#timbuktu

[thrdnarrative]

Traditional Tuareg dance shown in Timbuktu, Mali via @mali_paw_d_bi

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 44: Medievalish History 8 and Earlier

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct earlier time grouping. Basically, I'd already moved on to human history, but I'd periodically get a pre-homin suggestion, hence the occasional random item waaay out of it's time period, rather than reopen the category.

In some cases a culture lasted a really long time and I grouped them by whether it was likely the later or earlier grouping made the most sense with the information I had. (Invention ofs tend to fall in an earlier grouping if it's still open. Ones that imply height of or just before something tend to get grouped later, but not always. Sometimes I'll split two different things from the same culture into different polls because they involve separate research goals or the like).

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration. All cultures and time periods welcome.

[itsbansheebitch]

Today I learned (from a Jacob Geller video, but here's an article, too) that Al Qaida went on a rampage committing arson, destroying ancient scrolls and manuscripts (specifically in Mali). A librarian who was preserving a collection of PRICELESS manuscripts in Timbuktu knew that Al Qaida would be coming to their library sooner or later, so over the course of six months with the help of several volunteers, they would transport around 200,000 books.

(Some of the documents & books in the library didn't make it out/were destroyed around January 2013) In the beginning they drove 600 mile (checkpoint filled) round trip again and again to each house that has volunteered to put their life on the line to save the books.

Eventually, that method became impossible, and he discovered he (and the other volunteers) only have one choice: FLOATING THE REST OF THE BOOKS DOWN THE NIGER RIVER. BOOKS. DOWN A RIVER. Seven Hundred Ninety One (791) TRUNKS/"footlockers" of BOOKS were sent down a river. You want to know how many made it? How many were recovered? ALL SEVEN HUNDRED NINETY ONE TRUNKS WORTH.

These books are literal relics. "Some date back to the 13th Century, and have survived more than 700 years." Bro, you are awesome, but you are going to give me a heart attack. Anyway, this some wild history and the art in these manuscripts is beautiful.

[quotessentially]

From Paul Auster’s Timbuktu

[twixnmix]

Eartha Kitt and Sylvester Stallone photographed by Andy Warhol in New York City on July 6, 1978.

[afrotumble]

[worldhistoryfacts]

Explanations of Problems in Arithmetic with Examples, a commentary by al-Rasmuki, an 18th century mathematician, on the work of medieval mathematician al-Samlali. This text was held in the libraries of Timbuktu, Mali.

{WHF} {Ko-Fi} {Medium}

[noosphe-re]

The Timbuktu Manuscripts Explore 40,000 manuscripts guarded by Dr. Abdel Kader Haidara and SAVAMA-DCI, showcasing Africa’s greatest written legacy.

https://artsandculture.google.com/experiment/the-timbuktu-manuscripts/BQE6pL2U3Qsu2A?hl=en

[didierleclair]

Timbuktu, the great!

[whencyclopedia]

Songhai Empire

The Songhai Empire (aka Songhay, c. 1460 - c. 1591) replaced the Mali Empire (1240-1645) as the most important state in West Africa (covering modern southern Mauritania and Mali). Originating as a smaller kingdom along the eastern bend of the Niger River c. 1000, the Songhai would expand their territory dramatically from the reign of King Sunni Ali (1464-1492).

Continue reading...

[o-uncle-newt]

Cabin Pressure Advent Day 20: Timbuktu

(Or, since as you can see I said it only once, Guspini)

Yay, it's S4! My favorite season, because as I've noted, I'm a sucker for when the show gets fluffier. And also the episodes are all just really really good.

This is probably my least favorite episode in the season, which says a lot as it's pretty dang good; Very funny, excellent scheming re the whiskey, and while the Birling plotline is a bit hair-raising (he gets less funny when he's sober lol), it's still well done.

What I really love, though, is that it shows off how much better Martin's gotten in ways that St Petersburg didn't as much (it was more Douglas's show). We see him mellow a bit- even his game at the beginning of the episode is him not throwing a tantrum when he can't win one of Douglas's, but just taking advantage of what he CAN do in a reasonably fair (if petty) way. He knows where he can beat Douglas... so he just does that.

(Also, speaking of the beginning of the episode, BOOO the cold opens are gone again...)

Martin also shows he's loosening up by turning to Douglas and Carolyn to solve a problem knowing he can't- accepting his limitations relatively philosophically. AND THEN HE SOLVES IT, specifically at the moment where he's sure he can't- illustrating the fact that a lot of his problem is really his nerves and complete lack of calm. And Douglas and Carolyn take him seriously! It's actually pretty cool. Sure, Carolyn doesn't agree to do it until Douglas wheedles her into it by actually planning it out and making it sound feasible, but they both admire the idea. Sure, ultimately it fails, but really that's Arthur's fault- for all they rag on Martin at the end, I don't actually think there's anything he could have said to fix the situation once Arthur opened his big bazoo.

But I think something way crazier happens this episode- Douglas teams up with Martin! Douglas decides that it's worth it not just to trust Martin with part of his heist/extortion plan but to make him a partner in it, and Martin pulls it off brilliantly. I'm so proud of him, and of Douglas for learning to play nicely with others lol. It's a great Talisker plot- not quite Paris, but more cohesive than Edinburgh for sure.

The last thing I'll note is- however much one may cringe at Arthur in this episode, it is so well done in terms of tying in everything we know about him, and how, however good Martin's idea more broadly, it was never ever going to work. He managed to be funny, in character, while also, as they note, weirdly erudite on the subject of Mali as only an Arthur can be. I appreciate how on the one hand they get their comeuppance for not trusting him with the truth, and on the other hand he IMMEDIATELY proves why they didn't. Douglas should have thought this through more...

Hard to believe this is the last time we see Mr Birling- I wonder whether he'll ever be willing to fly with them again? (And what do we think- would they have gotten away with it if Italy had been losing? Another rare Douglas L- why pick a location that's one of the two nationalities in the game?!)

Tomorrow: Uskerty!

[heifercatmoon]

#Sahelcore then and now

What is the secret of the Sahel?

(Ruins of Tichitt)

[postcard-from-the-past]

Street scene in Timbuktu, Mali

French vintage postcard, photographed by Fortier

[ancientorigins]

The salt mines of Mali have barely changed over the centuries. The miners work tirelessly in hand-dug pits before the salt tablets make their way across the Sahara by camel caravan.

[dreaming-of-texel]

Timbuktu (2014)

[therainingkiwi]

i was just watching celebrity jeopardy and one of the clues described medieval timbuktu as "a college town" and i think my entire brain has been rewired