![]() ![]() ![]() While the invaders destroyed the tombs of the city's saints, people grieved, but still thought their books might be safe as the Islamists were holed up in the Ahmed Baba Institute, not for their love of learning, but for convenience. When the Islamists rolled in, it was too late to hide them again. Even days before the civil war broke out, families were still donating their books, trying to save them from the ravages of time - beautiful illuminated manuscripts that people had kept in boxes in the ground, ironically to keep them safe from Islamists. It was only around 2000 that most people felt safe enough to unearth their family documents, and, with help from the Ford foundation, USAID, and UNESCO, hand them over to be preserved. They wanted to see if the past could help the present." "Most wars have been fought before - and resolved. "Last year people came to research the Palestinian and Israeli conflict," the librarian at the Ahmed Baba Institute told me when I visited. The information in these tomes was still so salient that, as the crumbling pages of the books were being preserved, people from all over the world were still trying to translate and study them to see if there was some knowledge they could use today. The oldest books were from the eleventh century, when the Salt Road trading was at its peak and international traders would converge on Timbuktu. And these libraries were spectacular, containing thousands of ancient leather-bound books written in Arabic, Hebrew, African tribal languages, Turkish, and many other tongues, and covering topics like astronomy, poetry, music, politics, grammar, medicine, law, conflict resolution, and women's rights. Beyond their history, the things these friends prized above all were their libraries, which codified their city as one of the most important in history. I was there when the civil war broke out and I have several close friends from the city who have since fled. I spent last December and January traveling in Mali, and more than a week in Timbuktu. ![]() In doing so, these villains effectively erased a thousand years of written history from tribes and cultures all over the world. But today, I firmly and emphatically broke that pledge in a stream of Tourrette's-like swearing after learning that the Islamists in Mali did what everyone had feared they'd do: burn down the centuries-old libraries of Timbuktu. My source for this material can be found at the website of the TomcouctouĬomposed for Caballito Negro (Tessa Brinckman & Terry Longshore).One of my New Year's resolutions was to stop cursing, because at a certain age, it just isn't pretty. Part 2 features quotes from historic scholarĪhmed Baba, while part 3 quotes Leo Africanus, a “16th century traveller.” My piece weaves together fragments of this story with fragments of text from Smuggling them, through extremist-guarded checkpoints, to safey in the ![]() Hatched a plan to evacuate the manuscripts from Timbuktu, dramatically In the face of this immanent threat, an unlikely coalition of library officials,īus drivers, taxi drivers, and canoers, lead by Dr. Of Islam, they began destroying shrines they considered ‘idolatrous.’ Theĭocuments held in Timbuktu since its glory days…were equally vulnerable.” From BBC Magazine: “According the their strict interpretation In 2012 Islamist (Tuareg) rebels took over Timbuktu, putting the manuscriptsĪt grave risk. Writers such as Ahmed Baba covered a wide range of religious, scientific and other topics, which often placed particular emphasis on peace, tolerance and conflict resolution, for which Mali has become known. The 13th and 17th centuries, Timbuktu was a major centre of wealth and Islamic scholarship. Manuscripts that document a golden era of Malian culture, when, between The Timbuktu Manuscripts are a vast archive of thousands of historical ![]()
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