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Strategy[]
The University of Sankore increases the 
Science output of all buildings associated with the state 
Religion. It also increases its city's chances of generating a Great Scientist.
Civilopedia entry[]
The University of Sankore was located in the city of Timbuktu during the height of the Empire of Mali. Founded in the late tenth century AD, the main building was located in Sankore Mosque, a spectacular pyramid-shaped work of architecture. During the sixteenth century AD, the University of Sankore stood at the heart of a great Islamic center of learning. Scholars traveled across the Islamic world from as far away as India and Persia to visit the famed school.
The organization of the University of Sankore was very different from that of medieval European universities. It had no central administration, student registers, or prescribed courses of study: instead, it was composed of many entirely independent colleges, each run by a single "imam" (scholar). Students associated themselves with an imam (rather than with a subject or department) and instruction was often carried out on an individual basis. Anyone could establish a college if he so wished; not surprisingly, the quality of the different schools was said to be very uneven.
Courses took place in the open courtyards of mosques or in private homes. The primary focus of the university was study of the Qur'an, although some imams gave lessons in science, jurispudence, mathematics, history, astronomy, and logic. Scholars were encouraged to write their own books because it was profitable to do so - in the Islamic world at that time, books commanded a much higher price than gold or slaves. Among the most famous scholars at the University of Sankore was Ahmed Baba, a highly distinguished historian quoted often in Islamic scholarship.
Unfortunately, the best scholars left the school during the Moroccan invasion of Mali in the 1590s and did not return later. Sankore was never able to recover its former glory.
Trivia[]
- The university's name is pronounced "Sahn-Kor-Ey", and is usually spelled "Sankoré" to reflect this.
- Its etymology is divisive and unclear. Professors at the modern university have different views. Some sources claim it means "white nobles", since "korei" means "white" in the Songhai language, supposedly referring to the North African Berber students that were of lighter skin color than the Timbuktu locals. This is obviously problematic. Even sources that claim this admit skin color wasn't perceived as "race" in 14th century West Africa. One modern professor of the university believes the name means "enlightened nobles" or "nobles of light" instead. If this is the case, "light" and "white" could both be synonymous with "purity" in the Songhai language, just as they are in English. Students were given turbans on graduation day that symbolized light and divine wisdom.
See also[]
- University of Sankore in other games