When people think of the world's oldest and most influential centers of learning, names like Oxford, Harvard, and the Sorbonne often come to mind. But long before many of those institutions existed, scholars from across Africa and the Middle East traveled to a city on the edge of the Sahara Desert in search of knowledge. That city was Timbuktu. And at its heart stood one of history's greatest centers of education: the University of Sankore. What Was the University of Sankore?