The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu

January 11, 2016
Journalist Hammer (Yokohama Burning) reports on librarian Abdel Kader Haidara and his associates’ harrowing ordeal as they rescued 370,000 historical manuscripts from destruction by al-Qaeda-occupied Timbuktu. Hammer sketches Haidara’s career amassing manuscripts from Timbuktu’s neighboring towns and building his own library, which opened in 2000. Meanwhile, three al-Qaeda operatives, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, Abdel-hamid Abou Zeid, and Iyad Ag Ghali, escalate from kidnapping and drug trafficking to orchestrating a coup with Tuareg rebels against the Malian army and seizing Timbuktu. The militants aim to “turn the clocks back fourteen hundred years” by destroying revered religious shrines and imposing Sharia law, which includes flogging unveiled women and severing the hands of thieves. Fearing for the safety of the manuscripts, Haidara and associates buy up “every trunk in Timbuktu” and pack them off 606 miles south to Bamako, employing a team of teenage couriers. Hammer does a service to Haidara and the Islamic faith by providing the illuminating history of these manuscripts, managing to weave the complicated threads of this recent segment of history into a thrilling story. Agent: Flip Brophy, Sterling Lord Literistic.

February 15, 2016

Hammer, an experienced journalist who knows Mali and its historic city of Timbuktu well, interweaves three astonishing stories, reflecting both the vulnerability and strength of a rich Islamic culture in West Africa. First he introduces Abdel Kader Haidara, a Timbuktu native who became an expert on his city's ancient manuscripts while working with the National Library of Mali in the 1980s. The author then presents the rise of a brutal group of militants in the region after 2008, their conquest of Timbuktu and threat to the records that embody centuries of vibrant Islamic history. He lastly describes the ingenious rescue of the records and transporting them more than 400 miles across the Sahara and on the Niger River to safekeeping in Bamako, Mali's capital. This powerful narrative of adventure juxtaposes a convincing description of a cultural heritage encompassing religion, history, literature, and science over eight centuries with the cruelty and intolerance of Jihadi groups arising in the region. VERDICT Hammer's clearly written and engaging chronicle of the achievements of Timbuktu, the risks presented to this area, and the portraits of several brave and dedicated individuals brings to light an important and unfamiliar story. [See Prepub Alert, 10/12/15; "Editors' Spring Picks," p. 28 ff.]--Elizabeth Hayford, formerly with Associated Coll. of the Midwest, Evanston, IL

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