Book Details
Title: Timbuktu: The Sahara's Fabled City of Gold
Author: Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle
Illustrator: N/A
Publisher: Walker & Company
Year: 2007
Impression/Edition: N/A
Cover: Hardcover with Dust Jacket
Pages: 302
Dimensions:
Weight:
ISBN: 0-8027-1497-8
Battle Scars:
Overall good condition.
Outside:
The dust jacket is intact. There is some shelf wear to edges/ends/corners, with rubbing, minor creasing to edges. Minor scuffing and some discolouration, also with fading to the edges.
The hardcover is intact with shelf wear (rubbing) to edges, ends and corners as pictured. Boards are faded around edges. Slight bumping to corners. Crushing of spine ends. The embossing on the spine is intact and legible.
The page margins (seen when book is closed) are clean besides two black marker spots on the bottom profile.
Inside:
The binding is firm and intact.
Inside the front and back covers is clean.
The pages are clean and intact.
Don't forget to check the photos below for a visual and make sure you are happy prior to purchase. Happy to answer questions if there is information missing.
Book Content:
Blurb -
"The rich, colourful history of one of the world's most fabled cities.
Timbuktu - the name still evokes a faraway place, the metaphor for remoteness. However, in its heyday, Timbuktu was one of the centres of the world. Founded in the early eleventh century by Tuareg nomads, within two centuries Timbuktu became a wealthy metropolis and a nexus of the trans-Saharan trade: salt from the deep Sahara, gold from Ghana, and money from slave markets all flowed through Timbuktu. Merchants returning to their homelands spread stories of a fabulous place with spires of gold, rich beyond measure, with wise and generous kings.
In part because of its wealth, Timbuktu also became a centre of Islamic learning and religion, boasting impressive schools and libraries that attracted scholars widely. The arts flourished, and as Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle relate in this fascinating biography of the city, Timbuktu gained near-mythic stature around the world. Such strategic wealth and influence also attracted the attention of those who wanted to control the ancient city, which was invaded by the Moroccan army of Moulay al-Mansur the Magnificent in 1591, seized back by Toureg nomads, and much later, in 1893, captured by the French. Timbuktu's long decline since then was exacerbated by a terribe earthquake, several epidemics, and numerous famines. Perhaps no other city in history has been as golden - and as deeply tarnished - as Timbuktu.
Yet, faded as it is, and despite a long history of jihad in the region, Timbuktu itself has triumphantly foregone fanaticism to preach a tolerant version of Islam, even though that religious tolerance is again under attack. Poverty and attrition also threaten the city's survival, but sources as diverse as UNESCO, the Ford Foundation, and the South African government are helping preserve and translate Timbuktu's precious repository of ancient manuscripts and, in so doing, ensure its future.
Using sources dating deep into Timbuktu's fabled past, alongside contemporary interviews with cultural historian Abdel Kader Haidara and other residents and officials, de Villiers and Hirtle have produced a spectacular portrait of this epic city of gold."
Book Details
Title: Timbuktu: The Sahara's Fabled City of Gold
Author: Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle
Illustrator: N/A
Publisher: Walker & Company
Year: 2007
Impression/Edition: N/A
Cover: Hardcover with Dust Jacket
Pages: 302
Dimensions:
Weight:
ISBN: 0-8027-1497-8
Battle Scars:
Overall good condition.
Outside:
The dust jacket is intact. There is some shelf wear to edges/ends/corners, with rubbing, minor creasing to edges. Minor scuffing and some discolouration, also with fading to the edges.
The hardcover is intact with shelf wear (rubbing) to edges, ends and corners as pictured. Boards are faded around edges. Slight bumping to corners. Crushing of spine ends. The embossing on the spine is intact and legible.
The page margins (seen when book is closed) are clean besides two black marker spots on the bottom profile.
Inside:
The binding is firm and intact.
Inside the front and back covers is clean.
The pages are clean and intact.
Don't forget to check the photos below for a visual and make sure you are happy prior to purchase. Happy to answer questions if there is information missing.
Book Content:
Blurb -
"The rich, colourful history of one of the world's most fabled cities.
Timbuktu - the name still evokes a faraway place, the metaphor for remoteness. However, in its heyday, Timbuktu was one of the centres of the world. Founded in the early eleventh century by Tuareg nomads, within two centuries Timbuktu became a wealthy metropolis and a nexus of the trans-Saharan trade: salt from the deep Sahara, gold from Ghana, and money from slave markets all flowed through Timbuktu. Merchants returning to their homelands spread stories of a fabulous place with spires of gold, rich beyond measure, with wise and generous kings.
In part because of its wealth, Timbuktu also became a centre of Islamic learning and religion, boasting impressive schools and libraries that attracted scholars widely. The arts flourished, and as Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle relate in this fascinating biography of the city, Timbuktu gained near-mythic stature around the world. Such strategic wealth and influence also attracted the attention of those who wanted to control the ancient city, which was invaded by the Moroccan army of Moulay al-Mansur the Magnificent in 1591, seized back by Toureg nomads, and much later, in 1893, captured by the French. Timbuktu's long decline since then was exacerbated by a terribe earthquake, several epidemics, and numerous famines. Perhaps no other city in history has been as golden - and as deeply tarnished - as Timbuktu.
Yet, faded as it is, and despite a long history of jihad in the region, Timbuktu itself has triumphantly foregone fanaticism to preach a tolerant version of Islam, even though that religious tolerance is again under attack. Poverty and attrition also threaten the city's survival, but sources as diverse as UNESCO, the Ford Foundation, and the South African government are helping preserve and translate Timbuktu's precious repository of ancient manuscripts and, in so doing, ensure its future.
Using sources dating deep into Timbuktu's fabled past, alongside contemporary interviews with cultural historian Abdel Kader Haidara and other residents and officials, de Villiers and Hirtle have produced a spectacular portrait of this epic city of gold."
