Islamist threat to Timbuktu's ancient scientific texts

Timbuktu's priceless collection of ancient scientific texts is at risk of destruction by hard-line Islamists.

Ansar Dine, a Tuareg militia, occupies territory around Timbuktu, a town in northern Mali listed as a world heritage site. In recent weeks, the group has destroyed historic tombs in the town (see picture), which house the remains of Islamic Sufi saints and which Ansar Dine says are idolatrous.

"We know six or seven shrines have been attacked," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, chief of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre's Africa Unit, told New Scientist. "But there are many scientific documents at risk too, and no one can tell if they'll be safe."

UNESCO has accepted a request by the government of Mali to add Timbuktu to the list of heritage sites at risk of destruction.

Various sites in Timbuktu house a matchless collection of 300,000 ancient Islamic texts, some dating from the 13th century, which include treatises on science and mathematics. Among them are texts on the harmful effects of tobacco, on medicine as practised 300 years ago, and on astronomy.

One of UNESCO's projects is to translate and digitise the Timbuktu manuscripts, many of which are currently kept in the town's Ahmed Baba Institute. They are among the most important historical texts in Africa.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/20f82cb3/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn220A110Eislamist0Ethreat0Eto0Etimbuktus0Eancient0Escientific0Etexts0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

brian williams patrice o neal patrice o neal wayne gretzky wayne gretzky occupy los angeles occupy los angeles