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Timbuktu

city in Mali

10 dated entries naming Timbuktu, drawn from 10 separate years between 1100 CE and 1828 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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11th century

  • 1100A collective of Tuareg trading clans decide to permanently settle the city of Timbuktu (modern Mali) north of Djenné along the Niger River. Timbuktu will later achieve fame as a center of Islamic learning. The Sankore, Djinguereber and Sidi Yahya mosques are among Timbuktu's most famous religious and scholarly institutions (approximate date).source

14th century

  • 1353The Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta makes the first recorded visit to Timbuktu and Kabara, when returning from a stay in the capital of the Mali Empire.source

15th century

  • 1468Sonni Ali, king of the Songhai Empire, takes power over Timbuktu.source

16th century

  • 1513Leo Africanus visits Timbuktu, second city of the Songhai Empire.source
  • 1591May 30 – Timbuktu is captured by an expedition of Arma people sent by the Saadi ruler of Morocco and led by Judar Pasha.source

17th century

  • 1608February 26 – After being held captive in Morocco for more than 13 years, popular professor Malian Ahmad Baba is able to return to Timbuktu on 10 Dhu 'l-Qa'da 1016 A.H.source

18th century

  • 1788June 9 – The African Association, an exploration group dedicated to plotting the Niger River and finding Timbuktu, is founded in England.source

19th century

  • 1815October – Robert Adams, American sailor and the first Westerner to visit Timbuktu, is found wandering the streets of London, starving and half-naked, leading to the invitation for him to tell his story as a Barbary captive, which is later published as The Narrative of Robert Adams.source
  • 1826August 18 – Scottish explorer Alexander Gordon Laing becomes the first European to reach Timbuktu but is murdered there on September 26.source
  • 1828April 20 – French explorer René Caillié becomes the first non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu and later return alive.source

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