With foreheads pressed against the outer wall of the great mosque of Djingarey-Ber, celebrants of Mawlid* pray for their hopes in the coming year (left-hand image).  Just after sunrise, in particular on Fridays, the men of Timbuktu visit the town’s cemeteries to perform the Ziyarat, devotions at the tombs of their ancestors and the 333 saints of Timbuktu (right-hand image). Islam in Timbuktu is highly influenced by Sufism, in particular the At-Tijaniyya and Al-Qadiriyya branches.  Sufi mysticism has had a profound effect on traditional scholarship as well as on traditional religious observances such as the Ziyarat and the Mawlid celebrations.

* The celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birth

A student at the majlis* of Sheik Moulay Ahmed places the text that has been studied that morning over his heart, eyes, and head to draw the words’ powerful baraka, or benediction, into himself (left-hand image).  The shrine to Muhammad Baghayogho Al-Wangari, a scholar of the 16th century and one of the 333 saints of Timbuktu, sits in a corner of the newly built Al-Wangari manuscript library.  This private, family library houses the remains of the personal manuscript collection of Baghayogho and his descendants (right-hand image).  In Timbuktu, as elsewhere, the Islamic faith is marked by a deep reverence for the written word and for learning.  This reverence is manifest in the belief in a text’s baraka and the belief that all 333 of the town’s saints were men of knowledge, either by long study or by divine inspiration.

* A gathering where advanced students meet with their teacher

Alpha Abdoulaye (R) corrects and comments on the text read by his student Soumaïla Baba (L) during a morning lesson (left-hand image).  At 5:30 am, during the majlis of Sheik Moulay Ahmed, Mahamane Mahamoudou (center R), also know as Hamou, reads the Hadith* in Arabic and Imam Sidi Lamine (center L) comments on the text in Songhay, one of the local African languages (right-hand image).  Advanced learning, under the traditional pedagogy, includes both individual and group study with a master scholar during which the text is read by a student and then corrected and interpreted by the teacher. When Timbuktu was at its height as a center of learning, advanced subjects included medicine, astronomy, and physics.  Nowadays theology, Islamic law, history, Arabic literature, grammar, poetry, and the study of the Qur’an and Hadith are still taught.

* The Hadith are stories about the words and actions of the Prophet

An older student at Moussa Almaruloud’s Qur’anic school tests the younger students on their knowledge of the Arabic alphabet by writing the letters out in the sand for them to identify (left-hand image).  A student recites a passage of the Qur’an, copied onto his wooden slate, to his marabout* Moussa Almaruloud.  Once the student can both write and recite the passage perfectly, he can wash the charcoal-based ink off the slate and start on a new Qur’anic passage (right-hand image). Qur’anic school is the elementary level in the system of traditional education where students learn to write and read the Arabic alphabet by copying and memorizing passages of the Qur’an.  Before French colonization, Arabic was the language of literacy in Timbuktu, even though it was rarely used as a spoken language.

* A teacher and man of religious knowledge

Baba Wangara hand embroiders a traditional boubou*.  Embroidery, along with sewing, shoemaking, metalwork, carpentry and masonry, is among the most important traditional trades of Timbuktu (left-hand image). Toddlers play quietly in Baba Djitteye’s hand embroidery workshop.  The children are too young to learn embroidery, but their time in the studio serves both as day care and as a means to teach them calm, quiet and patience at an early age (right-hand image). Traditionally a well-educated young man would not only attend Qur’anic school but would also learn a trade. With the French colonization a third element was added to the equation: the French or Franco-Arabic state schools.  By attending to all three elements of his education a young man received his religious, civic and practical education, and he was prepared to earn a living in whichever of these fields his aptitude and family background destined for him.

* A full-length gown worn by men, especially for festive and religious occasions -- The most valuable traditional boubous may take many months to fully embroider with esoteric protective symbols, based on designs which have been handed down for centuries.

Girls gossip together during a break in their Qur’anic school lessons with the marabout Soumaïla Baba (left-hand image).  A young girl watches a group of men chant the Mawlid recitations outside the mosque of Sidi Yahia (right-hand image).  Most girls attend Qur’anic school along with the boys, but few continue as far in the traditional system as in the state French schools.  In both systems, girls tend to drop out sooner than boys, drawn away by their family roles, rather than to religious, political or commercial leadership. While boys learn a trade in the traditional system of education, girls learn how to run a house and family.  Nonetheless, some have continued far in the traditional system, and women marabouts have run their own Qur’anic schools in the past.

Groups of women gather together to recite hymns in praise of the Prophet Muhammad on the night of the Mawlid celebreations (both image).  Traditionally groups of men, whose membership is determined by long-established kinship and ethnic ties, gather at established spaces in the town to recite poems in praise of the Prophet.  Since 2004, the Timbuktu branch of the National Union for Muslim Women’s Association received the blessing of the town’s religious leaders to hold women’s public recitations as well.

