Timbuktu (Mali Empire period)

Timeline

1. c. 1200–1325Timbuktu · TimbuktuRising as a caravan relay station at the Niger bend, Timbuktu was gradually drawn into the Mali Empire's trade network, becoming a transfer hub between the southern goldfields, northern salt routes, and North African ports; the city's scale and mosque construction began to expand.
2. c. 1325–1468Timbuktu · TimbuktuMansa Musa massively expanded the Djinguereber Mosque and attracted Islamic scholars; Sankore University and the manuscript-copying tradition made Timbuktu one of the Sahel's foremost scholarly centers, drawing scholars from the Maghreb and the Middle East.
3. c. 1468–1591Timbuktu · TimbuktuAfter the Mali Empire declined, Timbuktu passed into the Songhai Empire; the Askia dynasty maintained its trading and scholarly standing. In 1591 Moroccan forces defeated Songhai at Tondibi, and the city's political order entered a period of Moroccan vassalage, ending the era of imperial urban prosperity.