Timbuktu

Timbuktu or Tombouctou, city in central Mali, on the southern edge of the Sahara, just north of the great bend of the River Niger. It is connected with the Niger by canals and is served by the small river port of Kabara. The city is a regional trade centre for salt and other basic commodities. Its few manufactured goods include cotton textiles, leather goods, and pottery.

Timbuktu was formerly a great commercial entrepôt and an international centre of Islamic study. The city was probably founded in the late 11th century ad by Tuareg nomads. By the early 14th century, when it was incorporated into the ancient empire of Mali, Timbuktu was an important terminus of trans-Saharan caravans and a distribution point for trade along the upper Niger. After it was conquered by the powerful Songhai Empire in 1468, the city reached its zenith as a commercial and religious centre. It had a population of about 40,000 in the early 16th century. Merchants from north African cities traded salt and cloth for gold and for black African slaves in the markets of Timbuktu. The school organized at the city’s Sankoré mosque was staffed by scholars educated at the leading Islamic academies of the Middle East.

In 1591 invaders from Morocco captured Timbuktu, and thereafter the city declined, partly because of raids by Bambara, Fulani, and Tuareg, and partly because commerce was diverted to other cities. By the 19th century Timbuktu was of little importance. It was later occupied (1893-1894) by the French. The old city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988, and between 1990 and 2005 it was inscribed on the list of World Heritage in Danger because of the threat posed by desert sands. Population 36,000 (1998).