Libraries of Timbuktu

purplefigtree:

(Pages on astronomy from the Timbuktu Manuscripts).

Libraries of Timbuktu

“At the height of the city’s golden age, Timbuktu boasted not only the impressive libraries of Sankore and the other mosques, but also a wealth of private ones. One of the greatest, containing more than 700 volumes, was left by the master scholar Hajji Ahmad bin ‘Umar. His library was said to have included many of the rarest books ever written in Arabic, and he copied and annotated a considerable number of the volumes himself.

The libraries of Timbuktu grew through a regular process of hand-copying manuscripts. Scholars would visit the caravanserais and appeal to learned travelers to permit their precious volumes to be reproduced. Alternatively, they duplicated texts borrowed from their mentors’ collections, studying the material as they did so.

Al-Wazan commented that “hither are brought divers manuscripts or written books, which are sold for more money than any other merchandise.” As late as the close of the 19th century, Félix Dubois purchased a number of antique books in Timbuktu, including a copy of the Divan of Kings, a chronology of the rulers and events of the Sudan between 1656 and 1747.

Timbuktu’s position as a principal staging point along the pilgrimage route to Makkah may partly explain why so many books were available. Even so, modern scholars are staggered by the sheer quantity and rarity of Arabic texts and poems proffered and composed in the city. Of the books written in Timbuktu, a number are surprising in their scope. Ahmed Baba’s biographical dictionary, for example, included the lives of notables from Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Central Asia, as well as Timbuktu itself.”

(From The Islamic Legacy of Timbuktu, Saudi Aramco World, Nov/Dec 1995)