The bad-ass librarians of Timbuktu and their race to save the world's most precious manuscripts
Hammer, Joshua, 1957-2016
Books, Manuscripts
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. This book 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.
Main title:
Author:
Hammer, Joshua, 1957-, author
Imprint:
New York : Simon & Schuster, 2016.
Collation:
278 pages : illustration (colour), map (colour) ; 22 cm
Notes:
Illustration and map on lining papers.Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9781476777405 (hbk)
Dewey class:
025.82096623025.820966
Language:
English
Subject:
Libraries -- Destruction and pillage -- Mali -- TombouctouManuscripts, Arabic -- Mali -- TombouctouCultural property -- Protection -- MaliMali -- History -- Tuareg Rebellion, 2012- -- Destruction and pillageCentre de documentation et de recherches "Ahmed Baba"Islamic learning and scholarship -- Mali -- TombouctouLibrarians -- Mali -- Tombouctou
BRN:
2359757