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Welcome to the pie, count unfair, daddy and I M going to talk about it and they were going to be talking about the city of gold, but this line existed long before any that he had heard about El Dorado with a mythical streets paved in gold. With this city and Molly in this great west african empire that was supposedly so rich that slaves could carry staffs. That word acid: in gold and even the most common objects like every things are on your house would be made out of this precious metal that so rare in most of the world. But the interesting thing is for most of the middle ages, european even paid much attention to Africa beyond its northern trading cities, at all that this, old early change things yeah Especially when, according to the british historian Doktor baffled Davidson, the rulers of Molly Work

Rumoured to offend the wealthiest men on the face of the earth, though I would say that would be worth checking out even going across the desert, forever ha say so, and the most illustrious ruler this empire was immense Musa in he, expanded territories developed great cities and most famously displayed his lands, wealth and a procession of thousands across Africa. Any didn't you to fight a battle. He did it to make up. Damage to MECCA, though ok talking about the city of gold and we're gonna be talking about this rule. Who made this famous pilgrimage, though, who is monuments, and where did he come from? He came from the Sahel, which is this band of land that separates the Sahara from the forest Africa and it's always been an important and bans part of the world because of the trade that cross FED and that really started and about them

if the alien lasted until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when finally Ships replaced overland, caravans camel you could do your trading a lot easier by both? Yes, and the first great kingdom of this area was that of Ghana and that's different from on our nation of Ghana that we know today, that's not even really in the same spot, nearby bad, not exactly the same, but while this kingdom splintered apart islamic Poetizing converted much of the region to Islam, including ruling families in one of these families. The key tat started up kingdom that replaced this empire of Ghana, that, with the king of Mali and its first made leader the leader who brought the family to great power, was Cindy ATA and there is kind of a funny story about the sky from the oil

fishing the he was a really strong child, but kind of clumsy on his feet. But there was the rule kind of like King Arthur and the stone sort of his wherever there was the challenge, whoever could knock down a fruit from a special tree in town and then follow the pit of that fruit would become king and through this strong that clumsy boy gave a shot and most people would try to knock down the free by throwing rock third some sort of object at it, and it wouldn't work. Thinned yadda a man and threw him at the free it knocked down, swallow the fruit and for good measure. He plucked the tree out of it sound and replanted it in his mother's yard, so other people can still the fruit wow. That's hard story to be about Thinking here I mean I would it can king yeah forth it so

the empire of Molly thrive because of its placement near the Niger River. This kingdom had a lock on all the gold travelled north, but it wasn't just gold. There was also trade, Copper, slaves and salt, so imagine mostly gold and flavour, coming from the south and salt coming from the desert and all of it going through this kingdom, where they can tax the merchants heavily and make a big profit, but we should think of it as to cohesive and empire because it had really distinct regions where different people live. They spoke different languages. It's not an empire, how you might think of an empire today in according to timber you. That's a harass, fabled city of gold, which was a book. I reference for this episode after Cindy out his death. There were theirs. Turmoil. There is a series of emperors one was

and murdered by his courtiers. That's never good in power is kind of juggled around until somehow it far from this man of the servant class names, the Cora and power change hands a few times again after him and settled on Abu procure, the second, the immediate predecessor of Massachusetts, yeah month, almost everywhere be talking about him more at length later, but he proved to be of very able administrator. He expanded the territorial lot its reputation, but But the issue and for becoming king in the least the timing of his attention is kind of a fluke, as he laid hold the son of the Sultan in Cairo. The only reason he earned his throne was because Abu procure refused to believe that the ocean was infinite. So basically the sky was obsessed with what was the Atlanta stare out at the ocean. Just

dying that there might be lands over there that he is not the emperor right, so finally launched an expedition of four hundred ships and, to this end, an Atlantic Ocean and one came back, but the men spoke of a river on the ocean. To that must have been enough for him. He was intrigue of the river being an ocean which I I don't know if that's like a current or something perhaps he was interested and though he ordered two thousand new shove, a thousand with man, a thousand with supplies, and this time he led the fleet, until a month, and you are in charge until I come back on the right, Raymond last words ear. He never came back and if you want to compare this to some other transatlantic travel with thirteen Turner, thirteen twelve though it's kind of fascinating to Imagine what if you did make. I think you have like a good of comic burgers them,