A mural in the disco La Paillotte reads, “to live better in our times, close your eyes, yours mouth and your ears” (left-hand image).  Two women study Arabic with Muhammad Hatim in the evening.  Although they are often illiterate in French and Songhay, the two main spoken languages in town, despite poverty and heavy family responsibilities, they take the time to learn Arabic as a way to more directly access their religion (right-hand image).  Mali won independence from France in 1960 and elected its first democratic government in 1992.  The 21st century only brings more changes and outside influences to a land that was the seat of African empires reaching back to the 11th century.  Some of these influences have brought a more conservative religiosity while others bring tourists, Brazilian soap operas, and a newly active nightlife.

Two young men show the extremes of modern dress in the village of Kirshamba, a small town in the region of Timbuktu.  The man on the left is dressed in a stylish, but conservative suit, usually used during Friday prayers or by religious teachers and students.  While conservative, this style is modern, not traditional dress.  His friend is decked out in the latest American gagster rap imports (left-hand image).  A vendor at Kabara, Timbuktu’s port, sells playing cards that pander to exotic fantasies (right-hand image).  An uneasy balance now exists between tradition and change.  It is as yet uncertain how these forces may destroy, transform or coexist with each other.

Out without a turban, young men protect themselves from the summer wind and sand storms by covering their heads with hats and shirts (both images).  Timbuktu sits on the southern fringe of the Sahara desert and hosts one of the harshest climates in the world, with daily temperatures averaging above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  In the summer months, storms that color the sky red and scour the town with dust and sand can occur daily.

Students at an itinerant Qur’anic school have left their prayer mats and wooden slates, aside while going out to beg for their breakfast (left-hand image).  Banzoumana Traore (L) and Hamidou Ongoiba digitize manuscripts in the collection of the Mamma Haidara Library in a new, high-tech digital lab donated by Northwestern University and Aluka.  Both men work for Savamba-Dci, a Malian non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to preserving the manuscripts of Timbuktu and the Islamic culture that surrounds them (right-hand image).  While young students copy passages of the Qur’an on wooden slates in order memorize their lessons, older students used to recopy entire manuscripts, both to help in their study and to provide a new copy of a text for themselves. Now photocopying, scanning and digital photography are used both for modern scholarship and to create duplicates of delicate texts that are in danger of disintegration.

Imam Shafa holds out some of the disintegrating manuscripts in the library of his father, Checkna Borkere (left-hand image).  Djibril Doucoure, head librarian at the Ahmed Baba Center (CEDRAB) for thirty years, poses in front of the library’s modern book collection.  CEDRAB, is the government-run manuscript library of Timbuktu where over 20,000 volumes have been collected for preservation from family libraries throughout Mali (right-hand image).  Over the last eight years the Malian government and a handful of private individuals have been working with foreign donors to properly house, catalogue and restore the over 100,000 ancient manuscripts in Timbuktu, but many still remain in old suitcases, battered trunks, and even underground, in danger of floods, pests, mold and fire.  Many families, like Imam Shafa’s, hesitate to turn a treasured intellectual legacy over to a government institution like CEDRAB.

Two students refer to a modern, printed Arabic book during a lesson at Mahamane Mahamoudou’s majlis (left-hand image). Abdoul Wahid Abdarahim shows a Qur’an that is two centuries old from his family’s private library, the Muhammad Tahar library (right-hand image).  Even one generation ago, before machine-printed books became common, the students of Timbuktu studied directly from the ancient manuscripts, recopying them by hand when they wanted a book of their own.  Now students use machine-printed books for their lessons and the manuscripts are more and more secured within the domain of newly built private and government libraries.

Ousmane Garba Kounta holds out an information panel he has created for one of the private manuscript libraries in the shape of a Qur’anic school student’s wooden slate.  He has been trained in modern artistic techniques in Senegal but uses his skills to create work influenced by Timbuktu’s ancient crafts (left-hand image).  Sidiki Najim creates paintings for the tourist market based on designs found in Timbuktu’s manuscripts.  While trained as a traditional manuscript copyist, he uses modern materials and techniques in his work for the tourist market (right-hand image).  Inspired by Timbuktu’s rich artistic legacy, both artists struggle to revive it in forms acceptable to a modern market.

Abdoul Wahid Abdarahim shows pages from the Dala’il al-khayrat* a manuscript from his family’s library, the Muhammad Tahar library.  In the margins are written translations, commentaries, doubts on the accuracy of the text’s copy and information on the text (both images). Abdoul Wahid Abdarahim has raised money from his family and from private donations to construct a secure building in which to house the manuscripts, but his limited funds mean that work progresses slowly.  In the meantime, the texts are piled one on top of another in metal trunks in his mud-brick house.

