Battle to preserve centuries-old manuscripts rescued from militancy
(28 Jan 2015) Researchers in Mali are battling to preserve thousands of historic manuscripts. The documents were smuggled from the north of the country, when it fell under the control of Islamic militants. But the climate in Bamako is damaging the papers. Staff at the Institute of Islamic Studies and Research in Bamako (IHERIAB) examine centuries-old manuscripts held in their storeroom. They were brought here from Timbuktu, which fell under the control of Islamic militants in 2012 following a military coup. Fighters made women hide their faces, forbade the music for which Mali is known and deemed religious buildings and artifacts to be idolatrous. They took aim at the manuscripts that date back to the 13th century. The camel-skin bound manuscripts reflect the diversity of learning that marked Timbuktu's heyday and cover a vast array of subjects, including astronomy, law, history and philosophy. Before the al Qaida-linked fighters were pushed from Timbuktu by a French military intervention in 2013, they set ablaze the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, where many of the brittle manuscripts were stored, protected from the harsh Sahara Desert climate. UNESCO estimated that about 4,000 of the manuscripts were destroyed. But most of the documents had been saved thanks to the library's custodians, who had spirited them out of the occupied city in rice sacks, on donkey carts, by motorcycle, by boat and by four-wheel-drive vehicles. The Ahmed Baba Institute is currently watching over thousands of manuscripts in Bamako, Mali's capital in the south. "We were able to spirit out 27,000 manuscripts from Timbuktu to Bamako," says Dr Drissa Traore, Head of Manuscript Cataloguing at IHERIAB. But storage conditions at the Institute have not been ideal. "When it rained, water was getting in through the windows, but we have been able to sort that out now," explains Traore. The climate is still causing damage and decay to the manuscripts though. Tikbuktu's dry, Saharan weather had preserved them for hundreds of years. But here in the more southerly Bamako, the air is heavy with moisture. And that moisture poses a serious threat to the texts. Precious writings have crumbled to dust. "When you've got humidity, the sheets (of the manuscripts) stick together, and the manuscript can fall to bits when you try to separate them. The high temperatures and the dust destroys both the writing and the papers," says Dr Abdoul Kadri Idrissa Maiga, the Director of IBERIAN. Traore highlights a document of significant importance. He says it's a treaty signed in 1927 between the Kingdom of Morocco and westerners who were occupying the country - and details privileges for those westerners. "Initially these privileges were given to the French only but after this treaty they were extended to Spain, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark and others," he explains. The manuscripts have attracted the attention of the UN's cultural body UNESCO. It's brought together experts from around the world for a conference in Bamako to discuss how to preserve the documents. Lazare Eloundou Assomo, the UNESCO representative to Mali, says: "There is the basic question of their protection, their physical conservation. We are talking about sheets of paper and ink, kept in a different climatic environment." "We must discuss how these manuscripts can continue to resist the effects of time and how we can continue to benefit from them," he continues. The UN has invested 35-thousand US dollars in the restoration of three Timbuktu libraries to house the manuscripts. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