We have had a vague fortunate for months, a move that he's a lot more content with what he has an expanding the tears land, not failing off into the great an ocean. Yes, his empire became one of the world's largest at the time. A lot of people set itself We took a year to travel from one end to the other, but that was probably about exaggeration, actually fourteenth century traveller. Even the said that it took him about four months to travel from northern model, two in the army and the south first stove, a very sizeable empire in seventeen year of his reign month, Mothah embarked on the most famous journey of his lifetime way with the reason why we are talking about today and the podcast, probably that's his pillow, to MECCA, and basically this pilgrimage let the whole world knew how wealthy his kingdom was and what will be on the desert, and he travelled from

but often Jani to a lotta to towards the Cairo and from there he went on to MECCA and he had a caravan of, see thousand men, twelve thousand slaves dressed in brocade and the finest persian silk one wife, I see your wife with them her retinue of five hundred slaves and then he himself rode on horseback with five hundred gold staff slave, we mentioned in the beginning, riding in front of him and his entourage is. Again. She was carried by eighty camel. They each carry three hundred pounds of gold, so just imagine something like this passing your tiny little desert town and now that's a lot of baggage would be unbelievable, especially concerned they brought one wife here so along his way he gave generously and he spent lavishly and his party noted for their good behaviour, and he was noted

his own tiredness in Cairo. It too major convincing, to make maximum use of pay. A formal visit to the mob look Sultan, since he didn't wish to break away from his religious observances. Yeah. Basically take someone thing. You really have to go meet with the falconer, you're gonna be in trouble and according to the car color all Mary. He said I came for the pilgrimage and nothing else. I do not wish to mix anything else with my pilgrimage, but probably the most making these health. This pilgrimage is that twelve, later. All Mari found people still talking about the visit in Cairo and apparently over. This is kind of a disputed apparently, he flooded the Cairo market with so much goal just giving to ever official, he could find and Spain being buying everything he could find infused

gold into the market that it basically crashed and remain deflated for years in twelve years later that unbelievable yeah. That's a long time, though, the pilgrim, with all of its goal in all of these slave than camels and other people attending the pilgrimage with him, that's really impressive in it I'll. The truly amazing thing is the impression it leaves on all of the people who see him and how quickly the word spreads, not through Africa and through the Middle EAST, but all the way Southern Europe. You have any is not just one: the word about himself and his wealth, but he's stuck spreading the word about his home to other west broken. Rulers had made poker just before, but Manson who says really advertised Molly Muslim, gems in North Africa european kingdoms. They all want to see the place, though this wealth was coming from the area that that had arisen,

yeah I'm venetian and generates trading firms that were based in Alexandria. Of course heard about this great. That was over in Cairo and they started to spread the word southern Europe and by thirteen seventy five, which is you know it's home later, but this is still of note monthly move ahead. It onto Charles, the fifth of France's newly Mission ATLAS, and if you look up month, move that the picture you got him is gonna, be from this atlas Braun. Holding a ball of gold is wearing a crown and there's the caption. So abundant is the gold which is found in his country that he is the richest most noble king and all the land and three cities in his empire, he's made a big big impression on people very far away from people very far away from him get a big name, his homeland, even The high roller. His riches aren't inexhaustible, though,

for certain passionately do better story. If they were at work, how he over spends himself is often doing your travelling. You overspend yourself, and then you have to get home so now raise the money quickly, and so, during the trip home he had to borrow at really high rates due to all that spending in Cairo in MECCA. Fortunately, though, while he would on his pilgrimage. One of General Somalia has expanded his empires territory, though he had a lot of new perspective sources income, since he had just incorporated to vary, healthy, very prominent city states, Gaol Timbuctoo. So we are looking like all the borrower isn't gonna be too bad things all and so on.

