Safegaurding Africa's Literary Heritage : timbuktu rare manuscripts project

Minicka, Mary Safegaurding Africa's Literary Heritage : timbuktu rare manuscripts project., 2006 . In LIASA WCHELIG Winter Colloquium : Collaboration for success, Cape Town (South Africa), 14 June 2006. (Unpublished) [Conference paper]

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English abstract

I would like to first set the context for this presentation: that is the place of Timbuktu – it is a city of legend and myth, as much as of actual history. The city of Timbuktu is located in modern-day West African country of Mali close to the river Niger at its northern-most bend, on the fringes of the Sahara desert. It is though that Timbuktu was founded some time around 1100 CE (Bovill 1958:88; Hunwick 2003:1;Saad 1983:4). The fortuitous placement of Timbuktu at the crossing of the Niger River and a major caravan route that continues to Marrakech (Morocco) in the north and swings towards the modern-day state of Sudan across the Sahara desert; as well as one of the major routes for pilgrimage to Mecca is surely a large part of the reason for its success as a centre of commerce – which brought with it both wealth and culture (Bovill 1958:105; De Villiers & Hirtle 2003:212; Saad 1983:6). Part of the legend of Timbuktu’s manuscripts is due to the reputed vast number of manuscripts to be found in Timbuktu; literature on the subject ascribe anything between one to five million manuscripts in Timbuktu and its immediate environs. Timbuktu’s most celebrated scholar, Ahmed Baba (1564-1627 CE) claimed that his personal library contained some 1 600 volumes (Hunwick 2003:3), and that his was the smallest library within his family. His family, the Aqit, were the leading scholarly family during the 16th century in Timbuktu. The 16th century traveller Leo Africanus, noted that books were the most valued among the various articles of trade and wrote that: “… hither are brought divers manuscripts or written books out of Barbary, which are sold for more money than any other merchandise.” (De Villiers & Hirtle 2003:212; Saad 1983:88). In addition scholars returning from pilgrimage further augmented Timbuktu’s manuscript collections over the centuries and study in other centres of Islamic learning, often copied by their own hands. Within Timbuktu there existed an active copying and scribal industry (Hunwick 2003:3) that ensured a continual production of manuscripts for the consumption of scholars, students and literate citizens.

Item type: Conference paper
Keywords: Timbuktu, Manuscripts, conservation, Islamic civilization, Mali, Africa
Subjects: J. Technical services in libraries, archives, museum.
Depositing user: Fatima Darries
Date deposited: 24 Jul 2006
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:04
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/7831

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