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The storied city: the quest for Timbuktu and the fantastic mission to save its past

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Pub. Date:
2017
Language:
English
Description
“Timbuktu is a real place, and Charlie English will fuel your wanderlust with true descriptions of the fabled city’s past, present, and future.” –Fodor’s 
Two tales of a city: The historical race to “discover” 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 tantalizing 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 center of learning, it was home to tens of thousands—according to some, hundreds 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 fraught and fascinating account of one of the planet's extraordinary places, and the myths from which it has become inseparable.
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ISBN:
9781594634284
9781524754969
9780698197145
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Grouping Information

Grouped Work ID8dec2f1d-4ddb-8692-9d95-bad7c5cba987
Grouping Titlestoried city the quest for timbuktu and the fantastic mission to save its past
Grouping Authorcharlie english
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2024-03-28 02:11:39AM
Last Indexed2024-03-28 02:24:37AM

Solr Fields

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display_description
“Timbuktu is a real place, and Charlie English will fuel your wanderlust with true descriptions of the fabled city’s past, present, and future.” –Fodor’s 
Two tales of a city: The historical race to “discover” 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 tantalizing 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 center of learning, it was home to tens of thousands—according to some, hundreds 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 fraught and fascinating account of one of the planet's extraordinary places, and the myths from which it has become inseparable.
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Audio Books
Books
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id
8dec2f1d-4ddb-8692-9d95-bad7c5cba987
isbn
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9781524754969
9781594634284
itype_catalog
Adult Book Non-Fiction
last_indexed
2024-03-28T09:24:37.294Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
local_callnumber_catalog
966.23 E584 2017
owning_library_catalog
Sacramento Public Library
owning_location_catalog
Central
Franklin
primary_isbn
9781594634284
publishDate
2017
publisher
Books on Tape
Penguin Publishing Group
Riverhead Books
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Cultural property -- Protection -- Mali -- Tombouctou
Islamic learning and scholarship -- Mali -- Tombouctou
Libraries -- Destruction and pillage -- Mali -- Tombouctou
Mali -- History -- Tuareg Rebellion, 2012- -- Destruction and pillage
Manuscripts, Arabic -- Mali -- Tombouctou
Tombouctou (Mali) -- Antiquities
Tombouctou (Mali) -- Discovery and exploration
title_display
The storied city : the quest for Timbuktu and the fantastic mission to save its past
title_full
The Storied City The Quest for Timbuktu and the Fantastic Mission to Save Its Past
The storied city : the quest for Timbuktu and the fantastic mission to save its past / Charlie English
title_short
The storied city
title_sub
the quest for Timbuktu and the fantastic mission to save its past
topic_facet
Antiquities
Biography & Autobiography
Cultural property
Destruction and pillage
Discovery and exploration
History
Islamic learning and scholarship
Libraries
Manuscripts, Arabic
Nonfiction
Protection

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