Timbuktu: no longer nowhere.

• Position: AFRICA - Ahmed Baba Institute's library - Brief article

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A surge of interest in ancient books is raising hopes that Timbuktu--a city in Mali that has tong been a synonym for nowhere--may once again become the intellectual, heart of Africa. In the 15th century, the city flourished because it sat between the major trade routes of the Sahara and the Niger River. Timbuktu became a center for trading in books and manuscripts and was home to a university with 25,000 scholars. After the city was captured by the Sultan of Morocco in 1591, it began to decline. Today, Timbuktu is mostly a collection of mud houses along trash-choked...