# Have all the libraries of Timbuktu been lost?

- Institution: Gresham College
- Speaker: Robin Walker
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: History
- Source: [Gresham College](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/have-all-libraries-timbuktu-been-lost)
- Licence: [Educational use (Gresham College's terms)](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/terms-and-conditions)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

An excerpt taken from a lecture by Robin Walker called 'Have all the libraries of Timbuktu been lost?' The Malian city of Timbuktu is one of the world's oldest seats of learning and has an intellectual legacy of hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, coming from three great West African desert empires: Ancient Ghana, medieval Mali, and the Songhai Empire. These manuscripts offer a unique window into their history. Many remain unread. This lecture will look at how their study can be used to advance our knowledge of the intellectual history of the premodern world.

## Lectures

1. [Have all the libraries of Timbuktu been lost?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/gresham/have-all-libraries-timbuktu-been-lost/8b914c4cea2e) (YouTube)