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The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts
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BOTM May 2024 The Bad Ass Librarian of Timbuktu
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Hope other people get to read this one: I listened to the audio at the beginning of the month and gave it 4 stars. Heads up: some people have criticized it in reviews for focusing just as much on the Al Qaeda/Boko Harem/Malian politics side of things as the librarian's storyline. This is true, but I didn't mind it at all in that it is both the story of the librarians and their preservation of the texts, and the librarians as a framing device for exploring Mali's history from the heyday of Timbuktu up to the modern history of political extremism.
I love teaching the Malian empire when I do AP World History for many of the reasons the book explores: That it had (arguably) the richest King in history (Mansa Musa), and that it was one of the trade, wealth, architecture, and scholarship centers of the world during the middle ages. It challenges colonialist notions about sub-Saharan Africa as being 'underdeveloped' and without its own grand accomplishments in history. There were pieces in there I hadn't previously realized either, so that was lovely.
Especially with regards to details on the types of manuscripts made and preserved there: as both a history and book nerd reading all about the Timbuktu library history, what was in the preserved manuscripts, and all of the places they were discovered in over the years and in which conditions was fascinating to me.
Librarians/archivists and similar people really do play such an important role in the preservation of history, and upholding what we know about ourselves as a people. I'd love to read more books in this vein about the value of the 'non-action' people in history. This also feels especially timely in that I've been following the book ban controversies in the US, and have been inspired by the local librarians who have intentionally been ordering the books that people are trying to ban and challenging ban orders to the risk of their own jobs, funding, and threats to their safety. I think there is such a valuable lesson in this book in always being suspicious of any movement that seeks to destroy available knowledge and proports record keeps to be the enemies of the people.
And while I love middle-age Malian history, I was admittedly far less versed in modern Malian history, and that aspect of the book was really educational for me.
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Oh my gosh don't apologize! I consider myself to be extremely early with the books this month, and I didn't read any of them on time this year until last month because my health was quite bad: I still have "by night the mountain burns" on my catch-up books list. Just excited to hear what others have to say whenever that is.
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Ever since we were kids (and maybe even when my grandmother was a kid), we would the term "Timbuktu" to reference a long-time-getting-there-place or a way-out-in-the-boonies place or a smart-aleck-answer to "where are you going".
So many things have struck me as to how mankind has not changed: religious intolerance occurring because of greed for bigger goods markets, another extremist arm of a religion believeing that their way is the best way, God's way, and forcing that way to happen as an almost a complete annhilation of the culture.
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I am not a big fan of "war" chronicles. But... Thankfully I had waited long enough to read it that I had time to read all the negative reveiws about the book's marketing. All spot on. That helped me address my experience with it in a totally different mindset. This book was amazing to me. The race to gather, protect, move the transcripts is the crux of the story, yet doesn't take up much of the storyline. What it does do, in combination with the arc of the the bloody coups, the kidnappings, the ransoms, the action or lack of action of various other countries, and the mutltitude of bad players is to give the manuscript arc a dramatic, heart thumping backdrop. It made the entire piece of work more compelling for me.
Please don't think I'm discounting the horrendous actions of the terrorists. That is definitely not my intention. What this work of history has done for me is to push front and center the comprehension of the fact that the populace of these countries are not all terrorists; that they want a life in which art, education, family, religion are all central to their very existence. I hear it all the time. This is the first piece of nonfiction that actually shows it to me. And for that I am grateful to the author. The publisher - for making this book sound like something it is most definitely not? - not at all. They did neither their readers nor the author any favors.
Thank you, Amanda, for recommending this!
I read this book quite awhile ago and still remember it as a compelling and informative read. I am so glad others appreciated it. I have recommended it to friends and have gotten mixed feedback. As Amanda mentioned, some people didn't want the modern history. However, that was what I find so engaging.
I'm glad it's been loved over here as both a past and more recent read, since I definitely appreciated it as well.
I found it informative and well-written, very journalistic(!) Thanks for another very good book.
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I am not a big fan of "war" chronicles. But... Thankfully I had waited long enough to read it that I had time to read all the negative r..."
Excellent synopsis and your sharing is very much appreciated. I hope my review is half as good as yours. 😘
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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
To save precious centuries-old Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians in Timbuktu pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean's Eleven.
In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that had fallen into obscurity. "The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu" tells the incredible story of how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, later became one of the world's greatest and most brazen smugglers.
In 2012, thousands of Al Qaeda militants from northwest Africa seized control of most of Mali, including Timbuktu. They imposed Sharia law, chopped off the hands of accused thieves, stoned to death unmarried couples, and threatened to destroy the great manuscripts. As the militants tightened their control over Timbuktu, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali.
Over the past twenty years, journalist Joshua Hammer visited Timbuktu numerous times and is uniquely qualified to tell the story of Haidara's heroic and ultimately successful effort to outwit Al Qaeda and preserve Mali's—and the world's—literary patrimony. Hammer explores the city's manuscript heritage and offers never-before-reported details about the militants' march into northwest Africa. But above all, "The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu" is an inspiring account of the victory of art and literature over extremism.