The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu: Rediscovering Africa's Literary Culture Review

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The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu: Rediscovering Africa's Literary Culture ReviewI must confess that I didn't know much about Timbuktu until I read this thoroughly researched and beautifully photographed book. After spending an afternoon turning the pages of "The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu," though, I feel like I made an extended personal visit.
Working under the auspices of the University of Oslo, Norway, and UNESCO, authors John O. Hunwick and Alida Boye have invited us to spend some time to get to know Timbuktu through its history, its people and its rich treasure of manuscripts. The photography is the work of Joseph Hunwich, son of the co-author.
Reading this book is an opportunity to see many of the ancient manuscripts that functioned as literary works and commercial documents, but also as aesthetically compelling imagery. After viewing these many full-page eye-popping photographs, you'll feel like you have personally visited the streets, and then many of the libraries, of one of Africa's cultural centers.The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu: Rediscovering Africa's Literary Culture Overview
The extraordinary manuscripts ofTimbuktu: invaluable historical documents,objects of tremendous beauty, and a testament to a great center of learning andcivilization.

For centuries, trading caravans made epicjourneys across the Saharan sands to reach themarkets of the legendary city of Timbuktu, where they traded salt, gold, slaves, textiles-andbooks. By the mid-fifteenth century, Timbuktuhad become a major center of Islamic literaryculture and scholarship. The city's librarieswere repositories of all the world's learning,housing not only works by Arab and Islamicwriters but also volumes from the classicalGreek and Roman worlds and studies bycontemporary scholars.

Theastonishing manuscripts of Timbuktu form thelavish visual heart of this book. Beautifullygraphic, occasionally decorated, these exquisite artifacts reveal great craftsmanship as well aslearning. All were written in the Arabic script, but not all are in Arabic, for they also featurea range of local African languages.

Aside from scholarly works, the surviving manuscripts include a wealth of correspondencebetween rulers, advisers, and merchants onsubjects as various as taxation, commerce,marriage, divorce, adoption, breastfeeding, andprostitution, providing a vivid insight into the ordinary life and values of the day.
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