A manuscript page from TimbuktuManuscript of Nasir al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Hajj al-Amin al-Tawathi al-Ghalawi's Kashf al-Ghummah fi Nafa al-Ummah. From the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library, Timbuktu.A manuscript page from Timbuktu showing a table of astronomical information
Timbuktu Manuscripts (or Tombouctou Manuscripts) is a blanket term for the large number of historically significant manuscripts that have been preserved for centuries in private households in Timbuktu, a city in northern Mali. The collections include manuscripts about art, medicine, philosophy, and science, as well as copies of the Quran.[1]
The manuscripts are written in Arabic and several African languages, in the Ajami script; this includes, but is not limited to, Fula, Songhay, Tamasheq, Bambara, and Soninke.[2] The dates of the manuscripts range between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan).[3] Their subject matter ranges from scholarly works to short letters.
After the decline of the Mali Empire, the manuscripts were kept in the homes of Timbuktu locals, before research and digitisation efforts began in the 20th and 21st century.
The manuscripts, and other cultural heritage in Mali, were imperilled during the Mali War. 4,203 of Timbuktu's manuscripts were burned or stolen following between 2012 and 2013. Some 350,000 manuscripts were transported to safety, and 300,000 of them were still in Bamako in 2022.[4][5][6]
Early scribes translated works of numerous well-known individuals (such as Plato, Hippocrates, and Avicenna) as well as reproduced a "twenty-eight volume Arabic language dictionary called The Mukham, written by an Andalusian scholar in the mid-eleventh century."[7]:25 Original books from Timbuktu have been written by local scientists, historians, philosophers, and versemakers. Legal experts in the city gathered scholarship about Islamic jurisprudence, or fikh, as well as obligatory alms, or zakat.[7]:25–26 Astronomers studied the movement of stars and relation to seasons, crafting charts of the heavens and precise diagrams of orbits of the other planets based on complex mathematical calculations; they even documented a meteor shower in 1593—"“In the year 991 in God’s month of Rajab the Godly, after half the night had passed stars flew around as if fire had been kindled in the whole sky—east, west, north and south...It became a nightly flame lighting up the earth, and people were extremely disturbed. It continued until after dawn.”[7]:26–27 Physicians documented instructions on nutrition and therapeutic properties of desert plants, and ethicists debated matters such as "polygamy, moneylending, and slavery."[7]:27 "There were catalogues of spells and incantations; astrology; fortune-telling; black magic; necromancy, or communication with the dead by summoning their spirits to discover hidden knowledge; geomancy, or divining markings on the ground made from tossed rocks, dirt, or sand; hydromancy, reading the future from the ripples made from a stone cast into a pool of water; and other occult subjects..."[7]:27 A volume titled Advising Men on Sexual Engagement with Their Women acted as a guide on aphrodasiacs and infertility remedies, as well as offering advice on "winning back" their wives. "At a time when women’s sexuality was barely acknowledged in the West, the manuscript, a kind of Baedeker to orgasm, offered tips for maximizing sexual pleasure on both sides."[7]:27
The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition.[8] Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, affording only rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.[7] Beginning in 2013, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, partnered with SAVAMA-DCI for a large-scale digitization effort that has photographed more than 150,000 manuscripts. This effort has been supported by the Arcadia Fund. These are being made available through HMML's online Reading Room. In 2017, HMML and the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme launched the Endangered Libraries in Timbuktu (ELIT) project to digitize manuscripts that remained in Timbuktu with the three principal mosques.[9]
With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.[10]Time magazine related the account of an imam who picked up four of them for $50 each. In October 2008 one of the households was flooded, destroying 700 manuscripts.[11]
Research
Digitizing ancient documents at the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, 2007
In 1970, UNESCO founded an organization which included among its tasks preservation of the manuscripts, but it went unfunded until 1977.[12] In 1998, Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates visited Timbuktu for his PBS series Wonders of the African World. The series raised public and academic awareness of the manuscripts, which led to a pool of funding opening up.[13]
