Exhibition of Islamic Manuscripts of West Africa

For centuries, a manuscript tradition across the western Sahara has kept alive unique currents of Islamic thought, science, piety and devotion. This exhibition offers a rare close look at highlights from the famous manuscripts of Timbuktu, focusing on one theme within them: Sufi thought and practice.

Schedule:
18:30 - Introductory talk on the history and contents of the manuscripts by the Chief Conservator of the Ahmed Baba Institute, Timbuktu
18:45-20:00 - Exhibition viewing

In 2012, thousands of manuscripts were deliberately burned when Timbuktu was occupied by terrorists, one of this century's worst acts of cultural vandalism. Less well known is that for every manuscript destroyed, a hundred survived, protected by families who have cared for them for generations and rarely seen by outsiders.

The Ahmed Baba Institute, founded in 1973 by the Malian government with UNESCO support and named after the 16th-century Timbuktu scholar Ahmed Baba, holds tens of thousands of manuscripts on medicine, astronomy, mathematics, law and history, in Arabic and local African languages.

Venue: Ebrahim College, 399-401 High Street, Stratford, London E15 4QZ

Organised by Islamic Courses, with the support of Ebrahim College, as part of the Muslim Litfest 2026

This event is sponsored by Beacon Books
Publishing classic and contemporary books since 2012
www.beaconbooks.net