The Meanings of Timbuktu »

Shamil Jeppie is a senior lecturer in the department of historical studies at the University of Cape Town, a key advisor to the South Africa-Mali Timbuktu Manuscript Project, and the author of Language Identity Modernity: The Arabic Study Circle of Durban. Souleymane Bachir Diagne is a professor in the department of philosophy at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Cultural Question in Africa, as well as a French translation of mathematician George Boole's Laws of Thought. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.

Contradicting the popular notion that African history survived only through the oral tradition, this collection of essays examines the rich legacy of written history on the continent, specifically in Timbuktu. It brings together articles written by a number of leading international scholars from Europe, the United States, and several African countries, covering a wide range of areas in the study of Timbuktu, from archaeology and literature to the intellectual life, libraries, and private collections in Timbuktu and West Africa.