Санкоре

The Sankore Madrasah, also known as the Sankoré Mosque, stands in the Sankoré quarter of Timbuktu in Mali's Tombouctou region. It is one of the city's three medieval mosques and centres of learning, alongside Djinguereber and Sidi Yahya. The building belongs to the Sudano-Sahelian architectural tradition and forms part of a World Heritage Site. The mosque developed into a madrasa and held an important place in the region's scholarly life. It is sometimes called the "University of Sankoré", although there is no evidence of a centralised teaching institution like those of medieval Europe. Instead, individual scholars taught their own private students here, and some lectures and classes were held in the mosque.

The record gives 988 as the year of construction. The mosque went through successive periods of patronage and renovation under the Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire. Its importance declined after the Battle of Tondibi in 1591.

The imamate of the mosque passed in succession among members of the Aqit family, from which the scholar Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti came.