Photographs of Djinguereber and Sankore Mosques are shown below.
Source: Britannica Website
Apparently, these mosques are one of the earliest universities in the world. Despite the prominence of these institutions, none of them was considered a centralised teaching institution in Timbuktu. These institutions did not issue any official diploma. Instead, the learned who 'graduated' were endowed with a special turban.
The man behind the rise of Timbuktu as a commercial and cultural hub was probably Malian Emperor Mansa Moussa. He was known as a capable stateman who established a single system of trade and law over the expanding territories of the Mali Empire(13th to 14th century). As Timbuktu grew in wealth(thanks to the flourishing gold, salt and other forms of trade), more people came to know of the city, including the scholars. And they all flocked there to trade as well as learn from fellow intellectuals.
These knowledgable men took on different duties in the city. There were the Qadis, who were like modern-day lawyers, imams who headed their mosque congregations, teachers who propagated knowledge of science, philosophy and Islam, and doctors.
During the period of the Songhay Empire in the 16th century, Islamic scholarship was at its peak. The standard of teaching was similar to that of other learning institutions in North Africa and the Middle East. It has been estimated that Timbuktu had around 25,000 students, the number equivalent to a quarter of the city's population.
Timbuktu scholars gathered Islamic knowledge from several sources. They learned from North African and Andalusian scholars who visited or settled in Timbuktu; they also gained from connections made with scholars in Egypt and Mecca during their pilgrimage journeys.
Other disciplines that Timbuktu scholars studied on included:
Astronomy
Prosody(study of rhythmic structure of poetic verses)
Arabic grammar and syntax
Mathematics
Geography
Philosophy
Medicine
Botany
Music
Geomancy
Dogma
And many others.
In particular, the science of prosody was studied because of the importance of poetry to Timbuktu's culture. Timbuktu poetry expressed for instance, one's devotion to the Prophet Muhammad and one's love for a man/woman. There were even poems written about tea! Poems were also used to aid the learning of grammar and law.
Scholarship in this era was supported by those in power. Songhay ruler Askiya Dawud is believed to have set up public libraries in Timbuktu. Perhaps due to his interest in learning, he also hired calligraphers to copy books for him, and sent them as gifts to scholars.
As a result of past legacies of learned scholars and wise rulers, Timbuktu is now home to tens of thousands of manuscripts that include religious works, poems, commercial documents, works of science, astronomy, medicine, law and agriculture. Many of these texts are written in Arabic. There are also Islamic literature written in the African languages such as Fulfulde, Tamasheq, Songhay and Hausa. These texts are called Ajami manuscripts. An example of the manuscripts is as shown below.
Source: Timbuktu Foundation Website
These documents were in danger of being lost or destroyed, especially during the period of the Moroccan conquest of the Songhay empire. Fortunately, the people at the time managed to hide their family manuscripts, sometimes burying them.
At present, the locals at Timbuktu are working hard to restore the valuable manuscripts and catalog them for future study. I have included a video below for a glimpse into these restoration projects, and also a viewpoint of a local historian about Timbuktu's past (15th century period, arguably Timbuktu's 'Golden Age'). He obviously had immense pride in the city's history, proclaiming that Timbuktu(and Africa in general) was intellectually more advanced than the Westerners during that stretch of time.
