The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu: The Quest for this Storied City and the Race to Save Its Treasures

Copyright

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2017

Copyright © 2017 by Charlie English

Maps by Meighan Cavanaugh

Frontispiece: Nineteenth-century drawing of Timbuktu, based on a description by the French explorer René Caillié

Charlie English asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

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Source ISBN: 9780008126650

Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008126643

Version: 2018-05-01

Dedication

For Lucy

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Maps

Prologue: A Man of Enterprise and Genius

PART ONE: OCCUPATION

1. A Seeker of Manuscripts

2. A Wide Extended Blank

3. Hell Is Not Far Away

4. The Fourth Traveller

5. Al-Qaeda to the Rescue

6. It Shall Be Mine

7. Ismael’s List

PART TWO: DESTRUCTION

8. The Armchair Explorer

9. A Headless Horseman

10. The Pope of Timbuktu

11. Secret Agents

PART THREE: LIBERATION

12. Lives of the Scholars

13. The Terrible Twosome

14. King Leopold’s Paperweight

15. Auto-da-Fé

16. Chronicle of the Researcher

17. An Indiana Jones Moment in Real Life!

18. Manuscript Fever

19. The Myth Factory

Epilogue

Picture Section

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Photo Credits

About the Author

About the Publisher

Maps