So, I couldn't resist picking up this book:
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktoo by Joshua Hammer. Of course, all librarians are "bad-ass" -- just ask one what s/he's involved in and you'll know what I mean -- but these guys were heroic under extraordinary circumstances.
Here's the book blurb: "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.
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
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.
In 2012,
thousands of Al Qaeda militants from northwest Africa seized control of
most of Mali, including Timbuktu. They imposed Sharia law, chopped off
the hands of accused thieves, stoned to death unmarried couples, and
threatened to destroy the great manuscripts. As the militants tightened
their control over Timbuktu, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to
sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern
Mali."
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| Abdel Kader Haidara |
This well written tale left me awestruck by the determination of Haidara and the many people who helped him save these priceless manuscripts, frequently putting their very lives at risk. Today, many of the salvaged volumes remain in danger from poor storage conditions, despite monumental efforts to preserve them.
The
Timbouktou Manuscript Project web site provides additional information about this endeavor and links to a database of manuscripts as well as to some of the libraries set up to house them, including a
library established by Haidara, himself, to house his own family's manuscript collection.
