Tombouctou, city, central Mali, on the southern edge of the Sahara, just north of the great bend of the Niger River. It is connected with the Niger by canals and is served by the small river port of Kabara. The city is a regional trade center for salt and other basic commodities. Its few manufactures include cotton textiles, leather goods, and pottery.
Tombouctou was formerly a great commercial entrepôt and an international center of Islamic learning. The city was probably founded in the late 11th century AD by Tuareg nomads. By the early 14th century, when it was incorporated into the ancient empire of Mali, Tombouctou was a leading terminus of trans-Saharan caravans and a distribution point for trade along the upper Niger. After it was conquered by the powerful Songhai Empire in 1468, the city reached its zenith as a commercial and religious center. It had a population of about 40,000 in the early 16th century. Merchants from northern African cities traded salt and cloth for gold and for black African slaves in the markets of Tombouctou. The school organized at the city's Sankoré mosque was staffed by scholars educated in the leading Islamic academies of the Middle East.
