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Secondary sourceBookcopied 1733

Timbuktu Manuscript of Kashf al-Ghummah

Nasir al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Hajj al-Amin al-Tawathi al-Ghalawi · copied 1733

A scholarly Arabic manuscript copied in Timbuktu in 1733, reflecting the tradition of Islamic learning that flourished in the city founded in part through Mansa Musa's patronage.

This later Timbuktu manuscript reflects the scholarly culture that grew in the city Musa helped build into a center of learning.

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A scanned page of an Arabic manuscript on aged, stained paper. A large circular diagram with red and black ink sits at the center, with Arabic text in lines around and below it, and a red marginal note at the lower left.
Manuscript of Kashf al-Ghummah fi Nafa al-Ummah, copied 1733. Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library, Timbuktu.

About this source

What it is

This is a manuscript copy, made in 1733, of a work titled Kashf al-Ghummah fi Nafa al-Ummah by Nasir al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Hajj al-Amin al-Tawathi al-Ghalawi. It is held at the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library in Timbuktu and features Arabic text surrounding a large circular diagram.

Why it matters

Though copied centuries after Mansa Musa's reign, this manuscript is part of the scholarly tradition of Timbuktu, a city whose mosques and centers of learning were built up during and after Musa's era. It shows how his patronage of Islamic institutions helped create a lasting culture of writing and scholarship in West Africa.

Look closer

  • What does the circular diagram suggest about the kind of knowledge being recorded?
  • Why do you think manuscripts like this were carefully copied and preserved over centuries?
  • How does a manuscript from 1733 still connect to events four centuries earlier?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Mansa Musa on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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