Timbukto
Imagine a city in West Africa where thousands of Black African students pondered over the latest ideas in science, mathematics, and medicine. A fabled town in the middle of the scorching desert, overflowing with countless numbers of valuable books, expensive crafts, exquisite fabrics, and unrivalled gold jewellery! Imagine a community of highly cultured, wealthy people whose forbidden streets were the subject of legends and whose ochre walls were sought after by some of the greatest adventurers of the times.The University of Timbuktu was established in the 12th century. Located in the city of Timbukto in West Africa, it was composed of three schools, namely the Masajid of Djinguereber, the Masajid of Sidi Yahya, and the Masajid of Sankore. During the 12th century, the university had an enrollment of around 25,000 students from Africa as well as parts of the Mediterranean within a city of around 100,000 persons. There were four levels within the University curriculum, that included, the "Circle of Knowledge", the "Superior Degree", the "Secondary Degree", and the "Primary Degree". In addition to religious principles, teachings included: geography, mathematics, the sciences, and medicine amongst others.Originating as a seasonal settlement during the 11th century, Timbuktu quickly grew in importance and eventually became a permanent settlement by the start of the 12th century. Due to a thriving economy based on book trading, salt, gold, spices and dyes, a strong concentration of both wealth and intellectuals flourished. As intellectual curiosity grew so did the number of books, reaching 20,000 in the city limits alone.The Mali Empire gained direct control over the city of Timbuktu in 1324 during the reign of Mansa Kankou Musa. He designed and saw the construction of one of Sankore's first great mosques and the Jingeray Ber Masjid in 1327.By the end of Mansa Musa's reign (early 14th century CE), the Sankoré Masjid had been converted into a fully staffed Madrassa (Islamic school or in this case university) with the largest collections of books in Africa since the Library of Alexandria. The level of learning at Timbuktu's Sankoré University was superior to that of all other Islamic centers in the world. The Sankoré Masjid was capable of housing 25,000 students and had one of the largest libraries in the world with between 400,000 to 700,000 manuscripts. Today, many of these great works have been unearthed from private collections and stored in documentation centres. The most famous is the Ahmed Baba Centre for Documentation which began its collection around 1970 through a UNESCO educational grant.Timbuktu with its thousands of manuscripts and its deep legacy destroys racist notions of Black inferiority and educational backwardness. Timbuktu gives solid proof of a powerful African past and an unbroken chain of African scholarship. Timbuktu also brings out Islam’s great legacy of development in Africa and its proper place in the annals of African achievement. It’s well preserved lessons of spirituality and peace making may very well hold some of the answers to today’s complex problems of war and never ending conflict. Source:Source: