History of Timbuktu Timeline

The Moroccan army defeated the Songhai at the Battle of Tondibi, and the city was captured on 30 May 1591 by an expedition of mercenaries dubbed the Arma. The Moroccans made Timbuktu, rather than Gao, their capital.

Image source: Battle of Tondibi

In 1593, Ahmad I al-Mansur cited 'disloyalty' as the reason for arresting, and subsequently killing or exiling, many of Timbuktu's scholars, including Ahmad Baba, who later returned to Timbuktu where he died in 1627.

Image source: Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti

The earliest surviving local documents are the 17th century chronicles, al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan and Ibn al-Mukhtar's Tarikh al-fattash, which provide information on the town at the time of the Songhai Empire and the Moroccan invasion of 1591. The Tarikh al-fattash ends in around 1600.

Image source: Tarikh al-fattash

The invaders established a new ruling class, the Arma, who after 1612 became virtually independent of Morocco, though the grip of subsequent pashas on the city gradually weakened.

Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan, based on oral tradition, continues its account to 1655, providing valuable information on Timbuktu under Songhai rule and the Moroccan invasion.

Image source: Tarikh al-Sudan

After Morocco cut its ties with the Arma, the grip of the pashas weakened: Tuareg temporarily took over control in 1737, and the remainder of the 18th century saw various Tuareg tribes, Bambara and Kounta briefly occupy or besiege the city.

Information on Timbuktu after 1655 is provided by the Tadhkirat al-Nisyan (A Reminder to the Obvious), an anonymous biographical dictionary of the Moroccan rulers of Timbuktu written in around 1750.

This changed in 1826, when the Massina Empire took over control of the city until 1865, when they were driven away by the Toucouleur Empire.

Image source: Caliphate of Hamdullahi

Over two and a half centuries after Leo Africanus, another notable account was given in 1780 by the Moroccan author Shabeni, who described Timbuktu at a very different point in its history.

Historic descriptions of the city prompted several European individuals and organizations to seek Timbuktu and its fabled riches. In 1788 a group of titled Englishmen formed the African Association with the goal of finding the city and charting the course of the Niger River.

Image source: African Association

The earliest explorer sponsored by the African Association was the young Scottish adventurer Mungo Park, who made two trips in search of the Niger River and Timbuktu, departing first in 1795 and then in 1805.

Image source: Mungo Park (explorer)

The American sailor Robert Adams claimed to have visited Timbuktu in 1812, while he was enslaved for several years in Northern Africa.

Image source: Robert Adams (sailor)

In 1824, the Paris-based Société de Géographie offered a 9,000 franc prize to the first non-Muslim to reach Timbuktu and return with information about it.

Image source: Société de Géographie

The Scotsman Gordon Laing arrived in August 1826 but was killed the following month by local Muslims who were fearful of European intervention.

Image source: Alexander Gordon Laing

The Frenchman René Caillié arrived in 1828 travelling alone, disguised as a Muslim; he was able to safely return and claim the Société de Géographie prize.

Image source: René Caillié

Three Europeans reached the city before 1890: Heinrich Barth in 1853, and the German Oskar Lenz with the Spaniard Cristobal Benítez in 1880. Barth's account became one of the most detailed European descriptions of the city.

Image source: Heinrich Barth

On 15 December 1893, the city, by then long past its prime, was annexed by a small group of French soldiers led by Lieutenant Gaston Boiteux. Different tribes had governed the city until the French takeover.

In 1899 the French Sudan was subdivided and Timbuktu became part of Upper Senegal and Middle Niger (Haut-Sénégal et Moyen Niger), beginning a series of colonial administrative reorganizations.

In 1902 the name of the colony became Senegambia and Niger (Sénégambie et Niger), and in 1904 this was changed again to Upper Senegal and Niger (Haut-Sénégal et Niger).

Image source: Senegambia and Niger

The name Upper Senegal and Niger was used until 1920, when the territory once again became French Sudan, with Timbuktu remaining within its borders.

Image source: French Sudan

In October 1941 the Vichy French authorities transferred a group of interned British Merchant Navy seafarers from Conakry to Timbuktu. By May 1942 two crew members had died of disease there, and in August 1942 the French moved Criton's crew to Kankan.

After a period as part of the short-lived Mali Federation, the Republic of Mali was proclaimed on 22 September 1960, ending the colonial era and making Timbuktu part of the current Republic of Mali.

Image source: Mali

After 19 November 1968, a new constitution was created in 1974, making Mali a single-party state.

Image source: History of Mali

Severe droughts hit the Sahel region in 1973 and 1985, decimating the Tuareg population around Timbuktu who relied on goat herding.

Image source: Droughts in the Sahel

Despite its illustrious history, as of 2009 Timbuktu was an impoverished town, poor even by Third World standards. The population grew an average 5.7% per year from 29,732 in 1998 to 54,453 in 2009.

One such event damaged a World Heritage property in Timbuktu, killing two people and injuring one in 2002.

Following increasing frustration within the armed forces over the government's ineffective strategies against a Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali, a military coup on 21 March 2012 overthrew President Amadou Toumani Touré and overturned the 1992 constitution.

Image source: 2012 Malian coup d'état

The Tuareg rebels of the MNLA and Ansar Dine took advantage of the confusion following the coup to make swift gains, and on 1 April 2012, Timbuktu was captured from the Malian military.

Image source: Mali War

On 3 April 2012, the BBC News reported that the Islamist rebel group Ansar Dine had started implementing its version of sharia in Timbuktu.

Image source: Ansar Dine

The MNLA declared the independence of Azawad, containing Timbuktu, from Mali on 6 April 2012, but was rapidly pushed aside by Islamist movements Ansar Dine and AQMI, who installed sharia in the city and destroyed some of the burial chambers.

Image source: Azawad

On 28 January 2013, French and Malian soldiers reclaimed Timbuktu with little or no resistance and reinstalled Malian governmental authorities.

Image source: Operation Serval

On 21 March 2013 a suicide bomber detonated his explosives, killing a Malian soldier and creating a fierce shoot-out at the international airport which resulted in the killing of ten rebels.

On 31 March 2013, a group of 20 rebels infiltrated into Timbuktu as civilians and attacked the Malian army base in the city, killing three Malian soldiers and injuring dozens more.