"2011 Timbuktu kidnapping Timbuktu three refers to the three kidnap victims, South African Stephen Malcolm McGown, Swede Johan Gustafsson and Dutch Sjaak Rijke on 25 November 2011. A fourth German victim was shot and killed when he refused to climb into the kidnappers' truck. A unit of the Al-Qaeda's North African branch: al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) abducted the three from a restaurant in Timbuktu, Mali. Because McGown has dual citizenship, South African & British, the group offered a trade to the British Government for Abu Qatada who was to be deported to Jordan, where he had been convicted"
"North Africa to sub-Saharan Africa. The city lost its economic base and its fine university was not enough to save Timbuktu from decline. Cut off from major trade routes, the city retained an aura of spectacular treasure. When French explorers rediscovered the city in 1815 they were disappointed to find a sand-blown city of low mud buildings. The region was marginalized under French colonial control, which ended in 1960. The French opened up shorter trade routes to the Atlantic, cutting into the trans-Sahara trading economy and people in the city. In early 2012, the National Movement for the Liberation of"
"Timbuktu (1959 film) Timbuktu is a 1959 American black-and-white adventure film directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Victor Mature and Yvonne de Carlo. It is set in Timbuktu (Africa), but was filmed in the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Kanab, Utah. In 1940, France is at war with Germany. The French have removed large numbers of troops from their African possessions, leaving the way open for revolt. American soldier of fortune Mike Conway (Victor Mature) sees a chance to pay his way back to the United States by gunrunning to hostile Tuaregs. Wearing a slouch hat and bush"
"be a resource for Islamic research. On 30 March 2013, jihadist rebels infiltrated into Timbuktu nine days before a suicide bombing on a Malian army checkpoint at the international airport killing a soldier. Fighting lasted until 1 April, when French warplanes helped Malian ground forces chase the remaining rebels out of the city center. Tales of Timbuktu's fabulous wealth helped prompt European exploration of the west coast of Africa. Among the most famous descriptions of Timbuktu are those of Leo Africanus and Shabeni. Perhaps most famous among the accounts written about Timbuktu is that by Leo Africanus. Born El Hasan"
"Timbuktu (2014 film) Timbuktu is a 2014 French-Mauritanian drama film directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes, it won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the François Chalais Prize. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, and has been nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language at the 69th British Academy Film Awards. It won Best Film at the 11th Africa Movie Academy Awards."
"dominated the region which stretched from the West African coast between the Gambia and Senegal rivers almost to Sokoto in the east, and from 150 miles north of Timbuktu to the headwaters of the Niger. From Timbuktu flowed exports of gold and slaves in such quantities that the city took on the reputation in the outside world of possessing endless wealth. To Europeans fascinated by the discovery of new worlds, Timbuktu was too great a temptation to resist. The Scotsman James Bruce had ventured to Ethiopia in 1769 and reached the source of the Blue Nile. His account of his"
"Battle of Timbuktu The Battle of Timbuktu occurred in Timbuktu, Mali, in March 2013, between Islamist groups and Mali government forces supported by France. On the night of March 20 to 21, a group of Islamist militants tried to infiltrate the airport. A car with armed men also tried to break into the city, however, French and Malian forces pushed them back. The city of Timbuktu was guarded by the Malian army while about 150 French soldiers guarded the airport. Then, about 50 to 100 islamists launched an attack from Bamba, west of Bourem, at March 20 at 10:19 pm."
"The film was named the twelfth ""Best Film of the 21st Century So Far"" in 2017 by The New York Times. The film looks at the brief occupation of Timbuktu, Mali by Ansar Dine. Parts of the film were influenced by a 2012 public stoning of an unmarried couple in Aguelhok. It was shot in Oualata, a town in south-east Mauritania. The film explores the denizens of the city of Timbuktu, Mali, in West Africa, who are living under strict Sharia law around the year 2012. The city is under the occupation of extremist Islamists bearing a jihadist black flag."
