Timbuktu · a Light

He called his 1,600 books the smallest library in the family

When a Moroccan army took Timbuktu, its scholars were arrested, and in 1593 Ahmad Baba was taken in chains across the Sahara to Marrakesh. He was held for years and then taught there, becoming well known enough that Moroccan scholars sought him out. He later wrote that his library, seized when he was arrested, held 1,600 volumes, and that his had been the smallest library among his relatives. He returned to Timbuktu in 1607 and wrote more than forty works, including a legal opinion arguing that being African was no ground for enslaving anyone, and that the only relevant question in law was belief, not origin.

Ahmad Baba · Timbuktu and Marrakesh, 1593 CE