From the 11th century and onward, Timbuktu became an important port where goods from West Africa and North Africa were traded. Why are there so many manuscripts in Timbuktu? In 2012 UNESCO declared heritage sites in Timbuktu, which included the great Mosques and madrassahs that are under potential threat of being destroyed by militant rebels in … There are new questions about the fate of Timbuktu's ancient manuscripts. There has been some confusion in world media over the fate of the South African-funded library housing thousands of ancient manuscripts in Timbuktu. Beyond Timbuktu. In Timbuktu there are various remarkable manuscripts since Timbuktu, which has the characteristic of being the “memory” of the scholarly works of Africa, is located on the trade routes and it is a city where book trade and reproduction of books have been made. Currently, most of the manuscripts are preserved in the Ahmed Baba Institute, named after a prestigious 15th century scholar. Further, pages are not attached in any way to the binding–a practice different from all other Islamic manuscripts. "The manuscripts show that Islam is a religion of tolerance," says Abdel Kader Haidara, who owns one of the largest private collections of manuscripts in Timbuktu, including the letter from al-Bakkay. Reports … There are also commercial documents. In the 1400s, Timbuktu was a rich city of scholars and a center for learning. The Manuscripts in Timbuktu. The Timbuktu Manuscripts and the Importance of Pre-Colonial African Scholarship in the Diaspora “Salt comes from the north, gold from south and silver from the land of Whites, but the Word of God, the famous things, histories and fairy tales, we only find them in Timbuktu” -Sudanese Proverb. Timbuktu Manuscripts or (Tombouctou Manuscripts) is a blanket term for the large number of historically important manuscripts that have been preserved for centuries in private households inTimbuktu, Mali. At its peak it housed a population of 100,000, with 25,000 of them being students and scholars. Goods coming from Mediterranean shores and salt from central Sahara were exchanged in Timbuktu … Their decoration with incised markings is in a style characteristic of the area. Timbuktu is a living proof of Africa's knowledge and social memory. ... Mary Anning and her most important dinosaur finds went unsung, but her legacy now draws travelers to southwest England. The Timbuktu manuscripts: a fabulous record of one of Africa's great civilisations . Timbuktu had been an important trans-Saharan trade route. More than 60 libraries in Timbuktu are still owned and managed by local families and institutions, some of which are collections that survived the turbulence through the region, as well as the ravages from nature. The bindings of manuscripts from Timbuktu, and West Africa in general, are unique in the Islamic world. 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