Timbuktu was for a long time thought legendary. Its reputation of immensely rich city fed myths in Western Europe and explorers tried their luck to find it. Located in the middle of the Western Africa, it would be discovered by Europeans centuries after its decline. Few accounts related to the city till the eighteen century and as a result the imaginations of the people were easily misled by them and their rarity, contributing to bolster its status as a mysterious place. I am afraid that this article will not be as detailed as I wished it could as sources on Timbuktu remain sparse at least on internet.
Timbuktu was founded by the nomadic Tuareg as early as the 10th century as a seasonal settlement. Roaming the desert during the wet months, in summer they stayed near the flood plains of the Inner Niger Delta. In the eleventh century merchants set up the various markets and built permanent dwellings in the town, establishing the site as a meeting place for people traveling by camel. They also introduced Islam and reading, through the Qur'an. With the rise of the Ghana Empire, several Trans Saharan trade routes had been established. Salt from Mediterranean Africa was traded with West-African gold and ivory, and large numbers of slaves. Halfway through the eleventh century, however, new goldmines near Bure made for an eastward shift of the trade routes. This development made Timbuktu a prosperous city where goods from camels were loaded on boats on the Niger. Muslim scholars from Walata fled to Timbuktu and solidified the position of Islam. Timbuktu had become a center of Islamic learning, with its Sankore University and 180 Quranic schools. In 1324 Timbuktu was peacefully annexed by king Musa I, returning from his pilgrimage to Mecca. The city now part of the Mali Empire, king Musa I ordered the construction of a royal palace and, together with his following of hundreds of Muslim scholars, built the learning center of Djingarey Ber in 1327.
By 1375, Timbuktu appeared in the Catalan Atlas, showing that it was, by then, a commercial center linked to the North-African cities and had caught Europe's eye.
With the power of the Mali Empire waning in the first half of the 15th century, Maghsharan Tuareg took control of the city in 1433-1434. Thirty years later however, the rising Songhay Empire expanded, absorbing Timbuktu in 1468-1469 and lead the city to its golden age. With the capital of the empire being Gao, Timbuktu enjoyed a relatively autonomous position. Merchants from numerous other cities of North Africa gathered there to buy gold and slaves in exchange for the Saharan salt of Taghaza and for North African cloth and horses. Leadership of the Empire stayed in the Askia dynasty until 1591, although internal fights led to a decline of prosperity in the city. The city's capture on August 17, 1591 by an army sent by the Saadi ruler of Morocco, Ahmad I al-Mansur, and led by pasha Mahmud B. Zarqun in search of gold mines, brought the end of an era of relative autonomy. Intellectually, and to a large extent economically, Timbuktu now entered a long period of decline. In 1593, Saadi cited 'disloyalty' as the reason for arresting, and subsequently killing or exiling many of Timbuktu's scholars. The ultimate decline continued, with the increasing trans-atlantic traderoutes (transporting African slaves, including leaders and scholars of Timbuktu) marginalising Timbuktu's role. While initially controlling the Morocco - Timbuktu traderoutes, the grip of the Moroccans on the city began losing its strength in the period until 1780, and in the early 19th century the Empire didn't succeed in protecting the city against invasions and the subsequent short occupations of the Tuareg (1800), Fula (1813) and Tukular 1840. It is uncertain whether the Tukular were still in control, or if the Tuaregs had once again regained power, when the French arrived.
Historic descriptions of the city had been around since Leo Africanus' account in the first half of the 16th century, and they prompted several European individuals and organizations to make great efforts to discover Timbuktu and its fabled riches. In 1788 a group of titled Englishmen formed the African Association with the goal of finding the city and charting the course of the Niger River. The earliest of their sponsored explorers was a young Scottish adventurer named Mungo Park, who made two trips in search of the Niger River and Timbuktu (departing first in 1795 and then in 1805). It is believed that Park was the first Westerner to have reached the city, but he died in modern day Nigeria without having the chance to report his findings. In 1824, the Paris-based Société de Géographie offered a 10,000 franc prize to the first non-Muslim to reach the town and return with information about it. The Briton Gordon Laing arrived in August 1826 but was killed the following month by local Muslims who were fearful of European intervention. The Frenchman René Caillié arrived in 1828 traveling alone disguised as a Muslim; he was able to safely return and claim the prize. Robert Adams, an African-American sailor, claimed to have visited the city in 1811 as a slave after his ship wrecked off the African coast. He later gave an account to the British consul in Tangier, Morocco in 1813. He published his account in an 1816 book,
The Narrative of Robert Adams, a Barbary Captive (still in print as of 2006), but doubts remain about the veracity of his account.
After the scramble for Africa had been formalized in the Berlin Conference, land between the 14th meridian and Miltou, Chad would become French territory, bound in the south by a line running from Say, Niger to Baroua. Although the Timbuktu region was now French in name, the principle of effectivity needed France to actually hold power in those areas assigned, e.g. by signing agreements with local chiefs, setting up a government and making use of the area economically, before the claim would be definitive. On December 28, 1893, the city, by then long past its prime, was annexed by a small group of French, led by lieutenant Boiteux. Timbuktu was now a colony of France. During World War II, several legions were recruited in French Soudan, with some coming from Timbuktu, to help general Charles de Gaulle fight Nazi-occupied France and southern Vichy France. After World War II, the French government granted the colony more and more freedom. After a period as part of the short-lived Mali Federation, the Republic of Mali was proclaimed on September 22, 1960. After a November 19, 1968, a new constitution was created in 1974, making Mali a single-party state. By then, the canal linking the city with the Niger River had already been filled with sand from the encroaching desert. Severe droughts hit the Sahel region in 1973 and 1985, decimating the Tuareg population around Timbuktu who relied on goat herding. The Niger's water level dropped, postponing the arrival of food transport and trading vessels. The crisis drove many of the inhabitants of Tombouctou Region to Algeria and Libya. Those who stayed relied on humanitarian organisations such as UNICEF for food and water.
Nowadays, Timbuktu is also considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site – this has been so since 1988. As such, Timbuktu holds many wonders and pleasures to the culturally attuned. On a visit to Timbuktu, one can visit museums and an institute dedicated to the preservation of ancient manuscripts and book artisans. Its legend started when Mansa Musa, then the ruler of Timbuktu during the 14th century, went to Mecca on a pilgrimage. It is said that on the way to Mecca, he stopped over in Egypt where he behaved extravagantly by throwing gold around. It is said that he spread around enough gold that the Egyptian currency back then devalued. What happened then was not surprising – rumors started to fly around that there was this city deep within the heart of Africa wherein there was more gold than one can imagine - roofs and streets made with gold, and so on. In the end, its history and image in the popular culture makes it a prized destination for travellers looking for adventure in the desert with a mysterious touch.
-Croissant
