Intellectualism in Pre Colonial Africa

[Warlock666]

I’m sharing this knowledge to show we had centers of learning in pre colonial black Africa. Not to endorse Islam. The historical fact is Islam spread to Africa and the Middle East and Christianity spread through Europe. Just because Africa has an Islamic past doesn’t mean we should ignore. We can look at these things and appreciate the history from a racial aspect not religious.


https://youtu.be/BzBCl9kcdqc
Lost library of Timbuktu

https://youtu.be/d-s7fhgCI5g
Timbuktu’s manuscripts

https://youtu.be/jfvdZ3qrfjs
Timbuktu’s scholars

https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Ass-Librarians-Timbuktu-Precious-Manuscripts/dp/1476777411
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts

https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/100472/Rasmussen_Valancy_r.pdf
The manuscripts of Timbuktu


https://books.google.com/books/about/Timbuctoo_the_Mysterious.html?id=OYELAAAAIAAJ
Feliz Dubois
Timbuctoo the Mysterious
Excerpt “ The Scholars of Timbuktu yielded in nothing, to the saints in their sojourns in the foreign universities of Fez, Tunis and Cairo. They astounded the most learned men of Islam by their erudition. That these Negroes were on a level with the Arabian Savants is proved by the fact that they were installed as professors in Morocco and Egypt. In contrast to this, we find that the Arabs were not always equal to the requirements of Sankore.”



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Baba_al-Timbukti
Ahmad Baba a Timbuktu scholar wrote 60 books. He also had a personal library of 1600 books which he stated was the smallest amongst his friends. It was common for the scholars of Timbuktu to collect thousands of books.


https://youtu.be/_vKBcJsqmOA
Timbuktu’s manuscript

https://youtu.be/HbdpGE3Th8Q
Sankore university of Timbuktu’s

https://youtu.be/5TFbEks_zFc
Treasure of Timbuktu



https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0307-8/timbuktu.html

“The 20 manuscripts on display address a wide range of subjects, such as mathematics, physics, astronomy, secular literature and Koranic teachings.“

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu_Manuscripts

“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“
“Original books from Timbuktu have been written by local scientists, historians, philosophers, and versemakers. Legal experts in the city gathered numerous amounts of scholarship about Islamic jurisprudence, or fikh, as well as obligatory alms, or zakat.[5] Astronomers studied the movement of stars and relation to seasons, crafting charts of the heavens and precise diagrams of orbits of the other planets based on complex mathematical calculations;“


https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/23/book-rustlers-timbuktu-mali-ancient-manuscripts-saved

The Encyclopedia Britannica states that by 1450 Timbuktu had a population of 100,000, a quarter of whom were students. Even if these figures are wildly exaggerated, Timbuktu was a thriving centre of learning, and manuscripts were highly prized: the traveller Leo Africanus, who visited in 1510, found books sold for more money than any other merchandise in the city's market.
Books reached Timbuktu by caravan from Fez and Cairo, Tripoli and Córdoba, and what the scholars couldn't afford, they would copy. Other documents were written in Timbuktu. The vast libraries that resulted included every subject: astronomy and medicine, law, theology, grammar and proverbs.


https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/24/books/when-timbuktu-was-the-paris-of-islamic-intellectuals-in-africa.html

The manuscripts reveal that black Africa had literacy and intellectualism -- thus going beyond the mere notion of Africa as a continent of 'song and dance,' '' John O. Hunwick, a scholar who has uncovered some of the writings, said in a recent interview.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/27/mauritania-heritage-books-libraries

The manuscript contains 132 pages of Arab astronomy bound in well-worn leather, a 15th-century treasure stored, with similar items, in a cardboard box in a traditional dwelling in Chinguetti.

About 600km north-east of the capital, in Chinguetti, once a centre of Islamic learning, the Habott family owns one of the finest private libraries, with 1,400 books covering a dozen subjects such as the Qur'an and the Hadith (the words of the Prophet), astronomy, mathematics, geometry, law and grammar. The oldest tome, written on Chinese paper, dates from the 11th century.


