The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) held Friday an international symposium entitled “Ahmed Baba of Timbuktu: A Model of Civilizational Diplomacy in West Africa”, with the aim of introducing the efforts of African scholars in serving the culture of the Islamic world and renewing its civilizational vessels, by shedding light on the prominent role of the scholar Ahmed Baba in this regard.
The symposium discussed in three sessions the Moroccan influence on the formation of Ahmed Timbuktu, the civilizational communication between Moroccans and sub-Saharan Africa, and the cultural and social communication between North and South Africa.
In his speech during the opening session, the Director General of ISESCO Dr. Salim bin Mohammed Al-Malik, noted that the scholar Ahmed Baba of Timbuktu is a model of civilizational communication, as the city of Timbuktu in Mali embraced him and Marrakesh was happy with his arrival, which witnessed the emergence of many of his intellectual
and literary productions, which confirms that Marrakesh is a vanguard of the creative sphere that belongs to the civilizational action characterized by tolerance, which ISESCO called in its innovative concept “civilizational diplomacy”.
Al-Malik announced the imminent launch of the first scientific chair for civilizational diplomacy at Cadi Ayyad University.
For his part, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the Republic of Mali Professor Bourima Kansai, said that Ahmed Baba is a prominent figure in the scientific and cultural history of Mali, and that he was a civilizational link that contributed to enriching the intellectual heritage in Mali and Morocco.
During the opening session, the scholar Al-Timbukti’s scientific journey, which extended between the cities of Timbuktu and Marrakesh, the African Sahel and Desert, was reviewed, as well as the most prominent translations that dealt with his biography and the context in which he grew up and was raised. (QNA)
Source: Qatar News Agency