Jason Burke
Cultural Desert
The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu: The Quest for This Storied City and the Race to Save Its Treasures
By Charlie English
William Collins 400pp £20
In late April 2012, frightened inhabitants of Timbuktu reported a ghostly figure criss-crossing the town on a white horse. He was ‘dressed all in white, with a length of cotton bound round his face in the Tuareg style’. He warned local lovers to cease their public canoodling and head home. This was al-Farouk, a djinn (or spirit) who had watched over the city for many centuries.
Timbuktu’s fifty thousand or so inhabitants were in need of protection. Just weeks before, the city had been captured by Tuareg fighters who swept out of the deserts of northern Mali armed with weapons looted from Colonel Gaddafi’s armouries. The triumph of these ethnic nationalists was short-lived. Within days a coalition of Islamic militants terminated their chaotic rule. A mix of Malians, Algerians and others, many aligned with al-Qaeda, these extremists swiftly put an end to the looting that had broken out and re-established a semblance of order.
But if these acts reassured the local population and allowed the militants a short period in which to consolidate their authority, the calm did not last long. In Timbuktu, as in much of the Islamic world, the extremists were distressed to find that the Muslim faith was not practised in
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
When @djbduncan notices the text for a literary jigsaw puzzle had been written by a former colleague, his head spins. A wild surmise. Are jigsaws REF-able?
Dennis Duncan - The W Factor
Dennis Duncan: The W Factor
literaryreview.co.uk
In an effort to scold drinkers, Victorian temperance societies furiously marked every drinking establishment with a red X on city maps. It was a spectacular case of propaganda backfiring.
@foxtosser explores the history of drink maps
Edward Brooke-Hitching - From Beer Street to Gin Lane
Edward Brooke-Hitching: From Beer Street to Gin Lane - Drink Maps in Victorian Britain by Kris Butler
literaryreview.co.uk
How did a workers’ insurance agent who died of tuberculosis at the age of forty become a global literary icon?
@MortenHoiJensen on Kafka's metamorphosis
Morten Høi Jensen - Paranoid Humanoid
Morten Høi Jensen: Paranoid Humanoid - Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka by Karolina Watroba; Kafka: Making o...
literaryreview.co.uk