The Timbuktu Manuscripts Collection offers an unparalleled window into societies and intellectual traditions of the Western Sudan from the late 15th century onward. The manuscripts are now under grave threat from a variety of sources, both natural and human.

Following the collapse of empire of Mali in 1433, Timbuktu was incorporated into the Songhai Empire in 1468, and reached its apogee of prosperity and scholarship in the 16th century during the Songhai Askia Dynasty. Even before the rise of the Songhai Empire, Timbuktu was part of the vast trade routes linking the Western Sudan to the Maghreb, stretching onward to the Fertile Crescent and other regions of the Near East. When Leo Africanus visited Timbuktu in the early 1500s, he reported that its people were very wealthy and that books and manuscripts imported from North Africa were the most profitable commodity. In the latter part of the 16th century, the town was reported to have thousands of students studying theology, law, astronomy, and other subjects.

The manuscripts and their covers demonstrate a sophisticated visual and technical artistry and reflect a rich intellectual and scholarly tradition. They cover a diverse range of topics and genres, including the natural and physical sciences (astronomy, mathematics, botany, and medicine); the literary arts (poetic verse, panegyrics, grammar); the Islamic religious sciences such as theology (kal m), jurisprudence (fiqh), legal opinions (fatawa); and historical accounts (tarikh). Many of the manuscripts are written in local vernaculars (some of which are archaic forms of the present-day languages of Songhay, Tamasheq, and Fulfulde, among others) with Arabic script. Charts, diagrams, commentaries, and marginalia are plentiful; some recount complex genealogies and scientific theories, others record intellectual disagreements among scholars, teachers, and commentators.

During the past two centuries, most of the manuscripts have been concealed, often buried or hidden to safeguard them from colonial agents, lawlessness, and political instability. Partly as a result of the conditions in which the manuscripts were stored, they face an array of conservation challenges, including damage from insects, desiccation, and the fading of certain inks.

In 2005, Aluka began a dialogue with members of library and scholarly communities, expressing its interest in helping to solve some of the challenges faced by libraries in Timbuktu. In January 2007, after a series of meetings and discussions in Cape Town, New York, and Timbuktu, Aluka entered into a formal partnership with SAVAMA-DCI (L organization Non Gouvernmentale pour la Sauvegarde et la Valorisation des Manuscrits pour la Defense de la Culture Islamique), a Timbuktu-based NGO whose mission is to help private manuscript libraries in Mali safeguard, preserve, and understand their intellectual treasures. As part of this project, we also partnered with two academic groups, Northwestern University's Advanced Media Production Studio (NUAMPS), led by Mr. Harlan Wallach, and the Tombouctou Mss Project at the University of Cape Town's Department of Historical Studies. This phase provided SAVAMA-DCI with the resources to catalogue 600 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara and Imam Essayouti Libraries in Timbuktu and to digitize 300 of these manuscripts.

We hope that the availability of these digitized manuscripts for the first time ever will encourage additional libraries, scholars, students, and researchers to deposit and share in Aluka translations and digital scholarly research resulting from the availability of these manuscripts online.