"Adams' account, more recent scholarship concludes that while Adams was almost certainly in Northern Africa, the discrepancies in his depiction of Timbuktu make it unlikely he ever visited the city. Three other Europeans reached the city before 1890: Heinrich Barth in 1853 and the German Oskar Lenz with the Spaniard Cristobal Benítez in 1880. After the scramble for Africa had been formalized in the Berlin Conference, land between the 14th meridian and Miltou, South-West Chad, became French territory, bounded in the south by a line running from Say, Niger to Baroua. Although the Timbuktu region was now French in name,"
"Timbuktu (musician) Jason Michael Bosak Diakité (born 11 January 1975 in Lund), known under the stage name Timbuktu, is a Swedish rapper and reggae artist. Earlier in the mid-1990s, he started as part of the rap group Excel before going solo as Timbuktu. He has won several Grammis awards, the highest music awards in Sweden, including Lyricist of the Year and best Hip-hop Record of the Year. He is the son of Madubuko Diakité, a US born Swedish human rights lawyer and academic. Timbuktu hosted the music aid radio/television show Musikhjälpen from its start in 2008 until 2012. In April"
"continent to that point. Frank T. Kryza (""The Race for Timbuktu"", 2006), writes: Park’s expedition lasted two and a half years, and he published the account of the mission in his book, ""Travels into the Interior Districts of Africa"" (1799), which was devoured by readers across Europe. Park would take attempt a second expedition to find Timbuktu in 1805, but died before returning. The Niger had been found and its direction recorded, but its final termination had not been discovered. The ""golden city"" itself, was discovered by Park, but he died before he was able to share his discovery with"
"Tombouctou Region Tombouctou Region is one of the administrative regions of Mali. It is the largest of Mali's eight regions and includes a large section of the Sahara Desert. For administrative purposes, the region is subdivided into five cercles. The region is part of northern Mali that was separated and declared independent by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) during the Tuareg rebellion of 2012. In the course of the conflict, the MNLA lost control of the territory to Islamist militias. Tombouctou region is world-famous for its capital, the ancient city Timbuktu (), synonymous to 19th-century Europeans"
"By then, the canal linking the city with the Niger River had already been filled with sand from the encroaching desert. Severe droughts hit the Sahel region in 1973 and 1985, decimating the Tuareg population around Timbuktu who relied on goat herding. The Niger's water level dropped, postponing the arrival of food transport and trading vessels. The crisis drove many of the inhabitants of Tombouctou Region to Algeria and Libya. Those who stayed relied on humanitarian organizations such as UNICEF for food and water. Despite its illustrious history, modern-day Timbuktu is an impoverished town, poor even by Third World standards."
"research has not found remains dating from the 11th/12th century within the limits of the modern city given the difficulty of excavating through metres of sand that have buried the remains over the past centuries. Without consensus, the etymology of Timbuktu remains unclear. Like other important Medieval West African towns such as Djenné (Jenné-Jeno), Gao, and Dia, Iron Age settlements have been discovered near Timbuktu that predate the traditional foundation date of the town. Although the accumulation of thick layers of sand has thwarted archaeological excavations in the town itself, some of the surrounding landscape is deflating and exposing pottery"
"sources. There are the 'vignettes' that we talked about earlier, which are photomontages made from coloured prints."" For the Europeans, Timbuktu was a mythical city in the heart of the Sahara. In 1795, Mungo Park acknowledged the Niger River. Thirty years later, René Caillié entered this ""forbidden city"", while Hugh Clapperton explored Lake Chad, Heinrich Barth crossed the Sahara… Travellers discovered the powerful dynasties of West Africa. Since 1850, the new explorers were mostly colonial officers with mission of conquest. On the eve of the World War I, despite African nationalism, Europeans managed to create genuine empires in Africa. A"
"and ""Woodstock in Timbuktu"" (2013). The album ""Festival au Desert Live from Timbuktu"" (2013) has performances from the 2012 festival. The first Festival took place in Tin Essako in 2001 and then it moved in 2002 to Tessalit in the Kidal region of North-Eastern Mali. From 2003 until 2009 the festival was held in Essakane, 65 km from Timbuktu, but because of security issues, from 2010 the festival was held on the outskirts of Timbuktu. The Tuareg band Tinariwen first garnered international attention with their performance at the 2001 Festival. An audio recording of the 2012 edition ""Festival au Desert"
