
Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts
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Narrated by:
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Paul Boehmer
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By:
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Joshua Hammer
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 had fallen into obscurity. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the incredible story of how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, later became one of the world's greatest and most brazen smugglers.
In 2012, thousands of Al Qaeda militants from northwest Africa seized control of most of Mali, including Timbuktu. They imposed Sharia law, chopped off the hands of accused thieves, stoned to death unmarried couples, and threatened to destroy the great manuscripts. As the militants tightened their control over Timbuktu, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali.
Over the past 20 years, journalist Joshua Hammer visited Timbuktu numerous times and is uniquely qualified to tell the story of Haidara's heroic and ultimately successful effort to outwit Al Qaeda and preserve Mali's - and the world's - literary patrimony. Hammer explores the city's manuscript heritage and offers never-before-reported details about the militants' march into northwest Africa. But above all, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu is an inspiring account of the victory of art and literature over extremism.
©2016 Joshua Hammer. Recorded by arrangement with Simon and Schuster, Inc. (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...




















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Bad-Ass Librarians Do Exist
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Fascinating
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While I found the main story interesting, I nearly could not get through this book for its fearmongering and disingenuous repeated attempt to divorce “sharia” from “fiqh,” as if one was meant to be “IslamIST law” and one a much higher, more proper, acceptable version. Sharia is Islamic law: all of it. The quote from the woman who tells the jihadis that “YOU are the ones who need to follow sharia!” actually... you know, MATTERS in that context, as she’s telling them they are egregiously misinterpreting their own religion.
Anyway, there’s a lot of vaguely racist imagery and phrasing in this book for a story that genuinely does not need cheap, awful tricks to drive home how terrifying it actually must have been. If you care about Islam or intellectual honesty, skip this book.
Weird reading emphasis and needed an editor badly.
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Read it with a map and Google satellite imagery.
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AMAZING STORY OF AN UNSUNG HERO
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My geography is pretty poor. A downside to listening to an audible.com book is there are no maps. I suspect that had I read a paper book, there would have been several illustrations of the area. Even so, I am now much more fluent in land-locked African geography than I ever thought to be.
Throughout the second half of the book, however, I worried that religious fanatics now know that these treasures exist, and probably are located in the libraries of Timbuktu. Hammer rather leaves the reader in suspense....
Great Title; Good Subtitle; Nail-biting Narrative
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Excellent chronicle of history
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Comes back though and is very well worth a read, the history of mali, sudan and the efforts to preserve their literary history
Rad concept
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Paul Boehmer is a fine audio performer and brings so much to life with his talents.
Extraordinary archivist
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an epic story of commitment and volunteerism!
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