The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project was a project of the University of Oslo running from 1999 - 2007, the goal of which was to assist in physically preserving the manuscripts, digitize them and building an electronic catalogue, and making them accessible for research.[14] It was funded by the government of Luxembourg[15] along with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Ford Foundation, the Norwegian Council for Higher Education's Programme for Development Research and Education (NUFU), and the United States' Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. Among the results of the project are: reviving the ancient art of bookbinding and training a solid number of local specialists; devising and setting up an electronic database to catalogue the manuscripts held at the Institut des Hautes Études et de Recherche Islamique – Ahmad Baba (IHERI-AB); digitizing a large number of manuscripts held at the IHERIAB; facilitating scholarly and technical exchange with manuscript experts in Morocco and other countries;[16] reviving IHERI-AB's journal Sankoré; and publishing the illustrated book, The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu: Rediscovering Africa's Literary Culture.[17]
Since the end of this project, the cooperation of Grand-Duché de Luxembourg has funded a new project called Timbuktu Manuscripts. This project aims at protecting and promoting Timbuktu Manuscripts, for economic, social and cultural development of the area. It is implemented by the Lux-Development agency and the goals are:
a better conservation of the manuscripts (100 listed manuscripts, 10 described manuscripts, 2 digitalized manuscripts, 10 restored and protected manuscripts)
a better scientific utilisation of the manuscripts
use of manuscripts to promote economic, social and cultural development of the area
The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project is a separate project run by the University of Cape Town. In a partnership with the government of South Africa, which contributed to the Timbuktu trust fund, this project is the first official cultural project of the New Partnership for Africa's Development. It was founded in 2003 and is ongoing. They released a report on the project in 2008.[18] As well as preserving the manuscripts, the Cape Town project also aims to make access to public and private libraries around Timbuktu more widely available. The project's online database is accessible to researchers only. In 2015, it was announced that the Timbuktu trust fund would close after receiving no more funds from the South African government.[19]
Another project was seeded in 2005, when Aluka[20] (which later integrated with JSTOR) began a dialogue with members of library and scholarly communities, expressing its interest in helping to solve some of the challenges faced by libraries in Timbuktu. In January 2007, after a series of meetings and discussions in Cape Town, New York, and Timbuktu, Aluka entered into a formal partnership with SAVAMA-DCI (L’organisation Non Gouvernmentale pour la Sauvegarde et la Valorisation des Manuscrits pour la Defense de la Culture Islamique), a Timbuktu-based NGO whose mission is to help private manuscript libraries in Mali safeguard, preserve, and understand their intellectual treasures. As part of this project, Aluka also partnered with two academic groups, Northwestern University’s Advanced Media Production Studio (NUAMPS), led by Mr. Harlan Wallach, and the Tombouctou Mss Project at the University of Cape Town’s Department of Historical Studies. Some of the images are published in a project report from Aluka.[21] Over 300 digitized manuscripts are available to researchers and were featured in Aluka’s online archive as part of its African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes digital library, which was later integrated with JSTOR.[22][23]
A book about Timbuktu, published in 2008, contains a chapter with some discussions of a few of the texts[clarification needed].[24]
4,203 of Timbuktu's manuscripts were burned or stolen following the fall of Timbuktu in the Northern Mali conflict between 2012 and 2013 by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu. 90% of these manuscripts were saved by the population organized around the NGO "Sauvegarde et valorisation des manuscrits pour la défense de la culture islamique" (SAVAMA-DCI).[29][6] Some 350,000 manuscripts were transported to safety, and 300,000 of them were still in Bamako in 2022.[4][5]
History of the evacuation
U.S.-based book preservation expert Stephanie Diakité and Dr. Abdel Kader Haidara,[30] curator of one of the most important libraries of Timbuktu, a position handed down in his family for generations, organized the evacuation of the manuscripts to Bamako in the south of Mali.[31] Timbuktu has a long tradition of celebrating and honoring family manuscript collections. It is traditional for a family member to “swear publicly that he will protect the library for as long as he lives.” [32] During the evacuation process, Haidara relied on local families to hide the Ahmed Baba Institute's manuscript collection in their homes before the texts were ultimately transported to Bamako.[32] The evacuation was supported by international organizations, such as the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, whose initial commitment was followed by financial support from other organisations such as the Doen Foundation and Ford Foundation.[33] Abdel Kader thanked SAVAMA-DCI and their partners in a letter for enabling the evacuation of the manuscripts to the cities in the south of the country and supporting their storage.[34]
