By MARY-JANE DEEB
When Library staffer Marieta Harper first saw the ancient manuscripts of Mali in Northwest Africa in 2002, she had one thought—that others should have the opportunity to view this evidence of a literary tradition in West Africa.
"I was on the edge of the Sahara Desert, in 115-degree temperatures, looking at manuscripts that had survived for centuries in Timbuktu, and my thought was to bring them to the Library of Congress for the world to see," said Harper. An Africa area specialist in the Library's African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED), she was in Mali at the invitation of the State Department to present a paper at a conference about Arabic manuscripts in Africa.
"The rediscovery of these manuscripts shatters the myth that West Africans had no literary tradition," she said.
Most of the manuscripts Harper saw in Timbuktu were in private collections. Realizing their importance and the fact that little was known about them, she proposed a Library exhibition to display them for the first time in the United States.
The timing could not have been better. Plans were already underway to feature Mali at the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival to be held June 25 to July 6 on the National Mall. A Library exhibition featuring the ancient manuscripts would give Washington visitors the opportunity to learn more about Mali's cultural heritage.
Harper, along with Christopher Murphy, AMED's Turkish area specialist; Irene Chambers, interpretive programs officer; and Carolyn Brown, director for area studies, discussed the concept with Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, who subsequently secured funding from Madison Council member James V. Kimsey. Funding also allowed the Library to host guest curator Abdelkader Haidara, the director of the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library, whose 5,000 manuscripts have been in his family for nine generations.
"Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu" opened in the South Gallery of the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building on June 24 and will remain on view through early September. Selections from the exhibition are available on the Library's Web site at www.loc.gov/exhibits/mali.
Written primarily in Arabic, the manuscripts in the exhibition are from two of the most noteworthy private collections in the region—the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library and the Library of Shaykh Zayni Baye of Boujbeha. The 20 manuscripts on display address a wide range of subjects, such as mathematics, physics, astronomy, secular literature and Koranic teachings.
Among the items on display are 66 "Ahkam al-shira' al-yamaniyah wa ma yazharu min hawadith fi al-`alam `inda zuhuriha fi kul sanah" (Knowledge of the movement of the stars and what it portends in every year); "Arbab al-khartumi, al-jawahir al-hisan fi ma`rifat arkan al-iman" (A jewel of beauty for learning the pillars of faith), a text book for teaching the basic tenets of Islam; and a manuscript by Sayyid Ahmad ibn `Ammar al-Raqadi al-Tumbukti al-Kunti, "ShifaÆ al-asqam al-æaridah fi al-zahir wa al-batin" (Curing diseases and defects, both apparent and hidden), a study of diseases and their remedies.
The manuscripts will be digitized and made available on the Library's Web site at www.loc.gov/exhibits/mali/. Copies of the manuscripts will become part of the Library's extensive Africana collection, which comprises items from some 50 countries and contains several ancient West African manuscripts similar to those in the exhibition. The originals will be returned to the Mamma Haidara Library.
Though known to African communities for generations, the recognition of these texts by Western academics has created a breakthrough in recent scholarship. Once believed to be solely based on oral tradition, African culture has also been passed down through a rich literary tradition as evidenced by the existence of these manuscripts.
"There is a similarity between the content of the legal and religious documents produced in Timbuktu and many Ottoman Turkish documents," said Murphy. "The Muslim rulers of Timbuktu and Istanbul were both faced with similar issues as they tried to incorporate non-Muslims into an Islamic state."
"The documents on display are very compelling," said Chambers. "They look fragile, having survived the desert environment, and yet they embody all the learning and knowledge passed down through the centuries."
The president of Mali, Amadou Toumani Toure, joined Billington in officially opening the exhibition on June 24. President Toure took the opportunity to announce the formation of a commission to preserve all the manuscripts of Timbuktu in one center where they would receive adequate conservation treatment. Later that day, African and Middle Eastern Division specialists greeted `Abd al-Rahman al-Sayuti, the grand imam of Timbuktu; Mohamed Ibrahim Sisse, the mayor of Timbuktu; and Mohamed Ag Sindibla, a Touareg tribesman and president of the Regional Assembly of Timbuktu.
Mary-Jane Deeb is an Arab world area specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division.