Home Mensa Mousses stops by Cairo, not just to borrow money, but also to collect artisans, masons iron workers and the poet architect, Abou Shock, ESA Healy I'll try General Granada before us, through his newly claims city states and taking a couple of princess as hostages on the way they city states needed or about who is both of those. In exchange for these really extravagant payment, like hundreds upon the golden Fleece, Food and river land, the architect, with the very long name builds alive, great monuments to monitor. Though the palace and a mosque in gaol and a now lost palace and timber. One in the army and most famously he built a great mosque in Timbuktu and again, if you, Google, Timbuctoo, MRS probably the mosque, you're gonna, see it the most

famous landmark I'd, say of the city and it looks a lot like it did, and thirteen thirty it's a UNESCO site- it's very threatened by the desert and just being neglected in terms of acute. But it's a pretty impressive structure. And the rich building projects that month a move that essentially kicks off started trend because all the wealthy urgent and timber, to want to sort of look like what king is: do yeah they serve bringing in their own egyptian worker than making their own elaborate home than we have gild the Mason Armed in iron workers formed an timbuctoo. Becomes this really cosmopolitan city in their people from all these different cultures, in the fourteenth century. There are as many as one hundred fifteen thousand people, which maybe doesn't sound like whole. I now Dave, but let's compare that till one,

population at the same time, which was only twenty thousand, so pretty cool. Interesting, it's it's a huge city with a lot going on and temper to kept. This sort of position the cosmopolitan city even after mentioned was the died and thirteen thirty two and Finally, the states of the empire of Molly began to break off. After that, but Timbuktu went on become a major cultural and religious centre of the world. Now, and you know it had been, it had been a pretty your trading thirty, before among them, the took it under his wing Long long ago it had been the full crossroads town and I left the story. That's naming it with a place where a tar egg woman named buck to ran arrest staff on the edge of the desert near and Niger Reverie Tributary an timbuctoo well of backed you, so now give her father. But you know it It develops a lot since then, but it was undermine

who thought that it started to either Could the great libraries developed the schools developed, and it became the meeting place for some of the best poets and scholars and artists in Africa and the Middle EAST, and I just like to go little ran down of some of those who said that people were working on at this time. Just Cosette see so much earlier than that you are doing here. You would think in the fifteenth century petitions and Timbuktu knew about the rotation of the planet and the details of the eclipse, which were things Galileo in Copernicus calculated allow Later- and we ve talked about both of them in recent episodes, though it's interesting to get a little

Pre Galileo Copernicus background on astronomy here yeah. Definitely they also kind of tool around a bit with some ideas from India, including creating Arabic, numerals yeah in their physicians, wrote about medicinal plants and nutrition and performed early operations. The human eye, which sounds kind of uncomfortable, but I guess you gotta start somewhere and this debated, polygamy and tobacco, so I mean just a very small life of all of the ideas that were flow around in Timbuktu and, of course, a lot of ideas on is onto it became a great centre of Islamic study. So, finally, the city did reach decline at some point, even though it was long after the empire of Molly fell in

came when a Moroccan solemn invaded and killed the scholars, and that ended be educational reputation of timber to somewhere in its commercial success did not too long after that when the Ocean trade Ruth opened up and but he had any reason to go all the way to Timbuctoo anymore, but luckily they do not go away. There are many thousands of books that we're stashed away and they were hidden in caves and storage rooms or buried and trunks, and in that way there are sort of protected from invaders, if not from the elements, necessarily and today there is a major effort to save these ancient books, with many of which were handwritten and classic Arabic on Linen base paper. Inks and dies that were from desert plants, and they had covers that were the skins of goats and sheep and enough go. I've been working on protecting a lot of these tat form of sense, Molly's independence in the nineteen sixties, and there

our numerous libraries that have been established and timber to support it. Not only enough go about the Ford Foundation or the professor Henry Louis Gates, Junior, who has promoted the libraries and the tax of Timbuktu alive, people are really focusing on for one thing: finding them rounding them getting them out array the trunk buried in the desert and getting the dust off of them, but also did causing the library so that they can be used around the world. You don't have to go to Timbuctoo to look at this important manuscripts Right now I think you'd mentioned that some of them are pretty bad shape. Yeah, a lot of them are run at this point is obviously a dry, climate by China's isn't always good for back. Then there is the rainy season, so you end up with insects and mould and will do so it's amazing letter. They survived this long. Accordingly,

