Mali Stories

HMML Stories — Mali

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Preservation Projects stories
A Decade in Mali
July 25, 2024

A Decade in Mali

“It began with a dinner in 2013...”

  • Dr. Columba Stewart
What Are The Animals Trying To Tell Us?
July 4, 2024

What Are The Animals Trying To Tell Us?

“In historical Timbuktu—as in any part of the pre-modern world—animals were...”

  • Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Eclipses in Early Muslim History — Between Myth and Reality
April 8, 2024

Eclipses in Early Muslim History — Between Myth and Reality

“The best-known eclipse mentioned in Muslim sources was the solar eclipse that occurred on...”

  • Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Nasheeds from West Africa: Uniting Texts and Sound
January 18, 2024

Nasheeds from West Africa: Uniting Texts and Sound

“All of Timbuktu’s family libraries that were digitized by HMML include numerous compositions that...”

  • Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
A Scribble of Scribes: Men, Women, and Children Copyists Across Mali’s Manuscript Collections
June 8, 2023

A Scribble of Scribes: Men, Women, and Children Copyists Across Mali’s Manuscript Collections

“...each manuscript is an artistic production and requires physical labor performed by a single individual—the scribe...”

  • Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Why so Many Fragments? Incomplete Manuscripts in the Timbuktu Collections.
March 16, 2023

Why so Many Fragments? Incomplete Manuscripts in the Timbuktu Collections.

“A large amount of the manuscripts digitized in Timbuktu, Mali, that we at HMML have cataloged are fragments...”

  • Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
A Book You Would Love to Read...
September 29, 2022

A Book You Would Love to Read...

“A book you would love to read is lost, altered, destroyed, buried, hidden, left unpublished, unwritten, banned.”

  • Dr. Catherine Walsh and Margaret Bresnahan
ʻUmar al-Turūdī’s List of Unreliable Books
September 1, 2022

ʻUmar al-Turūdī’s List of Unreliable Books

“ʻUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Turūdī, was a scholar from Kebbi, present-day northern...”

  • Dr. Paul Naylor
Where We’re Working: Mali
July 16, 2022

Where We’re Working: Mali

“In the spring of 2012, the desert city of Timbuktu in northern Mali was attacked and...”

  • Dr. Columba Stewart
Smoking in the Desert — Between Supporters and Opponents of Tobacco
March 31, 2022

Smoking in the Desert — Between Supporters and Opponents of Tobacco

“The use of tobacco in the Sahel, whether smoking, chewing, or taking as snuff, was widespread and...”

  • Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
The Story of the Talking Camel and the Exploits of Ali Genre in West Africa
November 25, 2021

The Story of the Talking Camel and the Exploits of Ali Genre in West Africa

“While some elements of the story are fiction, others are clearly inspired by real events in Khaybar.”

  • Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Tracing Folktales in Magic Texts — The Story of Umm al-Ṣibyān
October 28, 2021

Tracing Folktales in Magic Texts — The Story of Umm al-Ṣibyān

“Despite having been contested in Islamic history by powerful groups rejecting them as illegitimate practices, magic and...”

  • Dr. Celeste Gianni
Travelers and Texts Crossing the Sahara
August 19, 2021

Travelers and Texts Crossing the Sahara

“Mobility was a central feature of individuals, societies, and texts within Muslim West Africa’s...”

  • Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Medical Texts From Timbuktu — Local Pharmacological Remedies with Qur’anic Verses
April 15, 2021

Medical Texts From Timbuktu — Local Pharmacological Remedies with Qur’anic Verses

“In West Africa knowledge of the Qur’an was often combined with local pharmacological traditions to...”

  • Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
February 11, 2021

Creating Cataloging Standards for Regional Names

“Yeɗi belonged to the Fulani people, one of West Africa’s many ethnic groups, which...”

Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor

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Postscript — A Fāʼidah
January 3, 2021

Postscript — A Fāʼidah

“Along with the direct physical resistance to this unjust trade, the text shows...”

  • Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
December 10, 2020

Database Partnership Expands Access to West African Manuscripts

HMML is now in partnership with the West African Arabic Manuscript Database

Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor

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