centuries -old manuscripts found in timbuktu

[TheAmazon]

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Libraries in the sand reveal Africa's academic past By Nick Tattersall
Fri Nov 10, 4:54 AM ET



Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance.

Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some of them from the 13th century, and local historians believe many more lie buried under the sand.

The texts were stashed under mud homes and in desert caves by proud Malian families whose successive generations feared they would be stolen by Moroccan invaders, European explorers and then French colonialists.

Written in ornate calligraphy, some were used to teach astrology or mathematics, while others tell tales of social and business life in Timbuktu during its "Golden Age," when it was a seat of learning in the 16th century.

"These manuscripts are about all the fields of human knowledge: law, the sciences, medicine," said Galla Dicko, director of the Ahmed Baba Institute, a library housing 25,000 of the texts.

"Here is a political tract," he said, pointing to a script in a glass cabinet, somewhat dog-eared and chewed by termites. "A letter on good governance, a warning to intellectuals not to be corrupted by the power of politicians."

Bookshelves on the wall behind him contain a volume on maths and a guide to Andalusian music as well as love stories and correspondence between traders plying the trans-Saharan caravan routes.

Timbuktu's leading families have only recently started to give up what they see as ancestral heirlooms. They are being persuaded by local officials that the manuscripts should be part of the community's shared culture.

"It is through these writings that we can really know our place in history," said Abdramane Ben Essayouti, Imam of Timbuktu's oldest mosque, Djingarei-ber, built from mud bricks and wood in 1325.

HEAT, DUST AND TERMITES

Experts believe the 150,000 texts collected so far are just a fraction of what lies hidden under centuries of dust behind the ornate wooden doors of Timbuktu's mud-brick homes.

"This is just 10 percent of what we have. We think we have more than a million buried here," said Ali Ould Sidi, a government official responsible for managing the town's World Heritage Sites.

Some academics say the texts will force the West to accept Africa has an intellectual history as old as its own. Others draw comparisons with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

But as the fame of the manuscripts spreads, conservationists fear those that have survived centuries of termites and extreme heat will be sold to tourists at extortionate prices or illegally trafficked out of the country.

South Africa is spearheading "Operation Timbuktu" to protect the texts, funding a new library for the Ahmed Baba Institute, named after a Timbuktu-born contemporary of William Shakespeare.

The United States and Norway are helping with the preservation of the manuscripts, which South African President Thabo Mbeki has said will "restore the self respect, the pride, honor and dignity of the people of Africa."

The people of Timbuktu, whose universities were attended by 25,000 scholars in the 16th century but whose languid pace of life has been left behind by modernity, have similar hopes.

"The nations formed a single line and Timbuktu was at the head. But one day, God did an about-turn and Timbuktu found itself at the back," a local proverb goes.

"Perhaps one day God will do another about-turn so that Timbuktu can retake its rightful place," it adds.



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[Nyteshade]

Awaits Alvin to post up some tin-foil on how the white man is trying to repress African History.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by TheAmazon

Back to Story - Help
Libraries in the sand reveal Africa's academic past By Nick Tattersall
Fri Nov 10, 4:54 AM ET



Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance.

Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some of them from the 13th century, and local historians believe many more lie buried under the sand.

...

super cool!

[Keith P]

Originally Posted by xian

super cool!

seconded.

[Funkenstein]

History: Surprising us one epoch of disbelief to the next.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by Rufus P. Funk

History: Surprising us one epoch of disbelief to the next.

That one shouldn't surprise so much. Mali (and Timbuktu in particular) has been a center of learning (more specifically)for a very long time. It is a crossroads for many cultures and for a very very long time. What is probably more surprising is that it has taken this long to find texts. It'll be amazing to find out the contents. Are they transcriptions of the classical world? (Mali isn't far removed from the Roman world) Of the Muslim explosion after they took over the classical world? Original stuff? The opportunities to find some great stuff are awfully exciting.

[Funkenstein]

Originally Posted by xian

The opportunities to find some great stuff are awfully exciting.

Whatever it brings us, I hope it isn't more division (although in my pessimistic mode as of late I'd be shocked if it wasn't otherwise). The door is there and it looks like we just found a key. Hoepfully, one good door knob turn deserves another and we'll stumble onto an unknown truth we can ALL share.

Here's to hoping.

[alvin]

Originally Posted by Nyteshade

Awaits Alvin to post up some tin-foil on how the white man is trying to repress African History.

"The texts were stashed under mud homes and in desert caves by proud Malian families whose successive generations feared they would be stolen by Moroccan invaders, European explorers and then French colonialists."

How is the truth somehow "tinfoil"??? And I think a better word would be "supression".

For centuries the "western" mindset has been to at the least downplay and at the worst, tell blatent lies about the contributions of a people(s) who should demand respect for helping to civilise the world. The falsehoods of the false system(s) we have controlling knowledge and information(for the benefit of the minority) are slowing crumbling and those lies which have been propagated as TRUTH are being exposed at last.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by alvin

For centuries the "western" mindset has been to at the least downplay and at the worst, tell blatent lies about the contributions of a people(s) who should demand respect for helping to civilise the world. The falsehoods of the false system(s) we have controlling knowledge and information(for the benefit of the minority) are slowing crumbling and those lies which have been propagated as TRUTH are being exposed at last.

