The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
To save ancient Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean's Eleven in this "fast-paced narrative that is...part intellectual history, part geopolitical tract, and part out-and-out thriller" (The Washington Post) from the author of The Falcon Thief.
In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were crumbling in the trunks of desert shepherds. His goal: preserve this crucial part of the world's patrimony in a gorgeous library. But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door.
"Part history, part scholarly adventure story, and part journalist survey...Joshua Hammer writes with verve and expertise" (The New York Times Book Review) about how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist from the legendary city of Timbuktu, became one of the world's greatest smugglers by saving the texts from sure destruction. With bravery and patience, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali. His heroic heist "has all the elements of a classic adventure novel" (The Seattle Times), and is a reminder that ordinary citizens often do the most to protect the beauty of their culture. His the story is one of a man who, through extreme circumstances, discovered his higher calling and was changed forever by it.
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Joshua Hammer. (2016). The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts. Simon & Schuster.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Joshua Hammer. 2016. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts. Simon & Schuster.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Joshua Hammer, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts. Simon & Schuster, 2016.
MLA Citation (style guide)Joshua Hammer. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts. Simon & Schuster, 2016.
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- **New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice**
To save ancient Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean's Eleven in this "fast-paced narrative that is...part intellectual history, part geopolitical tract, and part out-and-out thriller" (The Washington Post) from the author of The Falcon Thief.
In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were crumbling in the trunks of desert shepherds. His goal: preserve this crucial part of the world's patrimony in a gorgeous library. But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door.
"Part history, part scholarly adventure story, and part journalist survey...Joshua Hammer writes with verve and expertise" (The New York Times Book Review) about how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist from the legendary city of Timbuktu, became one of the world's greatest smugglers by saving the texts from sure destruction. With bravery and patience, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali. His heroic heist "has all the elements of a classic adventure novel" (The Seattle Times), and is a reminder that ordinary citizens often do the most to protect the beauty of their culture. His the story is one of a man who, through extreme circumstances, discovered his higher calling and was changed forever by it. - reviews
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January 11, 2016
Journalist Hammer (Yokohama Burning) reports on librarian Abdel Kader Haidara and his associates’ harrowing ordeal as they rescued 370,000 historical manuscripts from destruction by al-Qaeda-occupied Timbuktu. Hammer sketches Haidara’s career amassing manuscripts from Timbuktu’s neighboring towns and building his own library, which opened in 2000. Meanwhile, three al-Qaeda operatives, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, Abdel-hamid Abou Zeid, and Iyad Ag Ghali, escalate from kidnapping and drug trafficking to orchestrating a coup with Tuareg rebels against the Malian army and seizing Timbuktu. The militants aim to “turn the clocks back fourteen hundred years” by destroying revered religious shrines and imposing Sharia law, which includes flogging unveiled women and severing the hands of thieves. Fearing for the safety of the manuscripts, Haidara and associates buy up “every trunk in Timbuktu” and pack them off 606 miles south to Bamako, employing a team of teenage couriers. Hammer does a service to Haidara and the Islamic faith by providing the illuminating history of these manuscripts, managing to weave the complicated threads of this recent segment of history into a thrilling story. Agent: Flip Brophy, Sterling Lord Literistic.
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February 15, 2016
Hammer, an experienced journalist who knows Mali and its historic city of Timbuktu well, interweaves three astonishing stories, reflecting both the vulnerability and strength of a rich Islamic culture in West Africa. First he introduces Abdel Kader Haidara, a Timbuktu native who became an expert on his city's ancient manuscripts while working with the National Library of Mali in the 1980s. The author then presents the rise of a brutal group of militants in the region after 2008, their conquest of Timbuktu and threat to the records that embody centuries of vibrant Islamic history. He lastly describes the ingenious rescue of the records and transporting them more than 400 miles across the Sahara and on the Niger River to safekeeping in Bamako, Mali's capital. This powerful narrative of adventure juxtaposes a convincing description of a cultural heritage encompassing religion, history, literature, and science over eight centuries with the cruelty and intolerance of Jihadi groups arising in the region. VERDICT Hammer's clearly written and engaging chronicle of the achievements of Timbuktu, the risks presented to this area, and the portraits of several brave and dedicated individuals brings to light an important and unfamiliar story. [See Prepub Alert, 10/12/15; "Editors' Spring Picks," p. 28 ff.]--Elizabeth Hayford, formerly with Associated Coll. of the Midwest, Evanston, IL
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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November 1, 2015
In the 1980s, as an archivist working for a Mali government library, Abdel Kader Haidara made his way across the Sahara's sands to rescue tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts nearly lost to history. In 2012, as al Qaeda militants swarmed through Mali, Haidara directed a team of librarians at the privately funded Mamma Haidara Memorial Library in Timbuktu, who packed more than 350,000 manuscripts into tin boxes and sneaked them out of city to safety in southern Mali. Multi-award-winning journalist/author Hammer, who has been visiting Mali for two decades, tells an absorbing story of librarians as risk-taking heroes, striking a blow for culture.
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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To save ancient Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean's Eleven in this "fast-paced narrative that is...part intellectual history, part geopolitical tract, and part out-and-out thriller" (The Washington Post) from the author of The Falcon Thief.
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