Ousmane Oumar Kane
Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Timbuktu-Ousmane-Oumar-Kane-ebook/dp/B01G5B45LC

Mohamed Bello medicinal manuscripts pre colonial Nigeria
http://www.cci.uct.ac.za/usr/cci/publications/aria/download_issues/2012/Mukhtar%20Bunza.pdf

The Ancient Astronomers of Timbuktu Documentary

 

[Blackdragon666]

I’m sharing this knowledge to show we had centers of learning in pre colonial black Africa. Not to endorse Islam. The historical fact is Islam spread to Africa and the Middle East and Christianity spread through Europe. Just because Africa has an Islamic past doesn’t mean we should ignore. We can look at these things and appreciate the history from a racial aspect not religious.


https://youtu.be/BzBCl9kcdqc
Lost library of Timbuktu

https://youtu.be/d-s7fhgCI5g
Timbuktu’s manuscripts

https://youtu.be/jfvdZ3qrfjs
Timbuktu’s scholars

https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Ass-Librarians-Timbuktu-Precious-Manuscripts/dp/1476777411
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts

https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/100472/Rasmussen_Valancy_r.pdf
The manuscripts of Timbuktu


https://books.google.com/books/about/Timbuctoo_the_Mysterious.html?id=OYELAAAAIAAJ
Feliz Dubois
Timbuctoo the Mysterious
Excerpt “ The Scholars of Timbuktu yielded in nothing, to the saints in their sojourns in the foreign universities of Fez, Tunis and Cairo. They astounded the most learned men of Islam by their erudition. That these Negroes were on a level with the Arabian Savants is proved by the fact that they were installed as professors in Morocco and Egypt. In contrast to this, we find that the Arabs were not always equal to the requirements of Sankore.”



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Baba_al-Timbukti
Ahmad Baba a Timbuktu scholar wrote 60 books. He also had a personal library of 1600 books which he stated was the smallest amongst his friends. It was common for the scholars of Timbuktu to collect thousands of books.


https://youtu.be/_vKBcJsqmOA
Timbuktu’s manuscript

https://youtu.be/HbdpGE3Th8Q
Sankore university of Timbuktu’s

https://youtu.be/5TFbEks_zFc
Treasure of Timbuktu



https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0307-8/timbuktu.html

“The 20 manuscripts on display address a wide range of subjects, such as mathematics, physics, astronomy, secular literature and Koranic teachings.“

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu_Manuscripts

“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“
“Original books from Timbuktu have been written by local scientists, historians, philosophers, and versemakers. Legal experts in the city gathered numerous amounts of scholarship about Islamic jurisprudence, or fikh, as well as obligatory alms, or zakat.[5] Astronomers studied the movement of stars and relation to seasons, crafting charts of the heavens and precise diagrams of orbits of the other planets based on complex mathematical calculations;“


https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/23/book-rustlers-timbuktu-mali-ancient-manuscripts-saved

The Encyclopedia Britannica states that by 1450 Timbuktu had a population of 100,000, a quarter of whom were students. Even if these figures are wildly exaggerated, Timbuktu was a thriving centre of learning, and manuscripts were highly prized: the traveller Leo Africanus, who visited in 1510, found books sold for more money than any other merchandise in the city's market.
Books reached Timbuktu by caravan from Fez and Cairo, Tripoli and Córdoba, and what the scholars couldn't afford, they would copy. Other documents were written in Timbuktu. The vast libraries that resulted included every subject: astronomy and medicine, law, theology, grammar and proverbs.


https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/24/books/when-timbuktu-was-the-paris-of-islamic-intellectuals-in-africa.html

The manuscripts reveal that black Africa had literacy and intellectualism -- thus going beyond the mere notion of Africa as a continent of 'song and dance,' '' John O. Hunwick, a scholar who has uncovered some of the writings, said in a recent interview.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/27/mauritania-heritage-books-libraries

The manuscript contains 132 pages of Arab astronomy bound in well-worn leather, a 15th-century treasure stored, with similar items, in a cardboard box in a traditional dwelling in Chinguetti.

About 600km north-east of the capital, in Chinguetti, once a centre of Islamic learning, the Habott family owns one of the finest private libraries, with 1,400 books covering a dozen subjects such as the Qur'an and the Hadith (the words of the Prophet), astronomy, mathematics, geometry, law and grammar. The oldest tome, written on Chinese paper, dates from the 11th century.


Ousmane Oumar Kane
Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Timbuktu-Ousmane-Oumar-Kane-ebook/dp/B01G5B45LC

Mohamed Bello medicinal manuscripts pre colonial Nigeria
http://www.cci.uct.ac.za/usr/cci/publications/aria/download_issues/2012/Mukhtar%20Bunza.pdf

The Ancient Astronomers of Timbuktu Documentary

I'd like to point out that Islam was violently established in Africa. Women were raped, people forced to convert and even change their names to Arabic ones. All the previous African cultures were violently wiped out.

Till today, much of Northern Africa is Arabic. Countries like Algeria have Islam as the religion for over 99% of the inhabitants. The people there are visibly a mix between blacks and Arabs.

I don't think too highly of the Arabic conquest of Africa.