Lost Libraries of Timbuktu reveal Africa's Academic Past

[Leopolds Ghost]

Libraries in the sand reveal Africa's academic past

Fri Nov 10, 2006 By Nick Tattersall

TIMBUKTU, Mali (Reuters) - 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 of them 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 then French colonialists.

Written in ornate calligraphy, some were used to teach astrology or mathematics, while others tell tales of social and business life in Timbuktu during its "Golden Age", when it was a seat of learning in the 16th century.

"These manuscripts are about all the fields of human knowledge: law, the sciences, medicine," said Galla Dicko, director of the Ahmed Baba Institute, a library housing 25,000 of the texts. "Here is a political tract," he said, pointing to a script in a glass cabinet, somewhat dog-eared and chewed by termites. "A letter on good governance, a warning to intellectuals not to be corrupted by the power of politicians."

Bookshelves on the wall behind him contain a volume on maths and a guide to Andalusian music as well as love stories and correspondence between traders plying the trans-Saharan caravan routes.

Timbuktu's leading families have only recently started to give up what they see as ancestral heirlooms. They are being persuaded by local officials that the manuscripts should be part of the community's shared culture.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-11-10T131317Z_01_L10685745_RTRUKOC_0_US-MALI-MANUSCRIPTS.xml&src=111006_1607_ARTICLE_PROMO_also_on_reuters

[JI7]

1. this stuff always fascinates me

[CitizenLeft]

3. thank you for posting this...

fantastic!

[Miss Chybil]

2. Wow. Imagine what's going to come out of that! How exciting! nt

[Poll_Blind]

4. Really fascinating stuff- thanks! n/t

PB

[malaise]

5. My Garveyite gradfather always reminded us

that Timbuktu was a center of learning long before Europeans knew about education. Thanks for this.

[Odin2005]

6. Medieval Timbuktu once had one of the greatest universities in the Muslim world.

The Mali Empire was one of the most powerful states in the world during that time period. I'm assuming most educated peoplem have heard about the Mali king who gave out so much gold to the poor of Egypt while on the way to Mecca that he caused a bout of inflation that scewed up the Egyptian economy for years!!!

[Ignacio Upton]

13. Mansa Musa was that king

and yeah, he fucked things up for the Egyptians but I think he was regarded as a decent ruler for his kingdom.

[pberq]

7. The Great Year

There is more and more evidence that there were very highly evolved ancient civilizations. This is related to the precession of the equinoxes.

http://www.trinicenter.com/Gilkes/2002/0801.htm

The Egyptian Great Year And Christianity
January 08, 2002
by Corey Gilkes

. . .There are very, very few historians today who would admit that highly intelligent human societies are older than 7000 years. But the African invention of the 365 ¼ day calendar is one example that makes a mockery of the traditional views of Eurocentric academia. It comes as a surprise to many of us that our calendar, albeit with a few Roman alterations, is actually of Egyptian origin.

Surprise, because unfortunately, the African contribution to such scientific achievements is still ignored and many textbooks still retain the misconception that the calendar was invented in Sumeria. Of course, Sumer is painted as a "Semitic" civilisation never mind that the Sumerians referred to themselves as "black heads". Never mind the fact that much of classical Africa's civilisations were already quite old before Sumeria or Europe had even entered into history. Also glossed over are the Classical Greek and Roman accounts that the Egyptians and Nubians had been charting the heavens from over 10,000 years.

Dr Ben and Gerald Massey argued that in Egypt alone, African stargazers have been observing and recording movements in the heavens for at least 52,000 years. Evidence from the dating of erosion patterns of the Great Sphinx as well as the position of the pyramids in relation to the stars in Orion's belt, shows clearly that our accepted chronology of human history is totally inadequate. To begin to even appreciate the genius of our ancestors, we have no choice but honestly admit that what we think we know about the ancient world is actually very miniscule and much of that has been tainted by intellectual dishonesty, imperialistic designs, religious conservatism and outright racial bigotry. . .

