#TIMBUKTU MANUSCRIPTS UNESCO ARCHIVE#
#TIMBUKTU MANUSCRIPTS UNESCO SERIES#

After a coup in Mali in 2012, Islamists seized the north of the country and begun to destroy World Heritage sites in Timbuktu and Gao. However, the historical documents were very nearly destroyed by those Islamist fighters. He also believes that the more recent history of Islam and the activities of Islamist groups in northern Mali could be better understood with the help of these manuscripts.

'These manuscripts could mean that parts of African history will have to be re-written,' Bondarev said. The legendary city was located along one of the most important trade routes through the Sahara, encouraging the exchange of knowledge. This is because scholars from all over Africa and further afield congregated in Tumbuktu in the Middle Ages to study and to write. 'There is an enormous potential here for making the history of Africa more comprehensible,' he said. He said they will help us understand the past better. The vast majority haven't even been looked at,' he said.ĭimitry Bondarev from the University of Hamburg is in charge of the project for saving the Timbuktu manuscripts for posterity. 'What is particularly fascinating about these manuscripts is that only a tiny fraction - between two and three percent - have been examined by researchers.

#TIMBUKTU MANUSCRIPTS UNESCO SERIES#

Over the last four or five years, they have also backed a whole series of projects in Africa. Michael Hanssler, who heads the foundation, said they have a special program devoted to researching the political undercurrents of Islam - both historical and contemporary. The Düsseldorf-based foundation has already donated half a million euros ($ 369,000) to help save the manuscripts.

The present project receives backing from the German foreign ministry, international donors and Germany's Gerda Henkel Foundation. Not all of the hundreds of thousands of manuscripts need restoration Image: Getty Images Brozowsky appealed to international public opinion to ensure that sufficient funds are available to rescue them.

Once documents have been eaten away, they can't be restored. Even the ink with which they were written has inflicted damage because of the acid it contains. Insects have also gnawed their way through some of the manuscripts. The dry desert climate in Tumbuktu has made the paper brittle, it disintegrates easily. 'But half of them are so fragile that they need to be stabilized before they can be stored away and digitalized,' she said.

#TIMBUKTU MANUSCRIPTS UNESCO ARCHIVE#

There is a plan to build a special archive for the Timbuktu manuscripts in Bamako so that they can eventually be made available to researchers from Mali and abroad.īrozowsky said the collection consists of between 280,000 and 500,000 manuscripts. The 1,200 year-old manuscripts include works on alchemy, astrology, medicine, the Koran and history.īrozowsky believes this collection is comparable in significance to the contents of all of the libraries in the whole of Germany. Timbuktu, which lies some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) to the north of Bamako, was one of the spiritual centers of Islam in the Middle Ages. These documents are among the most historically important in West Africa and have been listed as part of UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage since 1988. The 34-year-old restorer of historical artefacts and specialist in paper is a member of a team of German scientists who are working to save ancient manuscripts from the library in Timbuktu from the ravages of time.

The Malian capital has been her place of work for the last year. Eva Brozowsky is on her way back to Bamako.

Timbuktu manuscripts unesco