The Literary Refugees of Timbuktu: How a Group of Unlikely Allies Thwarted Al Qaeda and Organized One of the Most Brazen Cultural Heritage Evacuations Ever Attempted

Corrie Commisso

DOI:10.1515/pdtc-2015-0012

Corpus ID: 133065754

The Literary Refugees of Timbuktu: How a Group of Unlikely Allies Thwarted Al Qaeda and Organized One of the Most Brazen Cultural Heritage Evacuations Ever Attempted

@article{Commisso2015TheLR,
  title={The Literary Refugees of Timbuktu: How a Group of Unlikely Allies Thwarted Al Qaeda and Organized One of the Most Brazen Cultural Heritage Evacuations Ever Attempted},
  author={Corrie Commisso},
  journal={Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture},
  year={2015},
  volume={44},
  pages={69 - 77}
}

Corrie Commisso

Published 2015

Geography

Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture

Abstract For centuries, Timbuktu, Mali, has quietly housed some of the greatest treasures of the ancient world: hundreds of thousands of scientific, literary, and religious manuscripts. But when Al Qaeda jihadists seized control of the city in the wake of a coup in 2012, the manuscripts found themselves in dire threat of destruction. To save them, a group of unlikely allies worked together to organize one of the most brazen evacuations of cultural heritage ever attempted . . . and succeeded in… CONTINUE READING

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