For some reason, the history of Africa is not interesting to Turkish
academia. Some part of this continent was, however, inside the
territory of the Ottoman State until recently. The topic of this
article covers the history of Timbuktu, which was once one of the
most important centers in Africa, and Europe's desire to Timbuktu.
“Salt comes from the north, gold from the south, and silver from
the country of the white men, but the word of God and the treasures
of wisdom are only to be found in Timbuctoo” says an old African
(Tamasheq) proverb[1].
The life of Timbuktu, which today is inside the territory of Mali,
began as a trading center of Tuareg people by the end of 11th century. Timbuktu, which became an important city by constant growth,
has gained an international reputation as the center of trade and
knowledge despite its different perception in the eyes of the
Europeans [2]. Even though the exact location of Timbuktu was not
known in Europe for many centuries, the city was believed to have
houses which were made of gold [3]. The name of this city is variably
called Tombuto, Tambucto, Tombuctoo or Timbuctoo in European
languages.
Timbuktu was one of the important centers where Islamic sciences were
taught. Although the region was ruled by different people, such as
Mali, Songay and Mor, scholars uninterruptedly continued doing
research and teaching students. Scholars in Timbuktu have been
interested not only in tafsir (Quranic exegesis), hadith (Prophetic
tradition), fiqh (Islamic law) and kalam (theology), but also
linguistics, history, mathematics, logic and astronomy. A
bibliographic dictionary, which was written by Ahmad Baba (1556-1627)
and contains the biographies and works of scholars between the end of
the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century,
demonstrates Timbuktu's high level in Islamic sciences and its close
contact with Makka and Madina [5].
Sankore Madrasah in which scientific activity has lasted for centuries |
Leos Africanus (Hasan bin Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Zayyati), who
traveled around Africa upon the request of Pope in the 16th century, gives clues in his travel book regarding the intellectual
life in Timbuktu [6]: “Here are great store of doctors, judges,
priests, and other learned men, that are bountifully maintained at
the kings cost and charges. And hither are brought diuers manuscripts
or written bookes out of Barbarie, which are sold for more money than
any other merchandize”.
Hunwick, an African historian, presents notable information about
Timbuktu [7]. Timbuktu's being center of knowledge was the impetus
for the increase in writing and trading of books from there. Timbuktu
did not import manuscripts only from north Africa and Egypt. Scholars
got education in Makka where they went to for religious pilgrimage
and also in Cairo which was on their way back, bringing the books
they copied in those places to their own libraries. There was an
active copying tradition in Timbuktu, too. It can be realized from
the colophons on the books written in Timbuktu that the writing
process was a professional business. Hunwick mentions al-Quran
al-Karim with 1420 date in the library of Mahmud Kati he encountered
on August, 1999. The last page was written in Ottoman Turkish and
al-Quran was recorded in the name of Sharifa Hadija Hanim foundation.
Thousands of manuscripts are waiting to be read |
UNESCO added Timbuktu to the World Heritage List in 1988. By the
support of the Ford Foundation, Timbuktu manuscripts project was
initiated in order to protect these manuscripts by digitization in
2000. This project also is included in Memory of the World projects
of UNESCO [8].
Few cities in the world are surrounded by legends as Timbuktu. The
city is located at the intersection of the caravan trades in the
Sahara. The fundamental commodity of the Saharan trade was gold.
Throughout the Middle Ages, almost two-thirds of the gold need in the
world were provided by the West Africa. Later on, since gold came
from Guinea in the 17 and 18th centuries, gold currency
was called “guinea”. A tremendous amount of gold was sent to the
north and sold in the Timbuktu market. Gold was carried from here to
Fez and Tripoli passing through the Sahara by camels. Most of this
gold used to be sold to Europe. As time went on, the knowledge that
the gold came from Timbuktu spread out over Europe. This played an
important role in shaping the image of Timbuktu in Europe. Even
though the gold trade passing through Timbuktu ended a long time ago,
the myth of Timbuktu became bigger and more pervasive in Europe [4].
The European explorers who set out for new markets, new trade routes
and new sources spread out all corners of the world in order to
accomplish their purpose. Besides being an interesting place, Africa
had significant natural resources. Some of these explorers had a
desire to become the first European to reach Timbuktu. Few of them
achieved their aim. This cultivated the image of Timbuktu as an
unreachable city in addition to its image of golden city. The
phrases, such as “To Timbuktu and back”, “It is a long way to
Timbuktu”, “I will knock you clear to Timbuktu” and “Go to
Timbuktu”, are the reflection of Timbuktu's image of
unreachability on the language.
We can see the clues about how Europe imagines Africa in the
article “Africa” in the 1778 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica
[9]: “abounds with gold and silver in a greater degree . . . and it
is surprising that
neither the ancient or modern Europeans,
notwithstanding their extraordinary and insatiable thirst after gold
and silver, should have endeavoured to establish
themselves
effectively in a country much nearer to them than either America or
the East Indies and where the objects of their desires are to be
found in equal, if
not greater, plenty”.
An African map published in 1790 by the African Association |
The European adventure in Africa dates back to very early times.
