Timbuktu’s Desert Librarians

Timbuktu’s Desert Librarians Aslam Farouk-Alli[1] University of Cape Town Even though Timbuktu was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1990, it still occupies a rather dubious status in the popular imagination. Of course everyone has heard of it, but many do not believe it exists. Timbuktu is invoked as a symbol of the distant and the exotic, belying a rich heritage and an illustrious past. If one were to compare this ancient African capital to South Africa’s very own Sterkfontein Caves - rich in early human fossils and celebrated as the cradle of humanity - then Timbuktu, by virtue of its deeply ingrained tradition of learning, must be regarded as humanity’s coming of age on the continent. The city and its desert environs are a veritable treasure chest of Arabic manuscripts produced at the pinnacle of its intellectual development between the 13th and 16th centuries. Although the city was established in the 11th century and quickly became an important commercial centre, it only gained widespread prominence as an intellectual capital in the fifteenth century. Books were nonetheless always an important part of the local culture and manuscripts were sold and copied from early on. Under the patronage of the Songhay Empire (1468 – 1591) local intellectual activity flourished and Timbuktu’s scholars began writing their own books on both religious and secular subjects, in addition to commentaries on classical works. It is reported that Askia Daoud, who reigned from 1548 to 1583, established public libraries in the kingdom. Furthermore, a characteristic feature of the scholarly elite was the establishment of personal libraries, a passion that has persisted up until today. Ahmed Baba (1556 – 1627), one of Timbuktu’s most celebrated scholars of the 16th century, is reported to have said that his personal library of over 1600 volumes was one of the smaller collections amongst the city’s scholars. Timbuktu’s golden era was abruptly halted by the Moroccan invasion in 1591. As a result, the city was beset with severe hardships in the centuries that followed and intellectual activity waned considerably. Veneration of the written word had however found a secure place in the hearts of its inhabitants and scholarly elites and lay people alike held fast to whatever manuscripts they came to possess. Today, it is estimated that there are about 300 000 extant manuscripts in circulation in Timbuktu and the surrounding areas. Locked within these pages is one of Africa’s greatest intellectual legacies. Fortunately, the keepers of this treasure are extremely committed to their culture of learning and sharing. Through the efforts of these Desert Librarians, this legacy is once again being rediscovered. The government of Mali had instituted the Ahmed Baba Centre for the Preservation of Manuscripts (CEDRAB) in Timbuktu as early as 1973, but it is also through the efforts of some outstanding individuals that much of this legacy is seeing the light of day. One such individual is Abdulkader Haidara. The Haidara family is renowned for its scholars and judges. Abdulkader’s father, Mamma Haidara, was not only a Qadi (judge), but also a scholar who taught the classical Islamic Sciences like Jurisprudence and Arabic Grammar. His personal library dates back to the sixteenth century and is one of the largest and oldest collections in the city. The library was established by Haidara’s forebear, Mohamed El Mawlud, and was handed down to his descendents, generation after generation. Haidara added to it substantially, buying manuscripts while studying in Egypt and Sudan. He also studied under local scholars in the village learning centres of Arawan and Boujbeyha, procuring manuscripts there as well. In addition to his Timbuktu library, Haidara had also established a library in the village of Bamba. Haidara’s efforts were by no means restricted to the collation and preservation of manuscripts. He also established collaborative relationships with other manuscript libraries in the region, facilitating research and exchange. When Haidara passed away in 1981, he not only left behind a tremendous legacy for his son Abdul Kader, but also a passion for manuscripts and an education in basic cataloguing and conservation skills. Shortly after Haidara’s death, Muhammad Zubayr, then director of CEDRAB and a personal friend, invited Abdul Kader to work with him. He saw his potential and realized what an important asset Abdul Kader would be to CEDRAB. Abdul Kader joined CEDRAB in 1984 and Zubayr instructed him in the finer points of manuscript classification, cataloguing and collation. In the period between 1973 and 1984 CEDRAB had only managed to acquire 3500 manuscripts. Zubayr asked for Abdul Kader’s help in gathering manuscripts because he knew that he hailed from an influential family. Abdul Kader began collecting in Timbuktu, from family members, but faced many difficulties. However, he bought whatever he could. He would sometimes pay $200 USD for a single page document and sometimes $300 USD for a complete manuscript. The value of the manuscripts varied, but in general, history manuscripts were