An illustration representing Africa’s powerful ancient empires and their cultural achievements.
The Libraries of Timbuktu: Africa’s Forgotten
Intellectual Capital
One of the greatest intellectual traditions in the world was
practiced at Timbuktu, Mali, long before the Renaissance in Europe. Hundreds of
thousands of manuscripts in astronomy, medicine, mathematics, philosophy, law,
and poetry were kept in the city between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries.
Scholars from across Africa, the Middle East, and even parts of Europe traveled
there to study.