Would You Risk Your Life for a Book? Timbuktu Manuscripts
Photo Illustration: Humanizing History Visuals. Photos: Elias Altmimi, EurAstro: Mission to Mali, Anne and David, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress.
Welcome to Humanizing History™! Every month, we feature a central theme. Each week, we dive into different areas of focus.
This month’s theme: What Is History? What We Lose With Erasure & Gain With Dissemination
This week’s focus: Field Trip, where we highlight significant historic, archaeological, and cultural sites around the world
Today’s edition of Humanizing History™ is about 1400 words, an estimated 5-minute read.
The Why for This Week’s Topic
This month, our theme is “What Is History? What We Lose with Erasure & Gain with Dissemination.”
Two weeks ago, we examined the Maya Codices, and how only 4 of these texts survived, after colonial destruction. Last week, for our “hidden history” newsletter, we reviewed the life of Ida B. Wells, who risked it all to cast light upon truth — to name unchecked racism and violence — even when it’s hard to look at it. Even though it cost her so much, including friends and work, and endangered her life.
Today, we’re examining the painstaking and risky efforts people have taken to preserve and protect another chapter of history — a history that comes in the form of ancient manuscripts, which represent not just academic knowledge, but voices from the past, voices of ancestors, physical pieces of leather bound parchment that, once in our hands, connects us to something innately human.
The Timbuktu manuscripts have been called “Africa’s greatest written legacy.”
Did you learn about this chapter of history in your own educational experience?
Unearthing their story may help keep the conservation efforts — and the legacy of those who lived hundreds of years ago — alive.
But first, a bit about Timbuktu.
Timbuktu, An Oasis of Cultures & Learning
Situated on the “southern edge of the Sahara,” and a short distance of about 8 miles, or 13km, from the Niger River, Timbuktu emerged as an important center of trade and learning in the 13th and 14th centuries, as it was annexed by the Mali Empire.
As noted by historian Kai Mora, Timbuktu would serve as a “major intellectual hub of Islamic civilization.”
Mansa Musa — largely considered one of the richest people in world history due to the salt and gold that was mined in the region — and his successors transformed the city: “Timbuktu transformed from a small but successful trading post into a center of commerce and scholarship, making the Mali empire one of the most influential of the Golden Age of Islam. Powerful West African kings and Islamic leaders traveled from far and wide to Timbuktu to trade, learn and foster strong political allies…. Mansa Musa turned the kingdom of Mali into a sophisticated center of learning in the Islamic world.”
In fact, Mansa Musa had so much wealth, power, and intellectual influence that he was featured on a map commissioned by the King of France at the time, the Catalan Atlas.
By the 1500s, Timbuktu had 150 to 180 Maktabs, or Qur’anic schools, as well as a university. As described by professor Anja-Silvia Goeing, “The city attracted Muslim scholars and scribes from different Islamic beliefs and different geographical regions. Many of them brought manuscripts with them and copied other manuscripts while in Timbuktu.”
It may be argued, that Timbuktu, or the Mali Empire, was not just a cultural, intellectual hub, but a “lighthouse,” or a force that “enlightened nearby territories through its own spirit,” including Europe, who had yet to reach the apex of its own Renaissance at this point in time.
The Timbuktu Manuscripts, “Renowned for Their Physical Beauty and Wisdom”
During this time, at the height of the Mali Empire, countless manuscripts — at least hundreds of thousands — were meticulously produced.
As described by Dr. Abel Kader Haidara, "It’s been said that all the history of Africa is oral. We have more than 400,000 manuscripts here, written uniquely by the hands of Africans. It’s a true Renaissance."
As highlighted in this interactive digital archive, hosted by Google Arts and Culture, many of these manuscripts were decorated with framing, calligraphic flourishes, diagrams, and illumination, such as the use of gold paint to add light. Often the manuscripts “blended religion and science.” For example: “One ancient text entitled Curing Disease and Defects Both Apparent and Hidden contains key scientific information about diagnoses, medical ingredients and treatments, as well as instructions for prayers to use in protective amulets.”
While the dry desert heat of Timbuktu created an environment that supported natural preservation, in 2012, a disruption to political order would put people's safety — and the survival of the manuscripts — at risk.
It would take a heroic effort to save them.
