Timbuktu Manuscripts

Common card · No. 380487

Timbuktu Manuscripts, or Tombouctou Manuscripts, is a blanket term for the large number of historically significant manuscripts that have been preserved for centuries in private households in Timbuktu, a city in northern Mali. The collections include manuscripts about art, medicine, philosophy, and science, as well as copies of the Quran. Timbuktu manuscripts are the most well known set of West African manuscripts. The manuscripts are predominantly written in Arabic in the Arabic script. Some manuscripts are written in African languages using Arabic script, which is known as Ajami; this includes, but is not limited to, Fula, Songhay, Tamasheq, Bambara, and Soninke languages. The dates of the manuscripts range between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranges from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were preserved in the homes of Timbuktu...

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