What is and Where is Timbuktu? Part Two
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Timbuktu is located exactly where the Niger River flows northward into the southern edge of the mighty Sahara. It soon became a central meeting point for the various nomadic tribes who included Songhai, Wangara, Fulani, Tuareg and Arabs. The settlement began to grow and traders from both further north and further south began to make their way to Timbuktu to do business. Goods began making their way from as far as the shores of the Mediterranean to be bartered in Timbuktu in exchange for gold. Salt was transported by camel by Berbers from Taghaza, which lay a thousand miles to the North while gold was hauled into Timbuktu from the great gold mines of the Boure and Banbuk in the South.
By the fourteenth century, Timbuktu had become a major centre for the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade as well as Islamic scholarship and culture. The trade was controlled in turn by the three famed West African empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai. From the early thirteenth century, it was controlled by the Mali Empire, an empire that extended over an area that was larger than Western Europe and which was renowned for its extraordinary wealth. When the Emperor Mansa Mura set out on his now famous pilgrimage to Mecca, the wider world became aware of the unbelievable wealth of the Mali Empire.
As he travelled north along the Niger, through Algeria and onto Cairo he was accompanied by a caravan of sixty thousand men, including a personal entourage of twelve thousand slaves all of who were dressed in brocaded costumes of Persian silk. Musa liked to make an impact, he brought a hundred camels each laden down with three hundred pounds of gold, he also placed five hundred slaves at the head of his caravan, each holding a four pound gold staff aloft, what a spectacle it must have been! The caravans that they encountered on their epic journey were completely bowled over by the awesome spectacle but they were also hugely impressed with the courtesy that they received from the mighty retinue.
Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland.
Article source: Russell Shortt, -
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