The book smugglers of Timbuktu : the quest for this storied city and the race to save its treasures /

The book smugglers of Timbuktu : the quest for this storied city and the race to save its treasures /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	English, Charlie, author.
Uniform title:	Storied city
Imprint:	London : William Collins, 2017. ©2017
Description:	400 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Tuareg Rebellion (Mali : 2012- ) Manuscripts, Arabic -- Mali -- Tombouctou. Libraries -- Destruction and pillage -- Mali -- Tombouctou. Islamic learning and scholarship -- Mali -- Tombouctou. Cultural property -- Protection -- Mali -- Tombouctou. Antiquities. Cultural property -- Protection. Destruction and pillage. Discoveries in geography. Islamic learning and scholarship. Libraries -- Destruction and pillage. Manuscripts, Arabic. Tombouctou (Mali) -- Discovery and exploration. Tombouctou (Mali) -- Antiquities. Mali -- History -- Tuareg Rebellion, 2012- -- Destruction and pillage. Mali. Mali -- Tombouctou. History.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11619612

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780008126636 0008126631 9780008184902 0008184909
Notes:	Also published as: The storied city : the quest for Timbuktu and the fantastic mission to save its past. New York : Riverhead Books, 2017. Includes bibliographical references (pages 372-382) and index.
Summary:	Two tales of a city: The historical race to reach one of the world's most mythologized places, and the story of how a contemporary band of archivists and librarians, fighting to save its ancient manuscripts from destruction at the hands of al Qaeda, added another layer to the legend. To Westerners, the name "Timbuktu" long conjured a tantalising paradise, an African El Dorado where even the slaves wore gold. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, a series of explorers gripped by the fever for "discovery" tried repeatedly to reach the fabled city. But one expedition after another went disastrously awry, succumbing to attack, the climate, and disease. Timbuktu was rich in another way too. A medieval centre of learning, it was home to tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts, on subjects ranging from religion to poetry, law to history, pharmacology, and astronomy. When al-Qaeda-linked jihadists surged across Mali in 2012, threatening the existence of these precious documents, a remarkable thing happened: a team of librarians and archivists joined forces to spirit the manuscripts into hiding. Relying on extensive research and firsthand reporting, Charlie English expertly twines these two suspenseful strands into a fascinating account of one of the planet's extraordinary places, and the myths from which it has become inseparable.

Regenstein, Bookstacks

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Holdings details from Regenstein, Bookstacks
Call Number:	DT551.9.T55E54 2017
c.1	Available Loan period: standard loan Scan and Deliver Request for Pickup Need help? - Ask a Librarian