Timbuktu is located in Central Africa. Timbuktu is important for African trade because it shares a trade route with North Africa and West Africa. It is close to the Sahara Desert where traders go through to deliver goods and minerals with other countries. Trade helps different countries get their necessities or wants from other countries that have high stock in them. For example, if one country has a lot of salt and one country has a lot of gold, they would trade with each other and get other goods, spices or minerals.
People lived in a holy and religious place where God was important for the well being of humans. Mosques were built as a place where believers worshiped and as important centers of education and scholarship. The whole community was like a family coming together at special holidays or festivals. The buildings were made out of mud brick and the rules restricted the freedom of these towers. Special precautions were taken to protect the buildings based on height, walls, and weight. They were constructed in West African- Islamic style and not out of pricey minerals.
I think the story of Timbuktu’s founding is somewhat a myth because a woman can’t become an actual place or city. Maybe they might also be explaining it as a metaphor, saying how one woman gradually brought more people into the village. The myth explains Timbuktu’s importance to trade by saying that it has been a big commerce center and meeting point for decades. It became an important port where goods from West and North Africa were traded too.
These documents are showing the different elements a city takes care of and the laws that keep it together. The Law of Slavery really caught my eye because I know how slavery affected the world and its people to this day. It showed how women are allowed to be free by their owners which surprised me because women weren’t always equally like men were. Women in many parts of the world couldn’t vote, become different jobs, etc. I’m at least glad that Timbuktu made this a law by making a document about it. The documents about different jobs and levels of ranking showed us the kinds of people who worked at Timbuktu. Farmers were often low ranked and doctors who prevented disease and traders were often high ranked.
Timbuktu is so important because it taught how to run a city that is so high in trade and so high in population and capacity. The culture really influenced Africa to this day and many people still speak languages based off of the Timbuktu language. The city’s history impacted trade and commerce in the world by giving great examples of being a community.
