The Timbuktu Manuscripts, also called the Tombouctou Manuscripts, are a general term for the large number of historically important manuscripts that have been kept for centuries in private homes in Timbuktu, a city in northern Mali. These collections include writings about art, medicine, philosophy, science, and copies of the Quran. The Timbuktu Manuscripts are the most well-known group of West African manuscripts.
Most of the manuscripts are written in Arabic using the Arabic script. Some are written in African languages using the same script, which is called Ajami. These languages include, but are not limited to, Fula, Songhay, Tamasheq, Bambara, and Soninke. The manuscripts date from the late 13th century to the early 20th century, covering the time of the spread of Islam in the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan. Their topics range from long scholarly works to short personal letters.
Before research and digitization efforts began in the 20th and 21st centuries, the manuscripts were kept in the homes of Timbuktu residents.
The manuscripts, along with other cultural items in Mali, were threatened during the Mali War. Between 2012 and 2013, 4,203 of Timbuktu’s manuscripts were burned or stolen. About 350,000 manuscripts were moved to safety, and 300,000 of them remained in Bamako in 2022.
History
Scribes in Timbuktu translated works from many famous people, such as Plato, Hippocrates, and Avicenna. They also copied a "twenty-eight volume Arabic dictionary called The Mukham," written by an Andalusian scholar in the mid-1000s. Local authors in Timbuktu wrote original books on topics like history, religion, law, philosophy, and poetry. Legal experts in the city collected information about Islamic law, or fikh, and required charitable donations, or zakat. Some manuscripts describe how stars move with the seasons, which relates to the Islamic calendar and timekeeping. A chronicler named Mahmud Kati recorded a meteor shower in 1593:
"In the year 991 in God’s month of Rajab, 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."
Other manuscripts include instructions about the nutritional value of desert plants and discussions about topics like polygamy, moneylending, and slavery. These manuscripts also contain "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." A book titled Advising Men on Sexual Engagement with Their Women provided guidance on aphrodisiacs, infertility treatments, and advice on "winning back" wives.
These manuscripts were passed down through Timbuktu families and are mostly in poor condition. Most remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown. In the 2000s, about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project. Starting in 2013, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) at Saint John's University in Minnesota partnered with SAVAMA-DCI to photograph more than 150,000 manuscripts. This effort was supported by the Arcadia Fund. These manuscripts are now available online through HMML's Reading Room. In 2017, HMML and the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme launched the Endangered Libraries in Timbuktu (ELIT) project to digitize manuscripts still in Timbuktu's three main mosques.
With the decline of Arabic education in Mali, especially during French colonial rule, interest in medieval manuscripts decreased in Timbuktu, and many were sold. Time magazine reported that an imam once bought four manuscripts for $50 each. In October 2008, a flood destroyed 700 manuscripts in one household.
Research
In 1970, UNESCO created an organization with the task of preserving manuscripts. However, the organization did not receive funding until 1977. In 1998, Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates visited Timbuktu for his PBS series Wonders of the African World. This series increased public and academic awareness of the manuscripts, which helped secure funding.
The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project was run by the University of Oslo from 1999 to 2007. Its goal was to physically preserve the manuscripts, digitize them, create an electronic catalog, and make them available for research. The project was funded by the government of Luxembourg, 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. Results included reviving the ancient art of bookbinding, training local specialists, creating an electronic database for manuscripts at the Institut des Hautes Études et de Recherche Islamique – Ahmad Baba (IHERI-AB), digitizing many manuscripts, facilitating scholarly exchanges with experts in Morocco and other countries, reviving the journal Sankoré, and publishing the book The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu: Rediscovering Africa's Literary Culture.
After the University of Oslo project ended, the government of Luxembourg funded a new project called Timbuktu Manuscripts. This project aims to protect and promote the manuscripts to support the area’s economic, social, and cultural development. It is managed by Lux-Development. Since 2012, the project MLI/015 has worked with partners in Bamako, including IHERI-AB and the SAVAMA-DCI (Association de Sauvegarde et de Mise en Valeur des Manuscrits et de Défense de la Culture Islamique). By early 2013, these partners had described 10,000 manuscripts using standardized forms.
