The Legacy of Timbuktu: Wonders of the Written Word centers on manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Memorial Library in Timbuktu, examples of a local book-production industry that was one aspect of the city’s role as a celebrated center of learning that attracted scholars, teachers and students from many countries and cultures of the Muslim world.
The city’s role as a caravan crossroads complemented its book industry, facilitating the importation of books as well as students. Teaching, learning, researching, writing, transcribing, adorning, binding and trading in books connected Timbuktu to the global Islamic knowledge industry and culminated in a complex, viable socio-economic model.
International Museum of Muslim Cultures, Jackson, Mississippi, November and December.