The Meanings of Timbuktu

This new edition will have a new forward. Now in paperback with an updated introduction. This volume, authored by leading international scholars, begins to sketch the 'meaning' of Timbuktu within the context of the intellectual history of West Africa, in particular, and of the African continent, in general. The book covers five broad areas: Part I introduces the region; outlines what archaeology can tell us of its history, examines the paper and various calligraphic styles used in the manuscripts; and explains how ancient institutions of scholarship functioned. Part II begins to analyse what the manuscripts can tell us of African history. Part III offers insight into the lives and works of just a few of the many scholars who achieved renown in the region and beyond. Part IV provides a glimpse into Timbuktu's libraries and private collections. Part V looks at the written legacy of the eastern half of Africa, which like that of the western region, is often ignored. A fascinating read for anyone who wishes to gain an understanding of the aura of mystique and legend that surrounds Timbuktu. The Meanings of Timbuktu strives to contextualise and clarify the importance of efforts to preserve Timbuktu's manuscripts for Mali, for Africa and for the intellectual world.

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Product Information
Format: 168mm x 240mm (Hard Cover)
Pages: 400
ISBN 13: 978-0-7969-2665-4
Rights: World Rights

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This new edition will have a new forward. Now in paperback with an updated introduction. This volume, authored by leading international scholars, begins to sketch the 'meaning' of Timbuktu within the context of the intellectual history of West Africa, in particular, and of the African continent, in general. The book covers five broad areas: Part I introduces the region; outlines what archaeology can tell us of its history, examines the paper and various calligraphic styles used in the manuscripts; and explains how ancient institutions of scholarship functioned. Part II begins to analyse what the manuscripts can tell us of African history. Part III offers insight into the lives and works of just a few of the many scholars who achieved renown in the region and beyond. Part IV provides a glimpse into Timbuktu's libraries and private collections. Part V looks at the written legacy of the eastern half of Africa, which like that of the western region, is often ignored. A fascinating read for anyone who wishes to gain an understanding of the aura of mystique and legend that surrounds Timbuktu. The Meanings of Timbuktu strives to contextualise and clarify the importance of efforts to preserve Timbuktu's manuscripts for Mali, for Africa and for the intellectual world.

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Timeline of important dates in Timbuktu history
Map of North and West Africa

Prolegomena

Re/discovering Timbuktu
Shamil Jeppie
Toward an intellectual history of West Africa: the meaning of Timbuktu
Souleymane Bachir Diagne

Part I: An introduction to the Timbuktu region

Before Timbuktu: cities of the elder world
Roderick J McIntosh
Paper in Soudanic Africa
Jonathan M Bloom
Arabic calligraphy in West Africa
Sheila S Blair
Timbuktu and Walata: lineages and higher education
Timothy Cleaveland

Part II: Arabic literature as a source of African history

Intellectual innovation and reinvention of the Sahel: the seventeenth-century Timbuktu chronicles
Paulo F de Moraes Farias
Ajami in Africa: the use of Arabic script in the transcription of African languages
Moulaye Hassane
Ajami literature and the study of the Sokoto Caliphate
Hamid Boboyyi
The book in the Sokoto Caliphate
Murray Last
Muslim women scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Morocco to Nigeria
Beverly B Mack
The Tombouctou Manuscript Project: social history approaches
Aslam Farouk-Alli & Shaheed Mathee

Part III: Scholars of Timbuktu

The life of Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti
Yahya Ould el-Bara
The works of Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti
Mahamane Mahamoudou
A man of letters in Timbuktu: al-Shaykh Sdi Muhammad al-Kunti
Abdel Wedoud Ould Cheikh
Abul Khayr al-Arawani, great scholar and pious saint
Mohamed Diagayet

Part IV: The Timbuktu Libraries

The state of manuscripts in Mali and efforts to preserve them
Abdelkader Mamma Haidara
The private libraries of Timbuktu
Ismal Diadi Haidara & Haoua Taore
Shaykh Baghayogho al-Wangari and the Wangari Library in Timbuktu
Mukhtar bin Yahya al-Wangari
The Ahmed Baba Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies and Research
Sidi Mohammed Ould Youbba
The Arabic Literature of Africa Project
John Hunwick
The West African Arabic manuscript database
Charles C Stewart

Part V: Beyond Timbuktu

Arabic literature in the eastern half of Africa
Sean OFahey
Textual sources on an Islamic African past: Arabic material in Zanzibars National Archive
Anne K Bang

Dr Shamil Jeppie is a senior lecturer in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT). A member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Popular Memory (CPM) at UCT, he serves on the steering committee of SEPHIS, the South-South Exchange Programme for Research on the History of Development.

Souleymane Bachir Diagne is Professor of French and Philosophy at Columbia University, New York. Formerly the vice-dean of the College of Humanities Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, he is also a former special advisor to the President of Senegal. He is currently Chair of the Scientific Committee of CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research) and a member of the UNESCO African Scientific Committee on Higher Education.

The Meanings of Timbuktu