The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu

This book tells the story of how an intrepid librarian from Timbuktu, Mali, collected hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts from all over the country, established libraries for them, and then had to spirit them out of Timbuktu when the region became a war zone.

As part of the story, the author spends quite a lot of time setting up the uneasy relationship between the Malian government and the Tuareg tribes, as well as the introduction of Wahhabi Islam into the region. I learned the names and histories of the three main Al Qaeda commanders, and learned about how they formed an alliance with Tuareg rebels to take over the northern part of Mali and establish a caliphate.

It's a fascinating story that is readable and compelling. My one complaint is that it is much more a story about how Wahhabi Islam is a threat to the culture of Mali than it is a story about librarians or even the texts that were threatened by war. I would have liked to know more about the texts themselves and some of the people who helped protect them, but these were not given the same in depth treatment as the details of the conflict.