B.C. Djenne remained an important cultural and economic center through medieval times. The Bambara Mosque at Bougouni, Mali. West African architects and builders showed ingenuity and resourcefulness in using local materials and adapting to environmental conditions. The protruding timbers were used as steps when, due to an infrequent rain, the walls needed replastering with mud. The 11th century Gobirau Minaret at Katsina, Nigeria.
Mosque architecture reflects a synthesis of local and imported traditions, some of great duration.
Among the first Muslim traders to cross the Sahara were the Ibadis from North Africa, whose architectural legacy can still be detected in some areas. Education in Islamic Africa, as elsewhere in the Muslim world, was founded on the Quran. Gifted students would continue their studies at the mosque, perhaps continuing more advanced work at Timbuktu or the al-Azhar University in Cairo. The King of Bornu in royal procession arriving at one of his provincial residences around 1850. The kingdom of Kanem-Bornu had a continuous history going back over a thousand years.