Once in the south, the manuscripts faced new dangers: mold and humidity. Stephanie Diakité and Dr. Abdel Kader Haidara began a campaign to raise money for the preservation of the books including a crowd-funding campaign called "Timbuktu Libraries in Exile".[36] Whereas many institutions have provided funding, equipment and/or training, the leading role in all the proceedings is played by the local people.[37]
An international consultation on the safeguarding, accessibility and promotion of ancient manuscripts in the Sahel was held at the UNESCO office in Bamako in 2020.[6][4]
The French/German cultural TV channel ARTE produced a feature-length film about Timbuktu's manuscript heritage in 2009 entitled "Tombouctou: les manuscrits sauvés des sables" or "Timbuktus verschollenes Erbe: vom Sande verweht".[39][40] Another film on the subject entitled "Manuscripts of Timbuktu" was also released in 2009. The film was made by South African director Zola Maseko, executive produced by the South African Broadcasting Corporation and distributed by California Newsreel.[41]
In 2013, BBC Four produced a documentary called "The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu."[42]
In 2016, a book about the manuscripts and the efforts to save them in the midst of the assault and occupation of northern Mali by Islamist jihadis was published. The book, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer,[7] provides vivid details about the collection of the manuscripts into libraries and subsequent efforts to remove them to safety during the dangerous conflict, in which the Islamist jihadis threatened to destroy them.
In 2017, journalist Charlie English published The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu (also published as The Storied City: The Quest for Timbuktu and the Fantastic Mission to Save Its Past) which tells in alternating chapters the history of European expeditions to Timbuktu (1795 – 1860) and the rescue efforts undertaken by Haidara and others to save the manuscripts from destruction by jihadists in 2012.[43][44]
A manuscript was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has come to be understood to further include any written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author's work, as distinguished from the rendition as a printed version of the same.
Timbuktu is an ancient city in Mali, situated 20 kilometres north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 54,453 in the 2009 census.
Djenné is a Songhai town and urban commune in the Inland Niger Delta region of central Mali. The town is the administrative centre of the Djenné Cercle, one of the eight subdivisions of the Mopti Region. The commune includes ten of the surrounding villages and in 2009 had a population of 32,944.
Tombouctou Region or Timbuktu Region is one of the administrative regions of Mali. For administrative purposes, the region is subdivided into five cercles.
Sankoré Madrasa is one of three medieval mosques and centres of learning located in Timbuktu, Mali, the others being the Djinguereber and Sidi Yahya mosques. Founded in the 14th century, the Sankoré mosque went through multiple periods of patronage and renovation under both the Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire until its decline following the Battle of Tondibi in 1591. The mosque developed into a madrasa, reaching its peak in the 16th century. The term "University of Sankoré" has sometimes been applied to the Sankoré madrasa, though there is no evidence of a centralized teaching institution such as the term university implies. Instead the mosque served as the focal point for individual scholars with their own private students, and as a location in which some lectures and classes were held.
Essakane is a rural commune and village of the Cercle of Goundam in the Tombouctou Region of Mali. The commune includes around 16 small settlements. The small village of Essakane is around 70 kilometers west of the town of Timbuktu. The commune includes Lake Faguibine and two depressions, Lake Kamango and Lake Gouber, which fill with water in years when the annual flood of the Niger River is particularly extensive.
Jews of the Bilad al-Sudan describes West African Jewish communities connected to known Jewish communities who migrated to West Africa as merchants for trading opportunities. Various historical records state that at one time, they were present in the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, the Mossi Kingdoms and the Songhai Empire, which was then called the Bilad al-Sudan "Land of the Blacks".
Articles related to Mali include:
Timbuktu Airport is an airport in Timbuktu, Mali that opened on April 15, 1961.