"History of Timbuktu The following is a history of the city of Timbuktu, 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. It became part of the Mali Empire early in the 14th century. By this time it had become a major centre of learning in the area. In the first half of the 15th century the Tuareg tribes took control of the city for a short period until the expanding Songhai Empire absorbed the"
"journey from Boké, in present-day Guinea, to Timbuktu in Mali. He was travelling with a caravan transporting kola nuts to Djenné. He described his visit in his book ""Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo"": It was nearly nine o'clock in the morning when we made our appearance at Sambatikila [Samatiguila] which is surrounded by a double wall ten or eleven feet high and ten inches thick. ... Sambatikila is a large village ... it is independent and inhabited by Mandingo Musulmans. It is much larger than Kankan but not so well peopled; there are many large vacant places in the"
"intervention by France in the Northern Mali conflict. The country had been noted for its festivals, especially the Festival au Désert which had been held since 2001 but was put on hold in 2013 because of the security issues. Mali has four UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the well known city of Timbuktu. This has been on the UNESCO danger list since 2012, which the organisation describes as ""an intellectual and spiritual capital and a centre for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries, its three great mosques, Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia, recall Timbuktu's"
"West Africa, were held prisoner in the city during the Second World War. Two months later, after having been transported from Freetown to Timbuktu, two of them, AB John Turnbull Graham (2 May 1942, age 23) and Chief Engineer William Soutter (28 May 1942, age 60) died there in May 1942. Both men were buried in the European cemetery – possibly the most remote British war graves tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. They were not the only war captives in Timbuktu: Peter de Neumann was one of 52 men imprisoned in Timbuktu in 1942 when their ship, the"
"city in 1468. A Moroccan army defeated the Songhai in 1591, and made Timbuktu, rather than Gao, their capital. The invaders established a new ruling class, the Arma, who after 1612 became virtually independent of Morocco. However, the golden age of the city was over, during which it was a major learning and cultural center of the Mali empire, and it entered a long period of decline. Different tribes governed until the French took over in 1893, a situation that lasted until it became part of the current Republic of Mali in 1960. Presently, Timbuktu is impoverished and suffers from"
"and the customs of Islam. He failed to obtain further funding from either the French or the British governments, but encouraged by the prize of 10,000 francs offered by the Société de Géographie in Paris for the first person to return with a description of Timbuktu, he decided to fund the journey himself. He worked for a few months in the British colony of Sierra Leone to save some money, then travelled by ship to Boké on the Rio Nuñez in modern Guinea. From there in April 1827 he set off across West Africa. He arrived in Timbuktu a year"
"Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2016, it was voted the 36th best film of the 21st century as picked by 177 film critics from around the world. Timbuktu (2014 film) Timbuktu is a 2014 French-Mauritanian drama film directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes, it won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the François Chalais Prize. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, and"
"University of Timbuktu The University of Timbuktu is a collective term for the teaching associated with three mosques in the city of Timbuktu in what is now Mali: the masajid (mosques) of Sankore, Djinguereber, and Sidi Yahya. It was not a university in the modern sense, but a loosely organized scholastic community that endured for many centuries during the medieval period. Timbuktu quickly grew in importance by the start of the 12th century, with a thriving economy based on trading salt, gold, spices and dyes. As the wealth of the city grew, it also became a center of learning, attracting"
"before finally turning south to reach the Atlantic. The riches of the kingdom were due to Tombouctou's position as the southern terminus of the trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, kola nuts, copper and slaves. Timbuktu's decline began with the capture of the city by Morocco in 1592. Many Islamic scholars were dispersed, some to Morocco. Morocco had difficulty holding onto the city, as the supply lines were long compared to the closer kingdoms vying for dominance of the region. Ultimately, however, it was the rise of sea trade along the West Africa coast that doomed the overland routes that connected"
