112 Atlantic African, American, and European Backgrounds to Contact, Commerce, and Enslavementequal to Rome, Fez, and Mecca. As a center of learning and
scholarship, it drew visitors, merchants, traders, students,
and great scholars from the Muslim world.
Timbuktu became prosperous when its inhabitants
became Muslims and established trade with Muslims from
Morocco. Even though Timbuktu was famous for its Is-
lamic heritage, education in Timbuktu was not limited to
Islamic studies; it included natural sciences, geography,
and medicine as attested to by the manuscripts written by
Timbuktu scholars. In 2003, the Library of Congress dis-
played Arabic manuscripts from Timbuktu, among which
are books on medicine. Timbuktu reached its peak of in-
tellectual reputation during the reign of Mandingo Askia’s
Empire (1493–1591).
In the 16th century and before the arrival of the Por-
tuguese, Timbuktu had more than 100,000 inhabitants with
great schools, colleges, universities, and well-funded public
and private libraries. Timbuktu had three great mosques
that were centers of learning—Djingareyber, Sankore, and
Sidi Yahia—whose designs and buildings represent African
Islamic architecture. Timbuktu also became prosperous
with thriving trade in gold, salt, and ivory. Th is shows the
high level of civilization attained in Timbuktu in the Mid-
dle Ages. Th e glory and fame of Timbuktu declined in 1591
when the Moroccans invaded and destroyed it. Later, the
Portuguese came and established trade with West African
coasts and thus limited Timbuktu’s trade with its neighbors.
Th is cut-off infl icted a devastating blow to Timbuktu’s ad-
vancement in trade and learning. Merchants and scholars
moved out of Timbuktu gradually due to this decline.
In 1893, the French occupied Mali and took Timbuktu.
Hence, Timbuktu lost its remaining strategic trade routes
and wealth. Th e French occupiers despised Islamic institu-
tions. Th e study of Arabic and Islamic sciences lost their
prime positions as the French language was introduced.
Timbuktu’s valuable and classic Islamic books were kept in
private libraries, which limited their usage by the public.
Timbuktu became a lost city; its population dropped dras-
tically. It was abandoned politically and commercially. Nei-
ther modern roads nor trains were built by the French to
connect Timbuktu with big cities or with the capital. Boats
and camels remain the common means of transportation
today to reach Timbuktu.
At present, 33,000 to 40,000 people live in Timbuktu,
which refl ects ancient mud-building as if it had never wit-
nessed any civilization. Foreign tourists visit TimbuktuNotwithstanding eff orts to legislate loose pack on slave
companies and white entrepreneurs bent on practicing
tight pack, recent historical studies indicate that there is no
statistical correlation between ships with less slave captives
and those with more. Mortality statistics support this inter-
esting hypothesis. Regardless what European slave trade is
studied, the fi ndings are consistent. Revisionist historians
have concluded that other variables aff ected mortality in a
more profound way than loose or tight pack. Inoculation
of captives, faster-sailing vessels, and shorter sailing times
somewhat negated the eff ect of crowding aboard slave
vessels.
See also: Atlantic Slave Trade; Loose Pack; Newton, John
Michael A. CookeBibliography
Feelings, Tom. Th e Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo. New
York: Dial Books, 1995.
Klein, Herbert S. Th e Atlantic Slave Trade. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1999.
Klein, Herbert S., Stanley L. Engerman, Robin Haines, and Ralph
Shlomowitz. “Transoceanic Mortality: Th e Slave Trade in
Comparative Perspective.” William and Mary Quarterly 58
(2001):93–117.
Mannix, Daniel P. Black Cargoes: A History of the Atlantic Slave
Trade, 151 8– 1 865. New York: Viking Press, 1965.
Palmer, Colin A. Human Cargoes: Th e British Slave Trade to Span-
ish America, 1 700– 1739. Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1981.
Timbuktu
Timbuktu, the city of knowledge and the capital of Islamic
Mali, was established by Tureq nomads in the early 12th
century as a camp for traders. Timbuktu earns its name
from a well, owned by a woman, Bouctou. Th e well, salt, and
gold attracted many travelers to the area. Timbuktu, located
in southern Sahara adjacent to the Niger River, is part of the
Republic of Mali. As Timbuktu grew in population and im-
portance, it became the subject of occupation by neighbor-
ing West Africans, Portuguese, and French. Th e invasion
was to control sub-Saharan trade—the salt and gold indus-
try as well as the slave trade. Timbuktu became part of the
Mali Empire in ce 1330. Before that, it enjoyed a great repu-
tation during the reign of King Mansa Musa. West Africans
perceived Timbuktu as the economic and cultural capital