Ali Bakr II: Africa's Forgotten Explorer

In the 13th and 14th centuries, while Europe was clawing its way out of the Dark

Ages, the empire of Mali stood as one of the wealthiest and most learned civilizations

on Earth. The city of Timbuktu was its crown jewel — a metropolis of

scholars and merchants, where books were worth more than gold. The University of

Sankoré drew students from as far as Arabia and Egypt. Its libraries held hundreds of thousands

of manuscripts — treatises on law, mathematics, astronomy, medicine,

and philosophy. Mali’s markets glittered with salt, ivory, copper,

and gold — so much gold that the Mediterranean world could barely comprehend it. Caravans stretched