Aluka was an online digital library focused on Africa-related material. It focused on globally connecting scholars by building a common platform for online collaboration and knowledge sharing. Aluka's intended audience was higher education and research communities.
The University of Timbuktu is a collective term for the teaching associated with three mosques in the city of Timbuktu in what is now Mali: the mosques of Sankore, Djinguereber, and Sidi Yahya. It was an organized scholastic community that endured for many centuries during the medieval period. The university contributed to the modern understanding of Islamic and academic studies in West Africa during the medieval period and produced a number of scholars and manuscripts taught under the Maliki school of thought.
Columba Andrew Stewart is an American Benedictine monk, scholar, and the executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) in Collegeville, Minnesota. His principal scholarly contributions have been in the field of monastic studies—both Benedictine and Eastern Christian.
The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) is a nonprofit organization that photographs, catalogs, and provides free access to collections of manuscripts located in libraries around the world.
The Ahmed Baba Institute, officially the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, is a library and research centre in Timbuktu. The centre was founded in 1973, with financing primarily from Kuwait. It was named after 17th-century Timbuktu scholar Ahmad Baba al Massufi.
The Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library is a private manuscript library in Timbuktu, Mali. Founded by Abdel Kader Haidara in 2000 and named in honor of his father, the library preserves one of the oldest and largest private manuscript collections in Timbuktu, with about 22,000 items.
Starting out as a seasonal settlement, Timbuktu was in the kingdom of Mali when it became a permanent settlement early in the 12th century. After a shift in trading routes, the town flourished from the trade in salt, gold, ivory and slaves from several towns and states such as Begho of Bonoman, Sijilmassa, and other Saharan cities. It became part of the Mali Empire early in the 14th century. By this time it had become a major centre of learning in the area. In the first half of the 15th century the Tuareg tribes took control of the city for a short period until the expanding Songhai Empire absorbed the city in 1468. The Moroccan army defeated the Songhai in 1591, and made Timbuktu, rather than Gao, their capital.
Taoudénit is a region of Mali legislatively created in 2012 from the northern part of Timbuktu Cercle in Tombouctou Region. Actual implementation of the region began on 19 January 2016 with the appointment of Abdoulaye Alkadi as the region's governor. Members of the region's transitional council were appointed on 14 October 2016. General Abderrahmane Ould Meydou replaced Alkadi as governor in July 2017.
The Fall of Timbuktu took place during the war in northern Mali. It was one of the first clashes between the MNLA and Ansar Dine, and led to the latter taking control of the city in June 2012.
The Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) is a funding programme and digital archive run by the British Library in London. It has the purpose of preserving cultural heritage where resources may be limited. Each year EAP awards grants to researchers to identify and preserve culturally important archives by digitising them in situ. The original archival material does not leave the country of origin, and projects often incorporate local training and career development. EAP focuses on material created before the mid twentieth century.
Islamic manuscripts had a variety of functions ranging from Qur'anic recitation to Scientific notation. These manuscripts were produced in many different ways depending on their use and time period. Parchment (vellum) was a common way to produce manuscripts. Manuscript creators eventually transitioned to using paper in later centuries with the diffusion of paper making in the Islamic empire. When Muslims encountered paper in Central Asia, its use and production spread to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa during the 8th century.
↑ Les Chemins du Savoir / Masālik al-Maʿrifa: Manuscrits de Tombouctou: patrimoine partagé / al-turāth al-mushtarak min khilāl makhṭūṭāt Tinbuktū. Rabat: Bibliothèque Nationale du Royaume du Maroc en collaboration avec l'Institut des Hautes Etudes et de Recherches Islamiques Ahmed Baba – Tombouctou, 13–17 Juin 2005. Workshop, exhibit and catalogue. Rabat: Institut des Études Africaines, Université Mohammed V – Souissi, 2005.
1 2 Yochi Dreazen, “The Brazen Bibliophiles of Timbuktu: How a Team of Sneaky Librarians Duped Al Qaeda and Saved Some of the Ancient World’s Greatest Artifacts,” The New Republic (April 2013), 34.
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