"many monuments in Timbuktu, and UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova visited the site and praised the Malian government. Fall of Timbuktu (2012) The Fall of Timbuktu took place during the war in northern Mali. This is one of the first clashes between the MNLA and Ansar Dine. On June 13, 2012, at approximately 10:00 am, an MNLA vehicle arrived at a station at the south-eastern entrance of Timbuktu City, on the Goundam Road. A quarrel started between the separatist fighters and Islamists who guarded the post, with the terrorists demanding that the men of the MNLA to lay down their"
"scholars and manuscripts. It acquired a reputation for learning and scholarship across the Muslim world. According to African scholar Shamil Jeppie in ""The Meanings of Timbuktu"": ...Timbuktu is a repository of history, a living archive which anybody with a concern for African history should be acquainted with. Timbuktu may be hard to get to but it played an essential role as a centre of scholarship under the Songhay state until the invasion from the rulers of Marrakesh in 1591, and even thereafter it was revived. After Timbuktu was occupied because of the 1591 Battle of Tondibi, the university went into"
"Timbuktu Manuscripts Timbuktu Manuscripts (or Tombouctou Manuscripts) is a blanket term for the large number of historically important manuscripts that have been preserved for centuries in private households in Timbuktu, Mali. The collections include manuscripts about art, medicine, philosophy, and science, as well as copies of the Quran. The number of manuscripts in the collections has been estimated as high as 700,000. The manuscripts were written in Arabic and local languages like Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the"
"he dates the foundation at 'the end of the fifth century of the ""hijra""' or around 1100 AD. Al-Sadi saw Maghsharan Tuareg as the founders, as their summer encampment grew from temporary settlement to depot to travellers' meeting place. However, modern scholars believe that there is insufficient available evidence to pinpoint the exact time of origin and founders of Timbuktu, although it is clear that the city originated from a local trade between Saharan pastoralists and boat trade within the Niger River Delta. The importance of the river prompted descriptions of the city as 'a gift of the Niger', in"
"situated in Timbuktu, Donald Duck uses the city as a safe haven, and in the 1970 Disney animated feature ""The Aristocats"", Edgar, the butler villain of the story, threatens Thomas O'Malley, Duchess, Marie, and Berlioz with being sent to Timbuktu only for Thomas O'Malley's friends to rescue them and send Edgar there instead. It is mistakenly noted to be in French Equatorial Africa, instead of French West Africa. Ali Farka Touré inverted the stereotype: ""For some people, when you say 'Timbuktu' it is like the end of the world, but that is not true. I am from Timbuktu, and I"
"books they could get their hands on. Today there are over 700,000 manuscripts in Timbuktu with many dating back to West Africa's Golden Age (12th to 16th centuries). Sankore Madrasah Sankoré Madrasah, The University of Sankoré, or Sankore Masjid is one of three ancient centers of learning located in Timbuktu, Mali, West Africa. The three mosques of Sankoré, Djinguereber Mosque and Sidi Yahya compose the University of Timbuktu. Madrasah (مدرسة) means school/university in Arabic and also in other languages associated with Muslims. The University of Sankore has its roots in the Sankore Mosque which was founded in 989 AD by"
"peaks in September, while in Timbuktu the flood lasts longer and usually reaches a maximum at the end of December. In the past, the area flooded by the river was more extensive and in years with high rainfall, floodwater would reach the western outskirts of Timbuktu itself. A small navigable creek to the west of the town is shown on the maps published by Heinrich Barth in 1857 and Félix Dubois in 1896. Between 1917 and 1921, during the colonial period, the French used slave labour to dig a narrow canal linking Timbuktu with Kabara. Over the following decades this"
"cited in the Tarikh al-Sudan, distinguishes the Wangara on a socio-professional level from their Malinke kinsmen by claiming the latter to be princes and warriors and the former ""traders who carry gold dust from country to country as the courtiers of princes"". Located in the Lakes Region at the eastern end of the ""country of Wanqara"" was Tiraqqa or Tombouze, a predecessor of Timbuktu. It was one of the great commercial centers of the region —a meeting place of caravans from Ghana and Tadmakka in the 10th and 11th centuries—and a dependency of Ghana. The geographer Al-Idrisi describes it as"