The hidden treasures of Timbuktu - Elizabeth Cox

On the edge of the vast Sahara
desert,

citizens snuck out of the city
of Timbuktu and took to the wilderness.

They buried chests in the desert sand,
hid them in caves,

and sealed them in secret rooms.

Inside these chests was a treasure
more valuable than gold:

the city’s ancient books.

Founded around 1100 CE in what
is now Mali,

the city of Timbuktu started out as
an unremarkable trading post.

But its unique location soon
changed that.

Timbuktu marked the intersection
of two essential trade routes,

where caravans bringing salt
across the Sahara

met with traders bringing gold
from the African interior.

By the late 1300s, these trade
routes made Timbuktu rich,

and the city’s rulers, the kings
of the Mali Empire,

built monuments and academies
that drew scholars from Egypt,

Spain, and Morocco.

The city’s prime location also made
it a target for warlords and conquerors.

As the Mali Empire declined, one
of its domains, Songhai,

began to gain power.

In 1468, the Songhai king conquered
Timbuktu,

burning buildings and
murdering scholars.

But in time, intellectual life in
the city flourished again.

The reign of the second king of
the Songhai Empire,

Askia Mohammed Toure, marked
the beginning of a golden age in Timbuktu.

He reversed his predecessor’s
regressive policies

and encouraged learning.

The Songhai rulers and most
of Timbuktu’s population were Muslim,

and the scholars of Timbuktu
studied Islam

alongside secular topics like
mathematics and philosophy.

In the libraries of Timbuktu,

tracts of Greek philosophy stood
alongside the writings

of local historians, scientists,
and poets.

The city’s most prominent scholar,
Ahmed Baba,

challenged prevailing opinions
on subjects

ranging from smoking to slavery.

Gold and salt trade had funded
the city’s transformation

into a center of learning.

Now, the products of that
intellectual culture

became the most sough-after
commodity.

With paper from faraway Venice

and vibrant ink from local plants
and minerals,

the scribes of Timbuktu produced
texts in both Arabic

and local languages.

Written in calligraphy and decorated
with intricate geometric designs,

the books of Timbuktu were in demand
among the wealthiest members of society.

In 1591, the golden age came to
an abrupt end

when the Moroccan king captured
Timbuktu.

Moroccan forces imprisoned
Ahmed Baba and other prominent scholars

and confiscated their libraries.

In the centuries that followed, the
city weathered a succession of conquests.

In the mid-1800s, Sufi Jihadists
occupied Timbuktu

and destroyed many non-religious
manuscripts.

1894, French colonial forces seized
control of the city,

stealing even more manuscripts
and sending them to Europe.

French became the official language
taught in schools,

and new generations in Timbuktu

couldn’t read the Arabic
manuscripts that remained.

Through it all, the literary tradition
of Timbuktu didn’t die––

it went underground.

Some families built secret libraries
in their homes,

or buried the books in their gardens.

Others stashed them in abandoned
caves or holes in the desert.

The priceless manuscripts of
Timbuktu

dispersed to villages throughout
the surrounding area,

where regular citizens guarded
them for hundreds of years.

As desertification and war
impoverished the region,

families held on to the ancient
books

even as they faced desperate poverty
and near-starvation.

Even today, the struggle to protect
the books continues.

From the 1980s to the early 2000s,

Timbuktu scholar Abdel Kader
Haidara

painstakingly retrieved hidden
manuscripts

from all over northern Mali and
brought them back to Timbuktu.

But in 2012, civil war in Mali once
again threatened the manuscripts,

most of which were evacuated
to nearby Bamako.

Their future remains uncertain,

as they face both human and
environmental threats.

These books represent our best—
and often only—

sources on the pre-colonial history
of the region.

Many of them have never been
read by modern scholars,

and still more remain lost or
hidden in the desert.

At stake in the efforts to protect
them is the history they contain—

and the efforts of countless
generations

to protect that history
from being lost.