A city synonymous with 'the middle of nowhere' was once a global centre of learning

Timbuktu, in modern Mali, grew rich as a trans-Saharan trade hub for salt and gold, and by the 14th and 15th centuries hosted a university and libraries holding hundreds of thousands of manuscripts on astronomy, law and medicine. In English, its name became shorthand for an impossibly remote place — a reputation that says more about European unfamiliarity with West Africa than the city's real historical weight. Many manuscripts survive today, smuggled to safety during conflict in the 2010s.

— Marq de Villiers & Sheila Hirtle, Timbuktu: The Sahara's Fabled City of Gold — Walker & Company, 2007
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