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The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts Kindle Edition
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) from the author of The Falcon Thief.
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: preserve this crucial part of the world’s patrimony in a gorgeous library. But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door.
“Part history, part scholarly adventure story, and part journalist survey…Joshua Hammer writes with verve and expertise” (The New York Times Book Review) about how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist from the legendary city of Timbuktu, became one of the world’s greatest smugglers by saving the texts from sure destruction. With bravery and patience, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali. His heroic heist “has all the elements of a classic adventure novel” (The Seattle Times), and is a reminder that ordinary citizens often do the most to protect the beauty of their culture. His the story is one of a man who, through extreme circumstances, discovered his higher calling and was changed forever by it.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication dateApril 19, 2016
- File size7111 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"History depends on whose stories get told and which books survive; in Timbuktu, thanks to Haidara and his associates, inquiry, humanity, and courage live on in the libraries."
-- "Boston Globe""Part history, part scholarly adventure story, and part journalist survey of the volatile religious politics of the Maghreb region...Hammer writes with verve and expertise."
-- "New York Times Book Review""Has all the elements of a classic adventure novel...Riveting skullduggery, revealing history, and current affairs combine in a compelling narrative with a rare happy ending."
-- "Seattle Times"About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Product details
- ASIN : B010MHA7C6
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (April 19, 2016)
- Publication date : April 19, 2016
- Language : English
- File size : 7111 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 289 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #171,091 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4 in History of West Africa
- #13 in Islamic History
- #20 in West African History
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Joshua Hammer is a veteran foreign and war correspondent for Newsweek who has covered conflicts on four continents. He is the author of two previous books, A Season in Bethlehem and Chosen by God: A Brother's Journey. He has contributed articles to The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and many other publications. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa, with his wife and two sons.
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In the first part of the book, Haidara begins his life long effort to collect ancient Islamic manuscripts from the collections of individual families in Mali. Owned personally for generations of Malian families these manuscripts faced destruction from insects, sand, heat and moisture. Haidara obtained donations from Western governments and cultural institutions for the preservation in several new libraries in Timbuktu. If Haidara had only accomplished this initial feat, it would be a monumental life's work.
In addition to collecting and preserving the manuscripts against the elements, Haidara also acted nimbly to protect the manuscripts when the Northern Mali Conflict caused the radical fundamentalist Al Ansine and Al Qaeda in in the Maghreb to occupy Timbuktu and threaten the physical safety of the manuscripts.
The importance of the Timbuktu manuscripts lay in preserving for the world the work of enlightened, and peaceful Islamic and secular scholar.
The reader will find a riveting historical account of West African history culture and music that previously they may not have encountered.
While reading this book I made the effort to compile a publicly available Spotify playlist of the the musical artists and music from Mali mentioned in this history. I was inspired to do this because of his example in "Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty
Here is a product link:
https://www.amazon.com/Every-Song-Ever-Twenty-Musical-ebook/dp/B011I2MNRG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1463351133&sr=1-1&keywords=every+song+ever
Here is my review of the book:
https://www.amazon.com/review/R3C9R1D3H2171J/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B011I2MNRG
I also have a soundtrack/playlist for R. S. Batchelder's "Brotherhood of the Wheel". Here is a product link:
https://www.amazon.com/Brotherhood-Wheel-R-S-Belcher-ebook/dp/B013P25LIA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1463351393&sr=1-1&keywords=brotherhood+of+the+wheel
Here is my review of the book::
https://www.amazon.com/review/R5VWYYCWFPOW2/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B013P25LIA
In his 2016 book The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, journalist Joshua Hammer reveals that hundreds of thousands of these historic manuscripts have survived to the present day, mostly hidden in the homes of private citizens and passed down within families for generations. Hammer explains how in the last few decades cultural heritage organizations, and one dedicated librarian in particular, began collecting these manuscripts and transferring them to newly built libraries so they could be restored and preserved, thus making centuries-old texts newly accessible to contemporary scholars.
In this book, Hammer provides a revealing glimpse into Timbuktu’s centuries-old history as a center of learning, but he also gives the reader a vivid view of life in contemporary Mali. He meticulously charts the 21st-century rise of Islamic jihadism in North Africa, which poses a severe threat to the existence of these priceless artifacts. When a combined force of al-Qaeda militants and Tuareg rebels invaded northern Mali, Timbuktu was occupied by a jihadist government that instituted a brutally draconian form of Sharia law. Under this ultraconservative interpretation of Islam, the manuscripts were seen as immoral and targeted for destruction. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the incredible and inspiring story of how a few brave Malian librarians, with the help of many local volunteers and international donors, managed to save hundreds of thousands of these medieval manuscripts by smuggling them out from under al-Qaeda’s nose.
If you are approaching this book as a bibliophile or lover of libraries, be forewarned that the majority of the story is about politics, terrorism, and military activity. The manuscripts themselves only feature prominently in the first few chapters of the book. Nevertheless, even though I’m not one to buy books on current political events, I found Hammer’s telling of this story captivating from beginning to end. He delves into a great deal of detail on Islamic terrorists and the formation of their various factions, but he does so in an articulate style that makes the history accessible and memorable even to news-challenged general readers. I learned quite a bit about Islam from this book, not just the negative aspects we see on the news, such as terrorism and war, but also the positive aspects of Islamic culture and the intellectual tradition of Islamic science, arts, and letters in African history. Hammer’s skillfully penned account delivers an eye-opening education amid a political thriller that will have you rooting for these unsung book-saving heroes.
Top reviews from other countries
following the current news of Mali! EMS
It feels a little too agenda driven in places, and many flaws and errors are glossed over our ignored to drive the narrative, but nevertheless is a worthwhile read.







