He alleged that some fighters kidnapped and raped local women, keeping them as virtual sex slaves. The French have yet to reach the third, Kidal. I do not of course mean all Muslims.’, Backlash: Professor Dawkins's comments on Twitter were criticised, with some followers claiming he was unjustly attacking Islam and others saying he should have considered vandalism acts by Christians, Professor Dawkins later added: ‘Xtian (Christian) barbarians murder abortion doctors. They covered a diverse range of topics including astronomy, poetry, music, medicine and women's rights. They were hidden in wooden trunks, buried in boxes under the sand and in caves. The precise fate of the manuscripts was difficult to verify. He doesn't know where they went. 7 Alongside … Mon 28 Jan 2013 12.07 EST 202 818 Islamist insurgents retreating from Timbuktu set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless historic … Especially in a context where you're told that Africa has no history because of colonialism and all that. 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. They made you proud to be African. 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. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. ", Fleeing Islamist insurgents burnt two buildings containing priceless books as French-led troops approached, says mayor, A French military truck passes a bus in Mali as the army advanced towards Timbuktu. 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. Essop Pahad, who was chairman of the Timbuktu manuscripts projectfor the South African government, said: "I'm absolutely devastated, as everybody else should be. Typically, manuscripts were not numbered, Traoré said, but repeated the last word of a previous page on each new one. 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. Djinguereber Mosque, built in 1327 in Timbuktu, Mali, is a famous learning centre and library. He draped a blanket over the footlockers, and climbed in the Land Cruiser beside the … Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. 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. Oxford University academic Professor Dawkins told his 600,000 Twitter followers on Tuesday: ‘Like Alexandria, like Bamiyan, Timbuktu's priceless manuscript heritage destroyed by Islamic barbarians.’, Comments: Richard Dawkins said Timbuktu's manuscript heritage was 'destroyed by Islamic 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. When French troops entered in January 2013, it was discovered that radicals had only managed to destroy a fraction of manuscripts – about 4 000 out of nearly 400 000. ", He added: "This is terrible news. We don't know what it said. I can't think of anything more terrible. The oldest dated from 1204. I thought not. Desecration. The ancient books of geography and science. Our history, our cultural heritage, our identity. ", Riason Naidoo, who directed the Timbuktu manuscripts project, said he is still awaiting confirmation of the extent of the damage. Londonderry police shoot man in chest after officer is stabbed in arm and head - sparking probe by force... Fine day to Flog It! Photograph: Nic Bothma/EPA, chairman of the Timbuktu manuscripts project. Meanwhile, Professor Dawkins and former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams will debate the role of religion in the modern world at the Cambridge Union Society tonight. They also burned down the town hall, the governor's office and an MP's residence, and shot dead a man who was celebrating the arrival of the French military. 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. The town was said to be without electricity, water or fuel. Some brought books to sell. They were criminals," said Maha Madu, a Timbuktu boatman, now in the Niger river town of Mopti. 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. Other residents who fled Timbuktu said the fighters adorned the town with their black flag. Prince Harry returns to Frogmore Cottage after Prince Philip funeral ahead of 'walk with Charles'. Everything. The floggings took place in the square outside the 15th-century Sankoré mosque, a Unesco world heritage site. Mechanic, 32, who killed vandal, 25, by pressing his neck onto ground in citizen's arrest after he smashed... Slow-starting Europe coronavirus vaccination drive could catch up with Britain in 'coming weeks'. It was partially destroyed by the Ansar Dine extremist group in 2012. "It's true. The vast majority of the texts were written in Arabic. I'm so terribly upset at hearing what's happened. On Monday French army officers said French-led forces had entered Timbuktu and secured the town without a shot being fired. They could not be in their right minds. 'Priceless heritage': Some of the 20,000 preserved ancient Islamic manuscripts which rest in air-conditioned rooms are displayed at the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu, Mali (file picture). 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. No? The comments below have been moderated in advance. There was even one in Hebrew. They smashed a civic statue of a man sitting on a winged horse. The Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks claimed last year that a ‘profoundly anti-Semitic’ comment in Professor Dawkins's The God Delusion likened God portrayed in Jewish texts to a fictional villain. Seydou Traoré, who has worked at the Ahmed Baba Institute since 2003, and fled shortly before the rebels arrived, said only a fraction of the manuscripts had been digitised. 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. If the libraries are destroyed then a very important part of African and world history are gone. They have burned the manuscripts," Cissé said in a phone interview from Mali's capital, Bamako. Completed in 2009 and named after a 17th-century Timbuktu scholar, the centre used state-of-the-art techniques to study and conserve the crumbling scrolls. "You just need to look at the manuscripts to realise how wrong this is.". Atheist Richard Dawkins has outraged Muslims after describing looters who destroyed manuscripts in Mali as ‘Islamic barbarians’. The rebels took several other towns south of Timbuktu, he said, including nearby Diré. 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. But they appear to have got there too late to rescue the leather-bound manuscripts that were a unique record of sub-Saharan Africa's rich medieval history. Most atheists are not barbarians.’, 'By "Islamic barbarians" I mean those Muslims who are also barbarians. It is the history of Timbuktu, of its people.’. A few were in African languages, such as Songhai, Tamashek and Bambara. The rebels enforced their own brutal and arbitrary version of Islam, residents said, with offenders flogged for talking to women and other supposed crimes. Four or five rebels had been sleeping in the institute, which had comparatively luxurious facilities for staff, he said. DR ELLIE CANNON: Why won't anyone fix these upsetting marks on my face? But his comments were criticised, with some followers claiming he was unjustly attacking Islam and others saying he should be considering vandalism committed by Christians, reported the Daily Telegraph. Ahmed Baba wrote 70 works in Arabic, many on jurisprudence but some on grammar and syntax. A large number dated from Timbuktu's intellectual heyday in the 14th and 15th centuries, Traoré said. One of the most ruthless of these persecutions was that of Diocletian in the early 4th century. The ancient books of geography and science. 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. A group of jihadis came knocking at the gate late on Wednesday night last week. Timbuktu Manuscripts Destroyed by Militants In 2012, Tuareg rebels and Islamist militants captured northern Mali and destroyed thousands of manuscripts. Deported to Morocco after the Moroccan invasion of Songhay in 1591, he is said t… Stalin was an atheist barbarian. So he set up a meeting with his colleagues in the Timbuktu Library Association. Our history, our cultural heritage, our identity. 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