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Decebal
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Digital Prometheus
Joined: 20-May-2005
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Topic: A holy city lost in the sands: Chinguetti Posted: 28-Mar-2007 at 12:53 |
I've recently found out about a town which between the 11th and the 17th centuries was a major center of learning and religion. Founded as a stop on the trans-Saharan caravan routes running from the inner delta of the Niger and the Senegal valley to the Maghreb, Chinguetti quickly arose as a center of culture and learning. Eventually it doubled up as a pilgrimage center, for those who could not make the long hajj to Mecca. The locals say that Chinguetti is the 7th holiest city of Islam (I'm guessing after Mecca, Medinah, Jerusalem, Najaf, Karbala and Qayrawan). These days, Chinguetti has lost its importance, but it is a Unesco world heritage site, and it has libraries which are famous throughout the Islamic world.
http://www.cnntraveller.com/2005/mar_apr/chinguetti/ http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200306/mauritania.s.manuscripts.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinguetti http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_12/uk/doss4.htm
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What is history but a fable agreed upon?
Napoleon Bonaparte
Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.- Mohandas Gandhi
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pekau
Caliph
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Joined: 08-Oct-2006
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Posted: 30-Mar-2007 at 01:45 |
Originally posted by Decebal
These days, Chinguetti has lost its importance, but it is a Unesco world heritage site, and it has libraries which are famous throughout the Islamic world. |
Why Chinguetti has lost its importance?
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Spartakus
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Posted: 30-Mar-2007 at 05:59 |
Very interesting,thanks!
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"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. "
--- Joseph Alexandrovitch Brodsky, 1991, Russian-American poet, b. St. Petersburg and exiled 1972 (1940-1996)
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Spartakus
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Posted: 30-Mar-2007 at 06:01 |
Originally posted by pekau
Originally posted by Decebal
These days, Chinguetti has lost its importance, but it is a Unesco world heritage site, and it has libraries which are famous throughout the Islamic world. |
Why Chinguetti has lost its importance? |
The emergence of railroads,cars and airplanes ,as well as the diminishing importance of the Middle East after the 16th century (Discoveries era ,Colombus,Magellano,Vespuci etc) made the old caravan routes die,thus leading to the death of the cities-stations in the caravan routes.
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"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. "
--- Joseph Alexandrovitch Brodsky, 1991, Russian-American poet, b. St. Petersburg and exiled 1972 (1940-1996)
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Decebal
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Posted: 30-Mar-2007 at 09:12 |
You're partially right, Spartakus. I suspect it has specifically to do with the decline of the Trans-Saharan trade routes, which were mostly used to transport gold from Subsaharan West Africa to the north African coast. This started in the late 15th and early 16th century, when the Portuguese found a way to trade directly with the Africans by sea, thereby rendering the difficult trans-Saharan voyage impractical. The last great gold-trading west African kingdom, Songhay, was weakened enough to be conquered by the Moroccans in 1640 and unproductgive enough to be abandoned by the latter a half-decade later. You also have the naming of what is today modern Ghana, the Gold Coast, which is indicative of these new trade routes.
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What is history but a fable agreed upon?
Napoleon Bonaparte
Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.- Mohandas Gandhi
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