Saving science and scholarship from marauders

I just finished Joshua Hammer's _Bad-Ass Librarians_. It recounts the complex and dangerous effort to gather hundreds of thousands of handwritten manuscripts from private homes around #Timbuktu, where they were in danger from rot and termites, to collect and repair them in the Ahmed Baba Institute (in Timbuktu, funded by #Kuwait), to evacuate them surreptitiously to prevent their destruction in the 2012-2013 #AlQuaeda invasion of northern #Mali, and finally to ensure their safe return to Institute. Plus, great title.

Recommended, partly for the history (new to me) of the medieval golden age of #Muslim science and scholarship in northwest #Africa, centered in Timbuktu, and partly for the example of a small band of Malian librarians to save their cultural heritage.

Of course there are also ominous parallels to current news.

#Librarians #Libraries

Ich möchte hier an eine beinahe vergessene Whistleblower-in erinnern, die vor mehr als 20 Jahren die Illegalität des #Irakkrieg-es offen legte. Nur weil die Regierung des UK sich weigerte, die geheimen Dokumente offen zu legen, wurde sie frei gesprochen. Diese hätten belegt, dass keine Massenvernichtungsmittel gefunden wurden und keine Verbindung des Saddam Hussein zu #AlQuaeda nachgewiesen werden konnte.

(Eine Legitimation von Kriegen, ist niemals rechtens. Es gibt keine "Augustinischen Kriege", jener Lehre vom "gerechten Krieg". Sie sind immer illegal!)

https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/official-secrets-katharine-gun-und-der-irak-krieg-die-whistleblowerin-a-1292907.html

Kyrgyzstan’s Repatriation of Foreign Fighters’ Wives and Children from Syrian Camps Marks the End of an Era

Kyrgyzstan recently finished repatriating women and children who were detained in Syria and Iraq for having been connected with men who fought with al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS). This has been hailed as the end to Central Asia’s struggle with large-scale jihadism, but the Taliban’s seizure of Afghanistan and the ongoing... #kyrgyzstan #syria #iraq #centralasia #detentioncamps #repatriation #alquaeda #rehabilitation #worldnews #worldwithoutus

https://jamestown.org/program/kyrgyzstans-repatriation-of-foreign-fighters-wives-and-children-from-syrian-camps-marks-the-end-of-an-era/