBUKTU
founded around a well

The Tuareg of Tenere were known for herding cattles and caravan trade, as caravan masters. They were reputed, in ancient times, according to Strabo, to be a people who ‘pillaging on the fringes of of the desert’ was common among them.
During the hot ‘dry seasons’ across the Sahel, when harmattan winds blew across the region towards the west African coast, the Tuareg often brought their cattles closer to river Niger, where the foliage remained green and there was enough water for men and cattles. In the wet season when the rains returned, they left their belongings with servants in the settlements and went into the hinterlands with their cattles, only to return again during the ‘dry season.’ Reknowned among those they left their belongings with while away was an old woman, known as Buktu. She had a well. And because water was very important in this area, she became famous and the place she lived became known by travellers as ‘tim(well) of Buktu.’ Hence the settlement around her was known as Timbuktu (well of Buktu). The city that became a medieval city of learning and gold merchants in west Africa was founded in the 4th century CE.
In the 12th century CE, books in Timbuktu were ‘more expensive than gold’ or salt and leather from the city of Kano, which was also in west Africa. Sankore university was founded in Timbuktu in the 9th century CE. It was about the second ever university in the world. Students from overseas and west Africa came to study here under orators like Sidi Yiyia. This was before Oxford or Cambridge came into existence. A study was carried out recently. The mathematics that was discovered to be taught to beginners at Sankore university was sent to Scholars in France for analysis. They discovered that the maths is the same now been taught to 2nd year students at a university in France.(2019).
To most people in Europe of this time, Timbuktu was a myth. The decline of the city began in the 16th century CE, under the Songhai empire which collapsed at about 1598, as a result of invasions from the Moroccans.
Something funny happened during the invasion; the Africans in Songhai who had converted to Islam, always wanting to take the moral high ground, were protesting against the Moroccans for ‘invading another ‘muslim nation’. While they were largely busy with this instead supporting their armies in the fight to repel the invaders, the Moroccans tore down the city bit by bit, burning down what they couldn’t cart away. The Moroccans even cut down trees and tore out doors of house which they carted away to Morocco. “Nothing can be compared to the carnage that took place when the Morrocans invaded” -(The tarikh al Fatash, chronicles of the seeker, written around that period in Timbuktu).
It had taken about 1200 goldsmiths to melt down the gold that the Morrocans brought back from Timbuktu. Judar Pasha, a Spanish machinery who was hired by the Morrocans for the invasion and plunder of the empire around Timbuktu was rewarded with a camel load of gold from Timbuktu.
Ahmed Baba, the top scholar of the university at Timbuktu (equivalent of a VC today) , was chained to Morroco. Today, in the library of the university of Fez, a lifework of 5 volumes is preserved with the inscription; “Ahmed Baba, that great Morrocan scholar”.