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Timbuktu, on the southern edge of the Sahara in today's Mali, grew rich on the trade in gold and salt, and by the 15th and 16th centuries it was a great centre of Islamic learning and of the book trade. Its families kept hundreds of thousands of handwritten manuscripts, many still held in private libraries.

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The manuscripts date from the late 13th to the early 20th century. Most are in Arabic, but some are in West African languages such as Songhay, Fula and Tamasheq written in Arabic script. They cover law, medicine, astronomy, poetry, history and religion, and include copies of works by Plato, Hippocrates and Avicenna; the chronicler Mahmud Kati even recorded a meteor shower in August 1583. Teaching centred on three great mosques, Djinguereber, Sidi Yahya and Sankore. The city declined after a Moroccan army defeated the Songhai Empire in 1591. In 2012–2013, when armed Islamist groups occupied Timbuktu, 4,203 manuscripts were burned or stolen, but librarians led by Abdel Kader Haidara, helped by local families, moved some 350,000 to safety in the capital, Bamako. UNESCO added parts of the city's historic centre to its World Heritage List in 1988.

Türkçe oku
Timbuktu, bugünkü Mali'de, Sahra Çölü'nün güney kenarında kurulmuş bir şehirdir. Altın ve tuz ticaretiyle zenginleşti; 15. ve 16. yüzyıllarda İslam dünyasının büyük ilim ve kitap merkezlerinden biri oldu. Timbuktulu aileler yüz binlerce el yazmasını kuşaktan kuşağa sakladı; bunların pek çoğu hâlâ özel kütüphanelerde duruyor.

El yazmaları 13. yüzyılın sonlarından 20. yüzyılın başlarına kadar uzanan bir dönemden kalma. Çoğu Arapçadır; bir kısmı ise Songhay, Fula ve Tamaşek gibi Batı Afrika dillerinde, Arap harfleriyle yazılmıştır. Hukuktan tıbba, astronomiden şiire, tarihten dine pek çok konuyu ele alırlar; aralarında Platon'un, Hipokrat'ın ve İbn Sina'nın eserlerinin kopyaları da vardır. Tarihçi Mahmud Kati, Ağustos 1583'te görülen bir meteor yağmurunu bile anlatmıştır. Öğretim, Cingereber, Sidi Yahya ve Sankore adlı üç büyük caminin çevresinde yapılırdı. Fas ordusu 1591'de Songhay İmparatorluğu'nu yenince şehir gerilemeye başladı. 2012–2013'te silahlı İslamcı gruplar Timbuktu'yu işgal ettiğinde 4.203 el yazması yakıldı ya da çalındı. Ama Abdel Kader Haidara'nın önderliğindeki kütüphaneciler, yerel ailelerin de yardımıyla 350.000 kadar el yazmasını başkent Bamako'ya kaçırarak kurtardı. UNESCO 1988'de şehrin tarihî merkezinin bazı bölümlerini Dünya Mirası Listesi'ne aldı.

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