You tomorrow is a historian at the National Centre for scientific research in Paris. What's in the book is likely to shock the world, if it ever all compiled, tell tomorrow with quoted as saying these discover they're going to revolutionize what one thinks about West Africa, though, is really a rush to to get this. Two computers, or at least preserved before they disintegrate. Yet some sector challenging after about a good one. If you want to learn a little bit more about the preservation effort in too much too, there is a really good Smithsonian article by Joshua Hammer just on how these libraries were forms and what people are doing to try to save all these old manuscripts

and it would be good for them to do that too, because not that easy to visit Timbuctoo anymore is, I know it's not the? U S, state of harm and caution against all travel in northern Molly, including Timbuktu, because of threats from the terrorist group. Who I am, and tar unrest in banditry, so unfortunately, going from here to timber You really isn't like an impossibility now, unless you're fiercely willing to risk the major personal danger in this unfortunate, because it feels like there's so much there still and, of course, the city is also being threatened by the desert itself. There I think, they're trying to keep it at bay and protect the mosque than the monument from just being followed up the sand. Again, though, that's about all we have to say about Timbuctoo and more familiar so today, but it was really interesting to learn about this king, who I mean

never really heard about it before he's been suggested few times, but it's interesting to learn about how a whole continent is partly opened up another part of the world and about Timbuktu, which I think has almost I'm kind of a mythical persona, yeah timber. To you say it when you are talking, you wanna say like something: ass: the first play as you can imagine, it's just a catchphrase. I think pollio out of fuel, Don't even realize it's a real city, let alone that that catchphrase. I've been so wrong for most of its trade, like the centre of thing but postponed, and I think that during this term we have one from Darlene. He says a long time, Darlene ago, says a long time ago, that's along with lots of oaths. You see. I lay I took in astronomy class with the head of the department.

And brilliant and shameless transfer who had written many books, including the one assigned as a textbook. Quell surprise parentheses during daddy of Tito Bra, hey the assigned reading included the puzzling phrase. T cobra, hey did not die in Maine, spelled h e, and this made sense when we but the town in question is pronounced. Then as in your podcast, has pronounced thing. I think you can figure it out, and she says thanks a lot for an enjoyable peak corners of history that I did indeed listen class that might be one of the best correction has ever gotten. We I'd be glad to know that it is pronounced of anyone, know what a funny little puzzle prelate a clever professor me and leave here: we have another one on ticker. He also kind of a fine correction in its from an

New Hampshire and she wrote November, has nothing to do with celebrating the ability to grow mustache. It started out as an awareness campaign for prostate cancer, which affects more men in our lifetimes than breast cancer affects women, which gets little awareness in November, is an umbrella for overall awareness of men's health issues. So that's my little so long and I was out looking into member after getting acuity female but little bed, and I think it started with this group of australian man in a bar, of course, who decided to grow moustaches and, later that they decided, while we had actually seriously raise the money by our mustache growing, enterprising young, fellows and Mary. It became a prostate cancer fundraising, and think Depression Anything in just general men's health issues, so kind of fun, backed about

stash, growing anti go and ankles wicked called I want to celebrate November next year and now that I know all about like a baby without ass, you well, I think. About rather than we have. Fortunately, for you, to call on the house. If you want to learn a little bit more at on the part of Africa, we were talking about author NL, as if you have suggestions for more african history topic at history, pockets that has to work- calm when Twitter missed in history and one thing you want to check out that article. It's called. Why is shifting you can find it by searching for the whole on our own. W W W House network dot com

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