Description
Temporarily out of stock
Title: Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, The: & Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts
Author: HAMMER JOSHUA
Format: PAPERBACK
Publication date: 01/09/2016
Imprint: ALLEN & UNWIN
Price: $33.00
Publishing status: Active
‘This is, simply, a fantastic story … If you are feeling despair about the fate of the world, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu is a must-read, and a welcome shot in the arm.’ – Jon Lee Anderson, author of The Fall of Baghdad..In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that had fallen into obscurity…The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the incredible story of how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, later became one of the world’s greatest and most brazen smugglers. In 2012, thousands of Al Qaeda militants from northwest Africa seized control of most of Mali, including Timbuktu. They imposed Sharia law, chopped off the hands of accused thieves, stoned to death unmarried couples, and threatened to destroy the great manuscripts. As the militants tightened their control over Timbuktu, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali.
ISBN: 9781760294489
Dimension: 234mm X 153mm
Pages: 320