“Smugglers” and “Copyists,” Who Are “Saving a World of Knowledge”
In 2012, Timbuktu was under attack — the people, the manuscripts — precious lives and an entire history was on the line.
As described by PBS NewsHour, “The city was overrun in 2012 by Al-Qaeda who destroyed the manuscripts dating back centuries…The militants implemented Sharia law, and banned anything considered sinful, like the manuscripts, which were seen as pagan writing. Many were burned.”
Dr. Abel Kader Haidara would emerge as one of the people who would risk his life to save these manuscripts. When describing the action he took, in the midst of deadly conflict, Dr. Haidara said: “We smuggled the manuscripts out very slowly, little by little, over a period of six months.” They used carts and SUVs to drive the books out of town, they secretly tucked away thousands upon thousands of texts onto small canoes. The manuscripts traveled 375 miles, or 600 km, as Dr. Haidara and his team “smuggled” the fragile, priceless pages to the capital of Mali, Bamako.
But Bamako has a heavy, tropical climate. There, the books are at risk of further degradation and damage. So now, they must be digitized: “[Dr. Haidara and his team] are saving a world of knowledge, a world nearly lost forever. They are digitizing tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts rescued from near destruction.”
While funding was low, efforts were high. As reported by CNN, “Determined never to see the country’s national heritage lost forever, in 2014 [Dr. Haidara] contacted Google.” In his own words, Dr. Haidara said, “I turned to Google for digitization because I want to record this legacy we have in West Africa. This legacy that is passed down from scientists, emperors and philosophers is of utmost importance to safeguard.”
As described by CNN, “It can feel like the sum of all human knowledge is only an internet search away. But until recently, some of the most important evidence of one of Africa’s most vibrant medieval cities was absent from the web.” And now, as a result of life-risking preservation, more than 40,000 copies are available on the internet for public knowledge.
And while this is a large feat, one with quantifiable impact, there is one more story to share, of a person who is also making an impact, perhaps closer to something we’d call qualitative — quiet, yet profound.
While Dr. Haidara rescued many manuscripts, there are an estimated 300,000 that still remain in Timbuktu, many held by families, some of whom buried the scripts in the desert to hide them from politicized destruction — memorizing the coordinates to find them later, when it’s safe to unearth them.
Boubacar Saddeck Najim, a scribe or a “copyist,” appeals to the families and private libraries, gently asking them to temporarily share some of these ancient manuscripts. His goal is to hold and carefully study them, so he can not just copy them, but to, as he said in his own words, “acquire and deepen my knowledge so that this old professional can continue.”
Boubacar spends day after day, carefully thumbing through the borrowed texts, studying their layout, their use of illumination, their messages. How to carry the stories forward.
When speaking with his uncle, whom he learned the trade from, Boubacar described the ink of a Maghrebi manuscript, how it looked like it was written in literal gold. His uncle replied: “The Maghrebi manuscripts are the most beautiful of all. They use the colors gold, silver, aluminum...Timbuktu was a melting point of many cultures and knowledge. This is why we find different styles of writing in the libraries here. Social cohesion and brotherhood between communities, one entire history is written in the manuscripts.” He leaned in, with a note of caution: “But if these writings are not well-preserved, future generations will have no trace.”
In the 20th Century, there were 500 copyists in Timbuktu. Today, there are less than ten. Boubacar is one of them.
As we’ve noted this month, our books, our manuscripts, our stories, our truths are important to us.
People have risked their lives for such authenticity — to preserve voice, and lines of connection to our past, present, and future.
If it came to it, if you had to push yourself, what book, manuscript, or cultural manifestation would you risk something of importance to save? Are you ready to save it? To name it?
What trace of you do you want to leave behind, what histories do you want the world to remember tomorrow?
Join Us for a Professional Development Workshop This Summer!
If you, and your colleagues, are looking for professional development opportunities this summer, Michael Matthews, of Authentic Education, and Monique Vogelsang of Humanizing History™ are co-leading a hands-on PD experience for classroom teachers and other school leaders.
"Inclusive Curriculum Design — Backwards Planning for Equity and Belonging."
Join us for an in-person, 3-day intensive to expand your thinking around best practices for including underrepresented voices, untold stories, and broader perspectives into your curriculum design — resulting in more inclusive and culturally expansive units.
Visit this link to learn more and sign up.
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