After 18th century, this adventure, however, turned into a
systematic exploration movement. In 1788, the African Association
(with the full name, The Association for Promoting the Discovery of
the Interior Parts of Africa) was founded, whose purposes were to
determine and map the route of the Niger River and more importantly
to find the famous city Timbuktu. William Sinclair, grandchild of the
association co-founder Sir John Sinclair, says the following in his
article about the association [10]: “In 1788 he took a leading part
in forming an association to
promote discoveries in Africa. At that
date the map of Africa,
beyond the coast-line and Egypt, was almost
a blank. Hitherto
Europeans had visited that continent to plunder,
oppress, and enslave: the share of this country in the slave-trade is the most
astounding and disgraceful chapter in its history. The object of
this society was to promote the cause of science and humanity,
to
explore the mysterious geography, to ascertain the resources,
and to
improve the condition of that ill-fated continent. In
furtherance of
their designs they employed able and experienced
travellers to
penetrate as far as they could into the interior, and
collect
information on all subjects interesting to the philosopher or the philanthropist. Towards the expenses of these missions
each
member paid an annual subscription. ... The result of their labours
has thrown new lustre on the British name, and widely extended
the
boundaries of human knowledge. They have caused a solid
and
permanent glory, and have acquired higher claims to the
admiration
of mankind than many of those whose achievements
fill the first
place in the page of history”. At the end of his article, William
Sinclair wishes this: “Had the Association continued its existence,
it might have done much
for the peaceful solution of many African
problems, and for the
general improvement of commerce and
knowledge”. Later on, the areas under the investigation were
colonized by France. Taking into account France's lack of
administrative skill, Sinclair's wishes are convincing. These wishes,
however, can unfortunately not be fulfilled as long as the West has
the exploitative attitude towards the non-Western countries.
Europe's desire for Timbuktu also was reflected through poems. Alfred
Tennyson (1809-1892), a poet laureate, won the “Chancellor's Gold
Medal” from Cambridge University by his poem “Timbuctoo” at the
age of 18. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), an English
novelist, penned another poem titled “Timbuctoo” in order to
satirize Alfred's poem [11].
West Africa was a French colony between 1893 and 1960. The
traditional education keeps on in Timbuktu where an intense
scientific activity continued until 18th century. Timbuktu
now is far from the good old days and has become a place where
thousands of manuscripts are in the storerooms of houses and the
poverty prevails.
When the host in the documentary “The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu”
of BBC saw the manuscripts about astronomy and mathematics in
Timbuktu, she was very surprised at these books. Of course a person,
coming from a wealthy country that has enslaved black people and
exploited (with the West's innocent word 'colonize') their countries,
will be surprised.
[1] Dubio Felix, Timbuctoo-The Mysterious, Translation from French by Diana White, London, 1896, p. 276.
[2] Y. G.-M. Lulat, A history of African higher education from antiquity to the present: a critical synthesis, London, 2005, p. 72.
[3] Brian Gardner, The Quest for Timbuctoo, London, 1968, p. 9.
[5] Ira Marvin Lapidus, A history of Islamic societies, Cambridge University Press, 2002 , p. 409. For the contributions of Islam to intellectual life in Africa, please refer to: Scott Steven Reese, The transmission of learning in Islamic Africa, Brill, 2004.
[6] Leo Africanus, The history and description of Africa: and of the notable things, Translated by John Pory, Prepared by Robert Brown, Hakluyt Society, London, 1896, vol. 3, p. 825. All the volumes can be downloaded here (vol. 1, vol. 2 and vol. 3).
[7] John O. Hunwick, West Africa, Islam, and the Arab world: studies in honor of Basil Davidson, Princton, 2006, pp. 41-42. Hunwick presents a comprehensive bibliography regarding Timbuktu: John O. Hunwick, “Timbuktu: a bibliography”, Sudanic Africa, vol.12, pp. 115-129 , 2001. This paper can be downloaded here.
[8] You can reach the Timbuktu website of UNESCO the World Heritage List here. You can also reach the detailed information about the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project here. The website of The Library of Congress provides some part of thousands digitized manuscripts. West African Arabic Manuscript Database Project has classified approximately 23,000 manuscripts based on their subjects. One of the catalogs published by Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation presents 9000 manuscripts in the Ahmad Baba library, Timbuktu. The book titled Arabic Literature of Africa The Writings of Western Sudanic Africa edited by John O. Hunwick was published in 2003. Another valuable book about the intellectual life in Africa was published under the title The Trans-Saharan Book Trade : Manuscript Culture, Arabic Literacy and Intellectual History in Muslim Africa in 2010. The Meanings of Timbuktu (Editors Shamil Jeppie and Souleymane Bachir Diagne) published in 2008 can be downloaded here.
[9] Robin Hallett, “The European approach to the interior of Africa in the eighteenth century”, The Journal of African History, vol. 4, no.2, pp. 191-206, 1963.
[10] William Sinclair, “The African Association of 1788”, Journal of the Royal African Society, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 145-149, 1901. The association used to publish the information they gathered under the title of Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa. You can reach the pdf version of the 1798 report. Robin Hallett published the association's records under the title of Records of the African Association in 1963, London.
[11] William Makepeace Thacke, The works of William Makepeace Thacke, Kensington Edition, Volume XXX, New York, 1904, p. 457-460 or William Makepeace Thackeray, Essays, Reviews, Hesperides Press, 2008, p. 410-412. The 1904 edition of the book can be downloaded here.