#Timbuktu manuscripts full

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#Timbuktu manuscripts full

The full story of West Africa’s manuscript culture and Islamic learning centres will finally be known when the attention that is lavished on Timbuktu’s manuscripts is also given to libraries in neighbouring Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Most of these manuscripts come from the 1800s, but have very deep historical roots. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. In case you want to support the cause by donating, please visit:

The statement goes on to say that the librarians have turned to crowdfunding because “the need to preserve the manuscripts is urgent” and “we can’t wait for governments and organizations with deep pockets to respond to this need. The funds will be used to buy moisture traps, archival boxes and additional storage, as well as to cover the labour required for the project”. As explained in the campaign page, “$30 would preserve a single manuscript, while $9,000 would protect an entire footlocker. To raise the $100,000 needed for securing proper storage facilities, the group has launched a public appeal through the IndieGoGo website. “If physical harm from the current packing situation continues and if mould and mildew spread in the corpus due to increased humidity, the damage will be devastating.”, the announcement states. According to the campain page of activist group Libraries in Exile, what is needed is to store the manuscripts in an archival, moisture-resistant manner during their exile from Timbuktu. Still, stored in the metal boxes used for their evacuation, the 700-year old texts are already showing signs of damage and exposure to moisture. However, the some 300,000 manuscripts had been, in fact, evacuated from Timbuktu by librarians and archivists. A considerable amount of them, housed for survey and protection at the Ahmed Baba Institute, were thought to have been destroyed as the Institute building was set on fire by Islamist groups during the recent Mali crisis. The manuscripts, some of them origially produced in Timbuktu, SW Sahara, and others coming from different parts of the Medieval world (Andalusia, Southern Europe, Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, and several Arab trading ports on the Indian Ocean), had been part of dozens of libraries developed from the Middle Ages till today in the legendary Malian city which formed the centre of an extensive trading network from the late 12th to the late 16th century AD.

The city's huge and priceless cultural heritage, a legacy of its medieval status as an African equivalent to Oxford or Cambridge, complete with bustling university, was little known in the outside world, with even the French, Mali's colonial rulers until 1960, carrying away some manuscripts to museums but doing little to unearth the full story behind them.Īs outside interest began to grow, in part when the infamously remote city became more accessible, the Ahmed Baba Institute started to collect and preserve significant parts of this cultural heritage, protecting it from damage through poor storage or being sold to collectors.Hundreds of thousands of precious medieval manuscripts have been smuggled out from Timbuktu only to face another threat: moisture damage. Many were kept for centuries in private family libraries, passed down through the generations. Often written in Arabic but also some local languages, they cover areas such as medicine and astronomy, as well as poetry, literature and Islamic law. Timbuktu's famous manuscripts, believed to number in the hundreds of thousands, mainly date from the 14th to 16th centuries, when the city was an important hub for trade and Islamic knowledge. Some of the 20,000 ancient manuscripts at the Ahmed Baba Institute.