Timbuktu and Empires
Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Regional History or Period History
Forum Name: African History
Forum Discription: Talk about African History
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=30137
Printed Date: 28-Apr-2024 at 21:28
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.56a - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Timbuktu and Empires
Posted By: TheAlaniDragonRising
Subject: Timbuktu and Empires
Date Posted: 28-Aug-2011 at 19:54
What is known about Timbuktu, and any Empire Timbuktu might have been in?
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What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture.
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Replies:
Posted By: ConradWeiser
Date Posted: 29-Aug-2011 at 13:53
Well, Timbuktu was founded around 1100 CE as a seasonal camp for the local nomads, and served as an prominent center for scholarship and trans-saharan trade until the 15th and 16th centuries. The city's history is defined by its struggle against outside powers who sought to obtain Timbuktu's wealth for themselves and sought to wield control over the scholars who lived there. Both the Mali (capital: Manden, upriver from Timbuktu) and Songhai (capital: Gao, downriver from Timbuktu) Empires held sway over Timbuktu, as well as the Moroccan and French Empires which came later. Following the Moroccan conquest and the European circumnavigation of the Sahara, Timbuktu lost much of its prominence. It remained a scholarly center for several centuries afterward, but never regained its former glory. The Sahara has had the last laugh, and Timbuktu today suffers from the ever expanding desert and globalized economy. It's isolated, poor, and its population is diminishing.
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Another year! Another deadly blow!
Another mighty empire overthrown!
And we are left, or shall be left, alone.
-William Wordsworth
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