The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts

altlovesbooks reviewed The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer

Review of "The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts" on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

The premise of this book seemed amazing, unfortunately the actual thing didn't deliver. While the beginning of the book was interesting as it covered Mali history and the origins of the manuscripts, around chapter 5 or so the book took a right turn into non sequitur land. The manuscripts were talked about less and less, and instead ended up with a not-so-brief regional instability history and much talk about terrorists and music(???). As an example, about halfway in, the book starts talking about a concert that Bono from U2 showed up at. I don't really know why. There was also pretty in-depth descriptions of hands and limbs being chopped off in chapter 13. I admit, I skipped that chapter once it was clear where it was going.

The actual book saving portions were interesting, and I wish the author had focused strictly on that. The book might have been shorter, …

The premise of this book seemed amazing, unfortunately the actual thing didn't deliver. While the beginning of the book was interesting as it covered Mali history and the origins of the manuscripts, around chapter 5 or so the book took a right turn into non sequitur land. The manuscripts were talked about less and less, and instead ended up with a not-so-brief regional instability history and much talk about terrorists and music(???). As an example, about halfway in, the book starts talking about a concert that Bono from U2 showed up at. I don't really know why. There was also pretty in-depth descriptions of hands and limbs being chopped off in chapter 13. I admit, I skipped that chapter once it was clear where it was going.

The actual book saving portions were interesting, and I wish the author had focused strictly on that. The book might have been shorter, but would have better fit the title.

Heather reviewed The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer

Review of "The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts" on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Since the 1300s Timbuktu in central Mali has been a center of learning. The city sits at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert and on the banks of the Niger River.

This made it popular crossroads for people from many cultures to meet. There were many universities here and intellectual debate was popular. The city became known for its Islamic scholarship. Thousands of manuscripts were written and studied here. Some of them were elaborately decorated.But there have been periods of invasion and anti-intellectualism too. During these times the manuscripts were hidden around the region. By the time of the European invasions, the existence of the manuscripts was not known to outsiders. That led to quotes like these:"Perhaps in the future, there will be some African history to teach. But at present there is none. There is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness."-- …

Since the 1300s Timbuktu in central Mali has been a center of learning. The city sits at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert and on the banks of the Niger River.

This made it popular crossroads for people from many cultures to meet. There were many universities here and intellectual debate was popular. The city became known for its Islamic scholarship. Thousands of manuscripts were written and studied here. Some of them were elaborately decorated.But there have been periods of invasion and anti-intellectualism too. During these times the manuscripts were hidden around the region. By the time of the European invasions, the existence of the manuscripts was not known to outsiders. That led to quotes like these:"Perhaps in the future, there will be some African history to teach. But at present there is none. There is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness."-- British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper 1963After Mali won its independence efforts were made to start collecting the manuscripts in Timbuktu again. Abdel Kader Haidara's father spent his life collecting manuscripts. In his will he chose Abdel to carry on his work but he wasn't interested. Ten years passed before a library in Timbuktu convinced him to start buying manuscripts again. He was so successful that by the early 21st century there were 45 libraries in Timbuktu with manuscript collections. Then Al Qaeda came.The librarians knew that the manuscripts would be a target. After all, they were written in a very progressive Islamic area. There were manuscripts with sexual advice and rulings on how to treat women fairly. They decided that it was time for the manuscripts to hide again.It was a big job. There were around 350,000 fragile manuscripts in city in 2012. How do you get them somewhere safe when travel is restricted?I really enjoyed the part of this book that was about the manuscripts. About half of it though was about the history of the Islamist uprising in Mali. That drug for me. There was kidnapping and crime and torture but I wanted to know about the manuscripts.This book shows the importance of honoring the history of the a place. I like reading about Henry Louis Gates' trip to Mali and his reaction to seeing the manuscripts. He had always been told that black people didn't have a historical culture or anything to be proud of in their past. Seeing these works of scholarship and art made by black people touched him deeply.