ASC Seminar: The fabled manuscripts of Timbuktu

Historically, Timbuktu was the central site of intellectual activity in Sahelian Africa. The world held its breath when its libraries were under threat during the Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012. But what exactly is in the manuscripts there? And how did Saharan scholarship develop after the 17th century? This has been a mystery shrouded in the hundreds of thousands of documents and books alledgedly awaiting discovery. The final volume of The Arabic Literature of Africa catalogues and comments on the legacy of the libraries of Timbuktu and Mauritania. Speaker: Prof. Charles Stewart, Emeritus Professor University of Illinois Please register

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