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Presently, Timbuktu is impoverished and suffers from desertification. In its Golden Age, the town's numerous Islamic scholars and extensive trading network made possible an important book trade. This established Timbuktu as a renowned scholarly centre, with cultural hubs that included Sankoré Madrasa.
The city is situated nine miles from the Niger River, making for good agricultural land. Its position near the edge of the Sahara Desert made it a hub for trans-Saharan trade routes. Timbuktu also acts as a midpoint between the regions of North, West, and Central Africa. Because of this, Timbuktu developed into a cultural melting pot.
The manuscripts, and other cultural heritage in Mali, were imperilled during the Mali War. 4,203 of Timbuktu's manuscripts were burned or stolen following between 2012 and 2013. Some 350,000 manuscripts were transported to safety, and 300,000 of them were still in Bamako in 2022.
At its peak, it was one of the largest African empires in history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its largest ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai people . Sonni Ali established Gao as the empire's capital, although a Songhai state had existed in and around Gao since the 11th century.
Timbuktu has many adobe and mud brick buildings but the most famous is the university. The masajids (mosques) of Sankore, Djinguereber, and Sidi Yahya were the centres of learning in medieval Mali and produced some of the most famous works in Africa, the Timbuktu Manuscripts. Timbuktu is a city in Mali with very distinguishable architecture.
Al Qaeda-linked fighters of Ansar Dine also used pick-axes, shovels and hammers to shatter earthen tombs and centuries-old shrines reflecting Timbuktu's Sufi version of Islam in what is known as ...
During the reign of Askia Dawud of the Songhai Empire, Djinguereber mosque was renovated by the Qadi of Timbuktu Aqib ibn Mahmud beginning in 1570. The work was a source of conflict between the Askia and the Qadi, who resented the renovated mosque's association with a secular power.
As days passed with no suspects in custody for Alan's murder, Miriam Helmick said she became convinced she was being watched, reporting that weird things were happening around her house.