The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu: Rediscovering Africa's Literary Culture Hardcover – November 17, 2008

I will make this very brief, because I despise long pointless reviews that never tell you what you need to know. The bottom line is that this is a fantastic text. The surprising thing is that it is filled with gorgeous color photos. The book itself is huge. It's not one of those books you buy, and think..."that's it". You will not regret buying this book. The text focuses on the actual manuscripts in the ever growing collection of African manuscripts. But it also shows the life and country side of the region, in beautiful color. It is a well researched, well written book...that is again, gorgeous. Lastly, it's rare to see a text on African history that is as beautiful as most books on western civilization. And it's not because there is anything less beautiful about African history, but few ever invest the resources to produce the polished work that western histories receive. This book is different. Just buy the book. It's 20 dollars that you will not regret spending. This is one of my best purchases, on African history, or any topic!

I love this book. Finally someone took the time to put some serious work into a very neglected subject in English. Most of the important works on Timbuktu prior to this have been in French or Arabic. The book is large and has many full color pictures. I was impressed. The price could easily have been double for the quality of the information and pictures. The info is very recent and contemporary, mentioning the funded projects of collecting, indexing, and collating the deteriorating private family Arabic libraries of hand written works, some dating back to the 1600s. When I saw John Hunwick's name involved in the project, I had to check it out. He has been a very serious American researcher of Sudanic Islamic African works for many years. I am not familiar with Alida Jay Boye, but am very impressed. This book is well worth reading and a steal at this low price, considering the prices of similar works.

this is a historical book. the people featured were African and Arab.

Good book to learn about African literacy.

A real treasure!

This book is a testament to black intellectual heritage. For centuries, black people - people of African descent - have contributed value to civilization in the sciences, arts, mathematics, astrology, architecture, and more. We are an intelligent, cultured, advanced, and diverse people and this book shows that.

I must confess that I didn't know much about Timbuktu until I read this thoroughly researched and beautifully photographed book. After spending an afternoon turning the pages of "The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu," though, I feel like I made an extended personal visit.Working under the auspices of the University of Oslo, Norway, and UNESCO, authors John O. Hunwick and Alida Boye have invited us to spend some time to get to know Timbuktu through its history, its people and its rich treasure of manuscripts. The photography is the work of Joseph Hunwich, son of the co-author.Reading this book is an opportunity to see many of the ancient manuscripts that functioned as literary works and commercial documents, but also as aesthetically compelling imagery. After viewing these many full-page eye-popping photographs, you'll feel like you have personally visited the streets, and then many of the libraries, of one of Africa's cultural centers.

The book contains wonderful photographs (many are full-page) of old manuscripts written or transcribed in Arab scripts between the 17th and the 19th centuries. Many of them are literally falling apart. Let's hope they'll find a way to preserve these precious pieces of history.The book is divided into three chapters. The first chapter deals with the history and culture of Timbuktu and takes up about half of the book. The second chapter is the meat of the book - photographs and descriptions of the historic manuscripts that they have found and now preserved in the various libraries around the city. This part of the book covers only about 45 pages. Given the opportunities granted to the authors to these documents, I wished they were more photographs of other manuscripts. Yeah, the photographs are gorgeous, but it would have been even better to sacrifice pages from chapter 1 and put in more photographs of these marvelous manuscripts, especially given the title of the book. Hey, after all, how often does anyone get a chance to visit libraries in Timbuktu? This is why I'm giving the book a 4-star rather than 5.The third chapter is devoted to the discussion (and listings) of Timbuktu scholars and libraries and this was quite interesting. More pictures of the libraries and their contents would have been even better. A nice glossary and a good bibliography (many sources in French) round up the book. All in all, a very good book but could have been a great one....