University of Timbuktu University of Timbuktu The University of Timbuktu is a collective term for the teaching associated with three mosques in the city of Timbuktu in what is now Mali: the masajid (mosques) of Sankore, Djinguereber, and Sidi Yahya. It was not a university in the modern sense, but a loosely organized scholastic community that endured for many centuries during the medieval period. Timbuktu quickly grew in importance by the start of the 12th century, with a thriving economy based on trading salt, gold, spices and dyes. As the wealth of the city grew, it also became a center of learning, attracting
Timbuktu Manuscripts receiving no more funds from the South African government. A book about Timbuktu, published in 2008, contains a chapter with some discussions of a few of the texts. Digital images of thirty-two manuscripts from the private Mamma Haïdara Library are available from the United States Library of Congress; a subset of these are also accessible from the United Nations' World Digital Library website. A movie about the Timbuktu Manuscript Project, "The Ancient Astronomers of Timbuktu", was released in 2009, with funding from the Ford Foundation and Oppenheimer Memorial Trust. Also in 2009, the French/German cultural TV channel ARTE produced a