If you have a couple of hours to spare, I recommend listening to the episode of the Songhai Empire by the Fall of Civilizations podcast. They go into the fascinating historical background of the Timbuktu scholars and libraries. Link: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfUT6LhBBYs>
Warning: you will want to listen the whole podcast after listening to this and it takes time.
I also recommend this podcast, just finished it this week.
...and if you have a few more hours to spare, you could do worse than looking up Joshua Hammer's 'The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu', on the efforts to save these manuscripts from militant islamist rebels.
I'll admit to mostly buying it for the title, but found the story to be quite thrilling.