The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts
Recommended by Steve Schale, and 1 others. See all reviewsRanked #92 in African History
To save ancient Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean’s Eleven in this “fast-paced narrative that is…part intellectual history, part geopolitical tract, and part out-and-out thriller” (The Washington Post).
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 were crumbling in the trunks of desert shepherds. His goal: to... more
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 were crumbling in the trunks of desert shepherds. His goal: to... more
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Steve Schale Took me 2 months to get thru book 16 of 2019. I’ve long been fascinated by the history of Timbuktu, and Joshua Hammer’s book is an epic tale of how much of that history was saved during the Al Qaeda occupation of the city in 2012-13. It’s a really great read. https://t.co/ukQL7bdo8h (Source)
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