Latest on Timbuktu Manuscripts

MOST OF THE TIMBUKTU MANUSCRIPTS that were reported burned earlier this week seem to safe after all. The news accounts remain confused and uncertain, but it seems that some 2000 manuscripts remain unaccounted for, which is not good.

Bulk of Timbuktu manuscripts safe, unharmed: experts

By Pascal Fletcher | Reuters – 20 hrs ago

DAKAR (Reuters) - The vast majority of Timbuktu's ancient manuscripts in state and private collections appear to be unharmed after the Malian Saharan city's 10-month occupation by Islamist rebel fighters, who burnt some of the scripts, experts said on Wednesday.

The news, based on information from persons directly involved with the conservation of the historic texts, came as a relief to the world's cultural community which had been dismayed by varying media reports of widespread destruction of the priceless manuscripts.

After French and Malian troops on Sunday retook Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site and ancient seat of Islamic learning, from Islamist insurgent occupiers, the city's mayor reported the fleeing rebels had set fire to a major manuscript library.

But experts said that while up to 2,000 manuscripts may have been lost at the South African-funded Ahmed Baba Institute ransacked by the rebels, the bulk of the around 300,000 texts existing in Timbuktu and its surrounding region were believed to be safe.

"I can say that the vast majority of the collections appear from our reports not to have been destroyed, damaged or harmed in any way," Cape Town University's Professor Shamil Jeppie, an expert on the Saharan city's manuscripts, told Reuters.

A Malian source also directly involved with the conservation of the Timbuktu manuscripts told Reuters 95 percent of the total documents were "safe and sound".

[...]

Additional confirmation comes from the Tombouctou Manuscript Project blog: Timbuktu Update:

Since the start of this week there are reports about the destruction of library buildings and book collections in Timbuktu. It sounds as if the written heritage of the town went up in flames. According to our information this is not the case at all. The custodians of the libraries worked quietly throughout the rebel occupation of Timbuktu to ensure the safety of their materials. A limited number of items have been damaged or stolen, the infrastructure neglected and furnishings in the Ahmad Baba Institute library looted but from all our local sources – all intimately connected with the public and private collections in the town - there was no malicious destruction of any library or collection.

[...]

I think of 2000 manuscripts as rather more than "a limited number," but for now let's take that as a sign that perhaps the situation is still better than it currently looks.

The Telegraph adds that:

UNESCO, the UN's cultural organisation, is to send a mission as soon as possible to assess the damage done to the ancient cultural sites.

Hopefully we will learn more when they report.

Background here and links.