Timbuktu

Timbuktu, north of the Niger River, grew from a seasonal settlement into a Saharan trading city. Gold and salt enriched the city under Mali, while its scholars and book trade made Sankore a centre of Islamic learning.

Tuareg rulers took Timbuktu in the first half of the fifteenth century, before Sonni Ali incorporated it into Songhai in 1468. A Moroccan army defeated Songhai in 1591 and made the city its capital; the resulting Arma ruling class became virtually independent of Morocco after 1612.