* a collection of prayers for the Prophet Muhammad

A boatman takes a break to pray during a journey down the Niger River.  Situated at the northernmost curve of the Niger, Timbuktu was a key trading center where goods from sub-Saharan Africa and goods transported across the Sahara Desert by caravan could be exchanged (left-hand image).  A group of scholars and imams take a break from translating a text in the Fondo Kati Library to pray surrounded by the collection of ancient manuscripts.  They are translating the Fondo Kati family history that is written in the margins of the library’s manuscripts (right-hand image).  The Muslim religion and West African Islamic culture permeate both daily and scholarly life in Timbuktu.

A Qur’anic school teacher’s prayer mat holds his prayer beads, books, cell phone and school fees (left-hand image). Soumaïla Baba completes one of his five daily prayers.  He is an itinerant marabout who works as the teacher and guardian of his two nephews while at the same time pursuing his own higher studies with older teachers (right-hand image).  Although Soumaïla Baba has not actively joined one of the Sufi brotherhoods, like many ordinary Sunni Muslims in Timbuktu he uses prayer beads – which are characteristic of Sufism – and recites special prayers handed down in his family.  West African Sufism and Islamic scholarship have greatly influenced each other over the centuries.  Indeed, many of the most famous scholars in the region’s history, such as Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti, were Sufi mystics.

Mahamane Mahamoudou (L), also known as Hamou, teaches a group of students, including the itinerant marabout Younoussa Ahamadou Djaroumba (C).  Hamou is one of the most active teachers in Timbuktu’s traditional system of education and was educated himself almost exclusively in the traditional system.  He works as a censor of Friday sermons; he supervises the Arabic curriculum in the state and private schools; he has extensively studied the ancient manuscripts, speaks French fluently, publishes his own work in Arabic and is a master calligrapher (left-hand image). Younoussa Ahamadou Djaroumba poses with a group of his young students.  As an itinerant marabout, Younoussa travels with his students from town to town in search of greater economic opportunity and experienced teachers with whom he can study.  In his early twenties, he often feels the pull of what his religious calling has made him give up: wealth, motorcycles, fancy clothes, and girlfriends.  While he is dedicated to continuing his work as both a teacher and student of traditional Islamic learning, Younoussa does wear his hair longer than is strictly normal (right-hand image).

A student of the itinerant marabout Younoussa Ahamadou Djaroumba poses with his plastic bucket that he is on his way to fill, begging for his breakfast (left-hand image).  Girl students run out the door at the end of Qur’anic school lessons with the marabout Moussa Almaruloud.  These girls life with their families, attending Qur’anic school for only part of the day.  They run out to go home or to go on to classes at a médersa* or French school (right-hand image). Itinerant Qur’anic schools are one of the most controversial aspects of traditional Islamic education in Timbuktu.  Younoussa Ahamadou Djaroumba is responsible for the education of over fifteen boys from his native village who live and study with him.  Part of each day the students will beg for their meals.  This system was instituted by al-Hajj ‘Umar Tall, the king of the 19th century Toucouleur Empire, as a means of universal education because it forced the entire community to support the students.  At 30,000 people, Timbuktu is still a small enough town that family and community ties link the itinerant students to their home villages.  As a result they are often “begging” for their meal at the home of an uncle or cousin.  However, there is no doubt that in larger urban centers and, in particular, in times of medical and other crisis, the itinerant students are at the mercy of exploitation and neglect.

* modern Arabic-based education with a Western curriculum and pedagogy

The interiors of Timbuktu’s traditional mud and brick town houses provide a secluded and cool break from sandy streets and desert heat (both images). Traditional Islamic scholarship in Timbuktu may date from before the 13th century, however in the 20th century the tradition has been significantly weakened by French colonization, by droughts and by civil war and regional unrest since the early 1990s.  Many religious leaders also blame the decline on the trappings of modernity, which is changing the community’s values and degrading traditional life.  Nonetheless, scholars who have followed the path of traditional scholarship emphasize that their learning never ends.  They continue to learn and to teach with little government or non-profit support, determined to preserve a tradition that permeates every aspect of community life.

These photographs result from in-depth research into the history and culture of Timbuktu as well as hours of interviews with imams, sheiks, marabouts and other town leaders.  This solid intellectual underpinning is an important part of my artistic philosophy.  Through photography, reality can be twisted to speak to an infinite number of “truths” reflecting divergent perspectives. The research is an essential step allowing me to know precisely what I am trying to say about my subject.

As a photographer who often works in the developing world and on under-represented issues, I may be categorized as a “concerned photographer.”  My concern, however, is not to change the world.  It is, rather, to open doors between cultures and individuals through photography and, in so doing, to enable them to decide how and if they want to change their worlds.

Special Thanks: Savamba-Dci and Fondo Kati