Hammer, Joshua. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2016. Print.
First Sentences:
Description:
Abdel Kader Haidara was a small boy when he first learned about the hidden treasures of Timbuktu.In the Haidaras' large house in Sankore, the city's oldest neighborhood, he often heard his father mention them under his breath, as if reluctantly revealing a family secret.
Description:
We all love books, especially rare manuscripts with illustrated lettering, ancient stories, religious tracts, and scientific writings. But what if possessing such documents could result in you being whipped, having a hand amputated, being thrown into prison, or even put to a grisly death? Now how much would you do to protect your beloved items?
Such has been the dilemma faced by the people of Timbuktu, Mali in Africa. For centuries. Timbuktu was the crossroads of the world, existing at the juncture of the overland salt route and also the Niger River, the pathways to the world. But those same avenues brought invaders with their own culture and religion, invaders who destroyed the existing manuscripts containing the literary culture of Africa. And this goes on today, as recently as 2013.
Joshua Hammer's The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts, despite the silly title, is a serious, well-researched history behind this very recent threat to its printed heritage of books and manuscripts from new invaders: Al Qaeda and its ultra-conservative Islamic jihadists.
In 1981 at age 17, Abdel Kader Haidara inherited his family's vast collection of 50,000 ancient manuscripts and books created by African writers. Haidara also worked with the newly-built Ahmed Baba Institute to purchase other similar historical manuscripts from locals who for centuries had hidden and continued to protect their precious collections from invaders.
With Mali's independence from France in 1960, Haidara felt it was finally time to collect, protect, and display these cultural manuscripts. Slowly, the Haidara won the people's trust and was able to gather precious fifteenth and sixteenth century books and manuscripts for the Institute to be cataloged, preserved, and displayed.
But the 2013 invasion of Mali by Al Qaeda and its radical Islamic jihadists once again threatened these works. Since the documents included records of science and history, of art and poetry that contradicted ultra-conservative Islamic religious teachings, the literature had to be eliminated. The jihadists swept through Mail's cities, killing or amputating limbs of anyone who failed to accept their conservative version of Islam that included the destruction of these beautifully illustrated manuscripts.
Over 377,000 manuscripts of the Institute were threatened and had to be secreted away from right under the noses of the invaders. Haidara organized people from Timbuktu and nearby cities to take boxes of hastily-assembled documents and hide them somewhere, anywhere... again. These treasures were removed after dark and then floated down the Niger, packed into trucks that faced armed military check-points, or strapped to camels to be distributed to willing citizens to hide.
But each day, each hour, the jihadists became stronger, boldly overrunning cities, destroying artifacts, temples and the people who opposed them. Could Haidara and his grass-roots efforts succeed against these terrorists against culture?
These events were personally witnessed by the author in his visits to these very dangerous sites in war-torn Mali. The chilling details were told to him in interviews with those who experienced the efforts to preserve the knowledge of Mali. From the "bad-ass librarians" themselves to locals from Timbuktu and supporters from outside Mali, including Henry Louis Gates from the United States, the gripping story unfolds: the threat of violence and cultural destruction versus the dogged perseverance of ordinary people taking extraordinary chances with their lives.
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu is a fantastic, scary, and foreboding first-hand account of the very real horrors of religious jihadists who destroy everyone and everything that does not conform to their views of Islamic life. But more importantly it is the inspirational story of the brave men and women who defied these radicals, risking jail, mutilation, whipping, and amputation of limbs in order to preserve their heritage of books and manuscripts. A gripping page-turner of a real-life thriller.
Such has been the dilemma faced by the people of Timbuktu, Mali in Africa. For centuries. Timbuktu was the crossroads of the world, existing at the juncture of the overland salt route and also the Niger River, the pathways to the world. But those same avenues brought invaders with their own culture and religion, invaders who destroyed the existing manuscripts containing the literary culture of Africa. And this goes on today, as recently as 2013.
Joshua Hammer's The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts, despite the silly title, is a serious, well-researched history behind this very recent threat to its printed heritage of books and manuscripts from new invaders: Al Qaeda and its ultra-conservative Islamic jihadists.
In 1981 at age 17, Abdel Kader Haidara inherited his family's vast collection of 50,000 ancient manuscripts and books created by African writers. Haidara also worked with the newly-built Ahmed Baba Institute to purchase other similar historical manuscripts from locals who for centuries had hidden and continued to protect their precious collections from invaders.
With Mali's independence from France in 1960, Haidara felt it was finally time to collect, protect, and display these cultural manuscripts. Slowly, the Haidara won the people's trust and was able to gather precious fifteenth and sixteenth century books and manuscripts for the Institute to be cataloged, preserved, and displayed.
But the 2013 invasion of Mali by Al Qaeda and its radical Islamic jihadists once again threatened these works. Since the documents included records of science and history, of art and poetry that contradicted ultra-conservative Islamic religious teachings, the literature had to be eliminated. The jihadists swept through Mail's cities, killing or amputating limbs of anyone who failed to accept their conservative version of Islam that included the destruction of these beautifully illustrated manuscripts.
Over 377,000 manuscripts of the Institute were threatened and had to be secreted away from right under the noses of the invaders. Haidara organized people from Timbuktu and nearby cities to take boxes of hastily-assembled documents and hide them somewhere, anywhere... again. These treasures were removed after dark and then floated down the Niger, packed into trucks that faced armed military check-points, or strapped to camels to be distributed to willing citizens to hide.
But each day, each hour, the jihadists became stronger, boldly overrunning cities, destroying artifacts, temples and the people who opposed them. Could Haidara and his grass-roots efforts succeed against these terrorists against culture?
These events were personally witnessed by the author in his visits to these very dangerous sites in war-torn Mali. The chilling details were told to him in interviews with those who experienced the efforts to preserve the knowledge of Mali. From the "bad-ass librarians" themselves to locals from Timbuktu and supporters from outside Mali, including Henry Louis Gates from the United States, the gripping story unfolds: the threat of violence and cultural destruction versus the dogged perseverance of ordinary people taking extraordinary chances with their lives.
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu is a fantastic, scary, and foreboding first-hand account of the very real horrors of religious jihadists who destroy everyone and everything that does not conform to their views of Islamic life. But more importantly it is the inspirational story of the brave men and women who defied these radicals, risking jail, mutilation, whipping, and amputation of limbs in order to preserve their heritage of books and manuscripts. A gripping page-turner of a real-life thriller.
Happy reading.
Fred
Fred
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Lansky, Aaron. Outwitting History
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Lansky, Aaron. Outwitting History
One young student, searching for books written in Yiddish for a college assignment, realizes that these books are fast disappearing and decides to collect these few remaining books to preserve their history and content. Along the way, he becomes involved with the people and their stories behind the books they struggled to bring from the Old World. (previously reviewed here)
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