Timbuktu, starting out as a seasonal settlement, became a permanent settlement early in the twelfth century.
After a shift in trading routes, Timbuktu flourished from the trade in salt, gold, ivory and slaves.
It becomes part of the Mali Empire early in the fourteenth century.
In the first half of the fifteenth century the Tuareg tribes take control of the city for a short period until the expanding Songhai Empire absorbs the city in 1468.
A Moroccan army defeats the Songhai in 1591, and makes Timbuktu, rather than Gao, their capital.
