Hallé Ousmani Cissé told the Guardian that al-Qaida-allied fighters on Saturday torched two buildings that held the manuscripts, some of which dated back to the 13th century. Some of the most fascinating scrolls included an ancient history of west Africa, the Tarikh al-Soudan, letters of recommendation for the intrepid 19th-century German explorer Heinrich Barth, and a text dealing with erectile dysfunction. The oldest dated from 1204. There was one guy who was celebrating in the street and they killed him. Timbuktu is a palimpsest in the sand that proves otherwise. If the libraries are destroyed then a very important part of African and world history are gone. When French colonial rule ended in 1960, Timbuktu residents held preserved manuscripts in 60-80 private libraries. Mali government forces that had been guarding Timbuktu left the town in late March, as Islamist fighters advanced rapidly across the north. 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When Ansar Dine began to burn books and destroy libraries, many feared that a thousand-year legacy would be lost forever. 6 During the recent occupation of the north of Mali by militants (April 2012-January 2013), a large number of mausoleums of saints in Timbuktu were destroyed by extremists, and several thousand manuscripts from the Ahmed Baba Institute of Timbuktu were burned. However, once French-led soldiers regained control of the city, scholars determined that no more than 2,000 of about 300,000 documents had been destroyed. The precise fate of the manuscripts was difficult to verify. Updated Apr. Islamist insurgents retreating from Timbuktu set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless historic manuscripts, according to the Saharan town's mayor, in an incident he described as a "devastating blow" to world heritage. Asked whether any of the manuscripts might have survived, Cissé replied: "I don't know.". The vast majority of the texts were written in Arabic. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. They were hidden in wooden trunks, buried in boxes under the sand and in caves. No? They smashed a civic statue of a man sitting on a winged horse. The manuscripts were held in two separate locations: an ageing library and a new South African-funded research centre, the Ahmad Babu Institute, less than a mile away. All phone communication with Timbuktu was cut off. If the rebels spotted a boat flying the Malian national flag, they ripped the flag off and replaced it with their own black one, he said. Muslim Twitter user ‘Shawa5i Al Nasseri’ from the United Arab Emirates said: 'You call us barbarians, truly no respect', before later adding: 'How do you explain this "destroyed by Islamic barbarians?”’, Professor Dawkins responded to the comments by saying: ‘You mean you were one of those who burned the books in Timbuktu? According to Traoré, who was in contact with friends there until two weeks ago, many of the rebels left town following France's military intervention. 3 The Islam practiced in Mali traditionally promotes the veneration of saints and often encompasses elements of Sufi mysticism. Though the idea seems unbelievable now, Timbuktu’s residents initially wanted Ahmed Baba to have free access, with no security, much like a public library in any city. "It would be a catastrophe if the reports are true," he said. Timbuktu’s mayor … But he said they were trying to hide their cars by painting and disguising them with mud.". Everything. Residents took to the streets to celebrate. ", Riason Naidoo, who directed the Timbuktu manuscripts project, said he is still awaiting confirmation of the extent of the damage. A few were in African languages, such as Songhai, Tamashek and Bambara. Ahmed Baba wrote 70 works in Arabic, many on jurisprudence but some on grammar and syntax. The Librarian Who Saved Timbuktu’s Cultural Treasures From al Qaeda A middle-aged book collector in Mali helped keep the fabled city’s libraries, books … Deported to Morocco after the Moroccan invasion of Songhay in 1591, he is said t… I can't think of anything more terrible. At dawn one morning in late August, Touré and a driver parked a Land Cruiser in front of a safe house in Timbuktu and loaded it with five chests filled with 1,500 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library. Atheist Richard Dawkins has outraged Muslims after describing looters who destroyed manuscripts in Mali as ‘Islamic barbarians’. Prince Harry returns to Frogmore Cottage after Prince Philip funeral ahead of 'walk with Charles'. Fighters from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – the group responsible for the attack on the Algerian gas facility – then swept in and seized the town, pushing out rival militia groups including secular Tuareg nationalists. The rebels attacked the airport on Sunday, the mayor said. French troops and the Malian army reached the gates of Timbuktu on Saturday and secured the town's airport. But Abdel Kader Haidara, himself owner of a library, refused to let the history of Timbuktu go up in smoke. Each chest was four feet long by two feet wide and two feet deep, and could snugly fit up to eight stacks of manuscripts. AP. Even before the time of Erasmus, a vast number of early manuscripts were destroyed. "It's true. “We discovered that 14 of Timbuktu’s mausoleums, including those that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, were totally destroyed, along with two others at the Djingareyber Mosque. He doesn't know where they went. They told us they couldn't smoke. Over the weekend, fighters screaming “Allah Akbar” descended on the cemeteries holding the remains of Timbuktu’s Sufi saints, and systematically began destroying the six most famous tombs. “The building was conceived with no walls around it so people could walk right in from the street or the square outside the mosque,” Jeppie says. Around 60 libraries in Timbuktu are still owned by local families and institutions, collections that have survived political turbulence throughout the region, as well as the ravages of nature. A group of jihadis came knocking at the gate late on Wednesday night last week. However a South African university said yesterday that the extremists damaged or stole only a limited number of manuscripts in Timbuktu before they fled the fabled desert city. So he set up a meeting with his colleagues in the Timbuktu Library Association. Most atheists are not barbarians.’, 'By "Islamic barbarians" I mean those Muslims who are also barbarians. This document is a reply to the ruler of Massinah, Amir Ahmad, who ordered the arrest of a German traveler, Heinrich Bart, suspected of spying for the British. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Other residents who fled Timbuktu said the fighters adorned the town with their black flag. Four or five rebels had been sleeping in the institute, which had comparatively luxurious facilities for staff, he said. But the Ahmed Baba centre in the Malian city of Timbuktu is not the kind of library … With funds that Haidara’s library association already had on hand from foreign donors, he began purchasing footlockers in the markets of Timbuktu and Mopti, and … We had one in Turkish. Timbuktu Manuscripts Destroyed by Militants In 2012, Tuareg rebels and Islamist militants captured northern Mali and destroyed thousands of manuscripts. The town was said to be without electricity, water or fuel. He works in the section for medieval manuscripts, archiving and digitizing them. I thought not. The author of the reply cites Islamic law as making the arrest illegal and declines to obey the amir. People in the city reported that there was no malicious destruction of any library or collection, said the University of Cape Town, which helped fund a state-of-the-art library to house manuscripts. We don't know what it said. The library was destroyed during the War of 1812 when British forces set fire to the U.S. … As well as the manuscripts, the fighters destroyed almost all of the 333 Sufi shrines dotted around Timbuktu, believing them to be idolatrous. They have burned the manuscripts," Cissé said in a phone interview from Mali's capital, Bamako. A good example is the Ahmed Baba Institute, established in 1970, which was named after the famous 16th/17th-century scholar, the greatest in Africa. The Ahmed Baba Instituteand a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu. 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