Who sold slaves to the Portuguese?

Timbuktu was established by the nomadic Tuareg perhaps as early as the 10th century. Like its predecessor, Tiraqqa, a neighboring trading city of the Wangara, Timbuktu grew to great wealth because of its key role in trans-Saharan trade in gold, ivory, slaves, salt and other goods by the Tuareg, Mandé and Fulani merchants, transferring goods from caravans coming from the Islamic north to boats on the Niger.

This was an African city that grew rich selling slaves alvin. One of the odd trade offs in history is that cultural blooms are often fueled by seedy sources of wealth.

It is true that the history of Mali is all but unknown in the US (and probably much of the West) but to suggest that this is part of a plan to suppress "what really happened" ignores the fact that the slave trade wasn't an invention of the west (surely embraced with great vigor by Rome but it was an eastern import), received full support from African slave traders and the eventual demise of slavery specifically was a western notion.

Still these finds are remarkable and as I said - offer wonderfully exciting opportunities to learn more about a relatively obscure culture.

[housefish]

I was excited until the bickering started. Rufus you're probably right about the divide.......

[Funkenstein]

Originally Posted by housefish

I was excited until the bickering started. Rufus you're probably right about the divide.......

I'm no psychic, but obviously you see where I knew this would invariably turn to.



"My culture is better than your culture" shows NO CULTURE.

Keep it alive and keep others aware, but NONE is greater than the present one because those who are alive get to make history.

Let's make OURS better.

[la dj]

AWESOME find!!!

I feel like a kid watching Indy for the first time when I read about finds like this.

[alvin]

Originally Posted by xian

Who sold slaves to the Portuguese?



This was an African city that grew rich selling slaves alvin. One of the odd trade offs in history is that cultural blooms are often fueled by seedy sources of wealth.

It is true that the history of Mali is all but unknown in the US (and probably much of the West) but to suggest that this is part of a plan to suppress "what really happened" ignores the fact that the slave trade wasn't an invention of the west (surely embraced with great vigor by Rome but it was an eastern import), received full support from African slave traders and the eventual demise of slavery specifically was a western notion.

Still these finds are remarkable and as I said - offer wonderfully exciting opportunities to learn more about a relatively obscure culture.

Where did I mention or imply the subject of "slavery"?

EVERY culture in the Old World has had some form of slavery(or indentured servitude) at some point in their history(that is NOT THE ISSUE). If I'm not mistaken Mali didn't "get rich"(it was ALREADY RICH in natural resources) primarily due to trading slaves but due to precious minerals and gems among other things.

Is it not FACT that when the Europeans became aware of the glory and riches that Timbuktoo posessed, expeditions were formed to search out these legendary treasures(GOLD being at the top of the list).

The reason that it is a "relatively" obscure culture is because knowledge of it has been supressed and hidden...tell the world's museums(and private collectors) to open up their storerooms where I'm sure a wealth of artifacts are there to inspect.

[I AM EL-NINO]

I dont understand where this can be held in some contempt. Someone discovered something very very old. I was never taught that this "cultural explosion" from that time period was only concieved by the West. AS far as Im concerned Africa has always been a hotspot for history. And in my opinion was the place where it all started.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by alvin

Where did I mention or imply the subject of "slavery"?

You didn't specifically. What you did do was to suggest that but for nasty Westerners the world would of course be very familiar with the birlliant and enlightened people of Mali. I was pointing out through that example (slavery) that people are people and to take such a rosey or dismal view isn't useful or accurate. The trade took partners from many cultures - none are innocent or guiltless nor completely culpable.

Originally Posted by alvin

EVERY culture in the Old World has had some form of slavery(or indentured servitude) at some point in their history(that is NOT THE ISSUE). If I'm not mistaken Mali didn't "get rich"(it was ALREADY RICH in natural resources) primarily due to trading slaves but due to precious minerals and gems among other things.

Timbuktu was a trading center - not sure it had much in the way of natural resources or that it didn't. But, it is true that the source of wealth was trade.

Originally Posted by alvin

Is it not FACT that when the Europeans became aware of the glory and riches that Timbuktoo posessed, expeditions were formed to search out these legendary treasures(GOLD being at the top of the list).

I am not sure but would think it entirely probable. Had the residents of Timbuktu heard of riches next door I bet they'd have taken a look too.

People are people. The Euros of that era were an expansionist and colonizing culture. Take a map and a dart and pick a bygone era and you'll find it a common feature without regard to whether the ones who did it were European, Mongolian, (my faves ...)the Vikings, Egyptian, Persian, Chinese, Aztec, Maya, Inca etc etc etc

Originally Posted by alvin

The reason that it is a "relatively" obscure culture is because knowledge of it has been supressed and hidden...tell the world's museums(and private collectors) to open up their storerooms where I'm sure a wealth of artifacts are there to inspect.

Alvin - that's just plain silly. There is no conspiracy to supress the former glory of Timbuktu. The history of the place is fascinating and the discovery of these texts an amazing opportunity to learn more.