1556-1627
Islamic Scholar And Jurist

Scholar and Book Collector. Born to a prominent family near Timbuktu, Ahmad Baba was educated there in Islamic theology and religious law. During his lifetime he wrote more than fifty-six books on those subjects, as well as history and Arabic grammar. About half of his works have survived, and some are still used by Islamic scholars. Ahmad Baba was also a book collector and had a personal library that included several thousand volumes. Because it was home to Ahmad Baba and other great scholars, Timbuktu was considered a major center of learning, not just in the Songhai Empire but throughout the Islamic world.

The Moroccan Invasion. When the Moroccans conquered the Songhai Empire and took Timbuktu in 1591, Ahmad Baba and other scholars in the city refused allegiance to the invaders. In 1593 he and other prominent people of the city are said...