The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project is also run by the University of Cape Town in partnership with the South African government. This project is the first official cultural initiative of the New Partnership for Africa's Development. It began in 2003 and continues today. A report on the project was released in 2008. In addition to preserving manuscripts, the project aims to improve access to public and private libraries in Timbuktu. The project’s online database is available only to researchers. In 2015, it was announced that the Timbuktu trust fund would close after receiving no more funding from South Africa.
In 2005, Aluka (later merged with JSTOR) began working with library and scholarly communities in Timbuktu to address challenges they faced. In 2007, Aluka formed a partnership with SAVAMA-DCI, a Timbuktu-based NGO that helps private manuscript libraries in Mali preserve their collections. Aluka also partnered with Northwestern University’s Advanced Media Production Studio (NUAMPS) and the Tombouctou Mss Project at the University of Cape Town. Over 300 digitized manuscripts are available to researchers and are part of Aluka’s online archive, which was later integrated with JSTOR.
A book about Timbuktu published in 2008 includes a chapter discussing some of the texts. Digital images of thirty-two manuscripts from the private Mamma Haïdara Library are available from the United States Library of Congress. A smaller collection of these images is also accessible through the United Nations’ World Digital Library.
Since 2013, the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at the University of Hamburg has supported conservation and inventorying efforts at SAVAMA-DCI. These efforts are coordinated with HMML’s digitization work. HMML is now leading a major cataloging project based on the CSMC’s initial data, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Destruction and evacuation
During the conflict in Northern Mali from 2012 to 2013, militant groups called Ansar Dine took control of Timbuktu and burned or stole 4,203 of its ancient manuscripts. The Ahmed Baba Institute and another library, which held thousands of manuscripts, were also set on fire as the militants left the city. About 90% of these manuscripts were saved by local people working with an organization named SAVAMA-DCI. In total, 350,000 manuscripts were moved to safety, and by 2022, 300,000 of them remained in Bamako, a city in southern Mali.
Stephanie Diakité, a book preservation expert from the United States, and Dr. Abdel Kader Haidara, a librarian who has protected Timbuktu’s manuscripts for generations, led the effort to move the manuscripts to Bamako. In Timbuktu, it is a tradition for family members to promise publicly to protect their family’s library for their entire lives. During the evacuation, Dr. Haidara asked local families to hide some manuscripts in their homes before they were taken to Bamako. This effort was supported by international groups, including the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, as well as the Doen Foundation and Ford Foundation. Dr. Haidara expressed gratitude to SAVAMA-DCI and its partners for helping move the manuscripts to southern Mali and for storing them safely.
Aboubacry Moussa Lam signed a letter asking others to help preserve the Timbuktu manuscripts.
After reaching southern Mali, the manuscripts faced new problems, such as mold and dampness. Stephanie Diakité and Dr. Haidara started a fundraising campaign called "Timbuktu Libraries in Exile" to pay for their preservation. While many organizations provided money, tools, or training, the main work was done by local people.
In 2020, an international meeting about protecting, sharing, and promoting ancient manuscripts in the Sahel region was held at the UNESCO office in Bamako.
Media coverage
In 2009, a movie called The Ancient Astronomers of Timbuktu was released. It was supported by the Ford Foundation and the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust.
The French/German TV channel ARTE made a long movie about Timbuktu’s manuscripts in 2009. The movie was named Tombouctou: les manuscrits sauvés des sables in French and Timbuktus verschollenes Erbe: vom Sande verweht in German. Another movie titled Manuscripts of Timbuktu was also released in 2009. It was directed by Zola Maseko from South Africa. The South African Broadcasting Corporation helped produce the film, and California Newsreel shared it with audiences.
In 2013, BBC Four created a documentary called The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu.
In 2016, a book titled The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu was published. The book was written by Joshua Hammer. It describes how people collected the manuscripts into libraries and worked to move them to safety during a dangerous conflict. During this time, Islamist groups threatened to destroy the manuscripts.
In 2017, journalist Charlie English wrote a book called The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu (also titled The Storied City: The Quest for Timbuktu and the Fantastic Mission to Save Its Past). The book tells two stories in alternating chapters. One story covers European trips to Timbuktu between 1795 and 1860. The other describes the efforts of Haidara and others to save the manuscripts from destruction by jihadists in 2012.