THE TIMBUKTU MANUSCRIPTS are in the news again:

Fighting to preserve ancient Timbuktu texts
Researchers say they reveal a written history in Africa as old as the Renaissance

By NICK TATTERSALL
Reuters News Service

TIMBUKTU, MALI — Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance.

Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some from the 13th century, and local historians believe many more lie buried under the sand.

The texts were stashed under mud homes and in desert caves by proud Malian families whose successive generations feared they would be stolen by Moroccan invaders, European explorers and French colonialists.

[...]

Some academics say the texts will force the West to accept Africa has an intellectual history as old as its own. Others liken them to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The talk is that more than a million manuscripts may survive there. As noted before, some are in Hebrew and Greek, as well as Arabic. Note this as well, and for both posts follow the links back from there.

UPDATE: Scientific American has a longer version of this article.