Leo Africanus (1494-1554)

Born in Granada, al-Hasan ibn Mohammed al-Wazzan, otherwise known as Leo Africanus, was brought up in Fès, where he attended the famous Al-Karouyine University.

In his youth, he ventured to Timbuctoo with his diplomat uncle, the city then part of the Songhai Empire. While travelling through the Mediterranean, Africanus was taken prisoner by pirates, and brought to Rome, where he was imprisoned in the Castel Sant-Angelo, before being presented to Pope Leo X. Baptised as a Catholic, Africanus continued his travels within Italy, before writing his masterwork, Della descrittione dell Africa et delle cose notabili cheiui sono.

The book, translated into English under the title A Geographical Historie of Africa, became a seminal text of the age. His description of Timbuctoo as a bustling city of commerce, abounding with wealth, possibly led to the European obsession with the city, and the notion that it was an African El Dorado.

Timbuctoo

Timbuktu, formerly also spelled Timbuctoo and Timbuktoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated 15 km north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali. Starting out as a seasonal settlement, Timbuktu became a permanent settlement early in the 12th century. After a shift in trading routes, Timbuktu flourished from the trade in salt, gold, ivory and slaves, and became part of the Mali Empire early in the 13th century.

In its Golden Age, the town's numerous Islamic scholars and extensive trading network made possible an important book trade: together with the campuses of the Sankore madrassah, an Islamic university, this established Timbuktu as a scholarly centre in Africa.

Robert Adams

Robert Adams was an illiterate American sailor from the city of Hudson, New York. He is regarded as the first white Christian to visit Timbuktu, a city believed until that time to be fashioned from pure gold. Shipwrecked on the west coast of Africa in 1810, he was taken as a slave by the Moors and, having been captured by the indigenous Toureg, he was brought to Timbuktu and presented to the King. After many trials and tribulations, Adams was redeemed and reached London, where he narrated his tale. At a time when nothing American was regarded with much interest or favour, British society lampooned Adams, pouring scorn on hits tale. Nonetheless, his story was published by John Murray, leading publisher of the day, and was much discussed by socialites and intellectuals of the day. More can be read about Robert Adams and his Narrative on Wikipedia. .