And here's a fascinating DVD narrated by James Earl Jones that discusses the Great Year:

http://www.thegreatyear.com/thegreatyear/whatisit.shtml

The Great Year is a compelling documentary that explores the possibility that the fall of ancient civilizations around the globe, and the rise of modern civilization, might be related to our Sun’s motion around a companion star. The film examines evidence that ancient civilizations may have known of this celestial cycle and that our Sun may indeed display the characteristics of binary motion.

Just as the Earth’s spin on its axis causes day and night and our planet’s annual orbit around the Sun is responsible for the ongoing cycle of the seasons, what if there is some greater celestial cycle, lasting thousands of years, slowly influencing the rise and fall of civilization across the globe? Where is the evidence? What could be the cause?

To many ancient cultures, the answers lie in the stars. In their view, time and civilization did not progress ever forward in a strict linear path, but moved in a cyclical pattern, with human civilization and consciousness rising and falling as great ages came and went. To the ancient Mayans, we are entering the time of the Fifth Sun; Hindu and Vedic scholars spoke of the Yuga Cycle a great circular progression of ages; and in ancient Greece, Plato taught of a large cycle of time which would slowly return us to a “Golden Age”. He called this cycle: The Great Year. . . .

[arcane1]

11. indeed

it's fascinating how frequently precessional numbers and imagery crop up in ancient myth, art, and archetecture, once one knows what to look for

excellent post! :thumbsup:

[yodermon]

20. Cool links

This used to be my favorite subject before our democracy was subverted in '00.

[XanaDUer]

8. As a librarian, thanks for posting this!

...

[Jade Fox]

9. I first heard about these texts a few years ago.....

and at that time nothing was yet being done to preserve and study them. Glad to hear that's changed!

[mopinko]

10. now that iraq's history is all but destroyed

i guess there will be scholars available to study this. ok, just being snarky. but they better be sure wherever they put this stuff that they are not on any of the bush cartels target lists.

[lildreamer316]

12. You are so right

I was watching something on one of the history or travel channels about some of the fascinating things they had found in that area. Makes me so sad that most of it is probably destroyed, or unreachable for years.

[crikkett]

14. guys, I heard that the looting of Iraq's museums was hype

and that most of their treasures were removed to safe, undisclosed locations well before we invaded.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

17. the loss of archeology sites is the real crime...

'Stop the looters destroying history'
By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent

A Babylonian sculpture from about 17000BC

THE cultural treasures of Iraq — the birthplace of writing, codified law, mathematics, medicine and astronomy — are being obliterated as looters take advantage of the country’s bloody chaos.
Fourteen of the world’s leading archaeologists have written to the President and Prime Minister of the country, demanding immediate action to stem the vandalism after seeing photographs of sites left pockmarked by enormous craters.

Among examples in the letter, seen yesterday by The Times, was a Babylonian sculpture of a lion dating from about 1700BC that lost its head because the terracotta shattered as looters tried to remove it.


http://www.archaeologynews.org/link.asp?ID=129233


The military bases/activities/bombs have destroyed their fair share too. :(

[WinkyDink]

21. This is Rumsfeld's crime against culture. He deliberately, as a Fascist,

allowed the destruction of history, for Fascists prefer to write their own.

Occupiers are BY LAW to secure cultural treasures. Instead, told of the looting, Rumsfeld remarked, "Democracy is messy."

Of course, the treasures are in the basements of Halliburton cronies.

[mopinko]

22. not according to the oriental institute of the u of chicago

friends of mine-
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/iraq.html

the only things in undisclosed locations are those that have been stolen and will stay in hiding until the thief dies. like the nazi loot of the big war. not only iraq, but the turmoil is making it possible to loot the antiquities of the entire middle east. or crush them beneath a battalion of tanks.
from the horse's mouth.

[philly_bob]

15. "At least as old as the European Renaissance." Are you kidding?

Egypt, maybe? Anyway I hope they save those manuscripts...

[Jcrowley]

16. thanks

k&r

[Timbuk3]

18. Not THAT is a story!

;->

[yodermon]

19. OMG, this quote:

"A letter on good governance, a warning to intellectuals not to be corrupted by the power of politicians."

Some things never, ever change.