Al Hajj Mahmud Kati (or Mahmoud Kati) (1468? - 1552 or 1593) was an African Muslim Songhai scholar. He is traditionally held to be the author of the

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali ...

n chronicle ''

Tarikh al-fattash The ''Tarikh al-fattash'' is a West African chronicle written in Arabic in the second half of the 17th century. It provides an account of the Songhay Empire from the reign of Sonni Ali (ruled 1464-1492) up to 1599 with a few references to even ...

'', though the authorship is contested. Kati grew up in Kurmina but lived most of his adult life in

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrati ...

. His tomb is the second largest in Timbuktu, after that of Mohammed Bagayogo, and is a site of pilgrimage.

References

1468 births Year of birth uncertain 16th-century deaths Year of death unknown 16th-century African people Historians of Africa 16th-century historians {{Africa-historian-stub