Timbuktu Talks series--The Dawn of the West African Clerisy: Moodibo Muhammad al-Kabari and “The Grove of Gains & Benefits”

Around 1400 CE, an African scholar named al-Kabari, based in Timbuktu, penned what may be the oldest surviving text written by an indigenous West African in any language. This talk—about al-Kabari and his surviving manuscript-- will explore the ontological and epistemological universe of the Niger Bend in the 14-15th centuries.