the most valuable, followed by ornate manuscripts, complete works that were very old, works of local scholarship, historical and political correspondence, and finally undated and anonymous manuscripts. Abdul Kader was later encouraged by Zubayr to travel to the surrounding areas in search of manuscripts. His first destination was a village called Ghurma Rarus, which is about 175km from Timbuktu, deep in the desert. There are no paved roads in the region so the village can only be reached by crossing the desert sands by land rover, making it an arduous journey. Abdul Kader stayed with the village chief, who passed out the word that his guest was looking to buy manuscripts. In the first two weeks there he received 2 to 3 manuscripts a day, on average. However, once he became acquainted with the villagers they warmed up to him and in the two weeks that followed he collected over a thousand manuscripts. In most cases he paid the owners double the asking price and had to request more funds from CEDRAB, returning to the area several more times. On every occasion he managed to procure manuscripts. From 1984 to 1987 Abdul Kader spent time in the outer regions. In 1987 he traveled to Majakoue village. He was told that there were some orphans there who had inherited manuscripts that were by now half eaten away. He made an offer of purchase to their guardians but was refused. He then approached the local Qadi, asking him to negotiate on his behalf. The Qadi was in possession of the will, which valued the 9 manuscripts that the orphans inherited at $150 USD. Abdul Kader offered to purchase 2 cows (valued at about $400 USD) for the orphans in return for the manuscripts and an agreement was reached. When he returned to the village in 1989 he found that the orphans now possessed 6 cows, a sure sign of prosperity. He ended up collecting about 2000 manuscripts from this village. Abdul Kader continued working with CEDRAB until 2002, collecting about 16 000 manuscripts for the centre in the process. He went all over Mali, to villages, towns, desert settlements, even as far as the borders of Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea, Niger, Algeria and the Ivory Coast. There were many Malian families on the borders in possession of manuscripts. His travels were very demanding and whenever he returned home he would be sick for up to two weeks at a time. CEDRAB presently has over 20 000 manuscripts, which is still a conservative amount, considering the estimated number of extant manuscripts in the region. While still working for CEDRAB, Abdul Kader had began thinking about establishing a memorial library to hold his family’s collection. After leaving the centre he devoted all of his time and energy to this project and was successful in setting up the Mamma Haidara Memorial Library, which is the first of its kind in Mali. He began cataloguing his collection and was assisted by the al-Furqan Heritage Foundation in London, who agreed to publish his catalogue. Currently four of the projected five volume catalogue has been published. The importance of his efforts and its potential impact upon the fields of African Studies and African History cannot be over emphasized. Colonial historiography has always held that Africa had few written languages and as such, the only reliable sources of knowledge on the pre-colonial period were archeology and oral history. However, even these sources were rather tenuous, since archeological findings date back to hundreds of thousands of years and oral history may only be able stretch back about a hundred years. This colonial paradigm was challenged by the Senegalese Scholar, Cheikh Anta Diop, who turned to the Arabic manuscripts of Timbuktu as a written source on pre-colonial history. As such, the efforts of desert librarians like Abdul Kader Haidara are fundamental to the development of post-colonial historiography in Africa. Abdul Kader was also instrumental in the formation of an association for private libraries in Timbuktu, which currently has 24 affiliates, further enhancing research possibilities by significantly broadening access to hitherto untapped resources. In addition, Abdul Kader recently embarked upon a collaborative project with researchers from the University of Cape Town who are studying his collection and have also begun assisting him to digitally preserve it. The university research team’s efforts are in no small way a consequence of President Thabo Mbeki’s interest in this legacy. The South African government has already embarked upon a collaborative venture with the Malians and is assisting CEDRAB with manuscript conservation. In contrast, the Timbuktu-UCT research project is attempting to initiate actual research, which hopefully transforms the prevailing wisdom that suggests that there is no written record of African history on the pre-colonial period. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Picture 1: Abdul Kader Haidara in his Office. Picture2: The abject state of a typical unpreserved Manuscript collection. These are part of Shaykh Muhammad al-Tahir’s collection. [1] The authorr is a researcher for the Timbuktu-UCT Manuscripts Project.