Their major contribution was in the area of actual study of and scholarship around Islam, being as it was in many ways a central gathering point for thinkers from various parts of the Islamic world and also home to one of the first universities in the world which taught about Islam.

Timbuktu also served as a refuge for many of the Islamic leaders that were driven out of the Ghana Empire when it fell, and the influx of those leaders and scholars only helped to build the strength of Islam in Timbuktu and surrounding areas.

Perhaps a third was the collection of and safegaurding of a huge number of manuscripts regarding Islam (and a variety of other things) that the Universities in Timbuktu helped to orchestrate.