Ahmed Baba Of Timbuktu: The Scholar Whose Library Was Seized
Recognised by Nkuzify as Patron Teacher of the Year.
In Timbuktu in the 1500s, books were big business. The traveller Leo Africanus, who visited early in that century, wrote that books sold for more money than any other goods in the market. In that city one scholar stood out, and his name was Ahmed Baba.
Who Was Ahmed Baba?
Ahmed Baba was born in 1556 in Arawan, near Timbuktu, and he grew up to be one of the city's most celebrated scholars. The University of Cape Town's Tombouctou Manuscripts Project describes him that way. He belonged to the Sankore community of teachers and wrote dozens of works. One of them, Nayl al-Ibtihaj, a biographical dictionary of Maliki scholars, became popular across North Africa. He also wrote a legal opinion on slavery, which scholars have since edited and translated into English.
A Library Of More Than 1,600 Books
He is reported to have said that his own library, of more than 1,600 volumes, was one of the smaller collections among the scholars of Timbuktu. Think about that. If his was a small library, the city must have been full of books.
The Invasion Of 1591
That golden age ended when the ruler of Morocco, Ahmad al-Mansur, sent an army against the Songhay state in 1591. Timbuktu's scholars were arrested and deported, Ahmed Baba among them, and sources differ on whether it happened in 1593 or 1594. Much of his library was destroyed. The same project's timeline of Timbuktu records that, standing in front of the sultan, he said his library was the smallest among his relatives, and yet more than 1,600 of his books had been taken.
Teaching In Exile
He did not stop. In Morocco he kept teaching and writing. He was able to return to Timbuktu in 1608, and he died in 1627.
Remembered Today
In Timbuktu a research centre carries his name: the Ahmed Baba Institute, founded in 1973 to help save the old manuscripts of the region.
Why Nkuzify Holds Him Up
He lost his books, his home city and years of his life to exile, and he kept teaching and writing. What a teacher knows cannot be taken away the way a shelf of books can. That is why Ahmed Baba is a patron of teaching.
Nobody alive today knows exactly how Ahmed Baba looked. The pictures on this page are illustrations.
Where this comes from: the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project, Wikipedia on the Sankore Madrasah, and a lecture note by Shamil Jeppie.
Meet The Other Patrons
Imhotep, Ptahhotep, Fatima al-Fihri, Al-Farabi. You can also go back to the full list: Global Patrons Of Teaching: Imhotep, Ahmed Baba, Fatima Al-Fihri And More.
Thank You
Happy Teachers' Day to Ahmed Baba of Timbuktu, and to every teacher who keeps this long line going, from all of us at Nkuzify.
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