Extremists Shatter Historic Shrines in Timbuktu

Islamic militants are decimating historic sites in Mali’s ancient city of Timbuktu. .

In recent days, extremists reportedly destroyed the tombs of local saints and used pick-axes to break down the door of a 15th century mosque where other saints are buried.

The attackers belong to the Ansar Dine group — which is thought to have links to al-Qadea. The militants say the locals’ reverence for the saints contravenes Islamaic law.

Shamil Jeppie leads the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

He says, “the destruction of the burial places of these saints is immensely offensive to the locals. Any authority that imagines it will have any legitimacy over the short term, or the long term, would not do such a thing.”

Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC world service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. Islamic militants are taking aim at historic sites in the west African nation of Mali. The militants are reportedly destroying the tombs of local saints in the ancient city of Timbuktu. They’ve used pic axes to break down the of a 15th century mosque where some of the saints where buried. The attackers belong to the Ansar Dine group which is thought to have links to al-Qadea. Shamil Jeppie heads the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He’s visited the shrines in Timbuktu many times.

Shamil Jeppie: The destruction of the burial places of these saints is immensely offensive to the locals. I mean any authority that imagines it will have any legitimacy over the long term or short term would not do such a thing.

Werman: There was this one mosque, the 15th century Sidi Yahia mosque where the door was actually smashed and the militants of Ansar Dine came with pick axes crying “Allah” and broke down the door. Some of the people watching began to cry. Why does this door evoke such strong feelings?

Jeppie: I’ve been to Sidi Yahia mosque a number of times and I knew the Imam of the mosque quite well, a pleasant old man who died some years ago. I still know his family. The imam of the mosque at the time was the first keeper of the Ahmed Baba library manuscript which is now the major repository of manuscripts in Timbuktu. Apparently there is a door that was left closed and that would be left closed until the end of time. You may or may not believe this or accept this as Muslim as part of Islam or not but it is a completely different thing to then proceed against the will of the people to its destruction.

Werman: And why do these militant Islamists want to destroy these shrines?

Jeppie: From their theological perspective it is the most heinous to make a partner with Allah or with God and they believe that these sites are not merely sites of commemoration and of spiritual participation in the presence of a holy person but that people are actually going there to worship these things.

Werman: Shamil, how used to Timbuktu to this kind of destructive behavior? I know they’ve been under the thumb of Ansar Dine since March but will the people now turn Ansar Dine because they went to far with this destruction?

Jeppie: Look, Timbuktu has had an interesting history but we don’t have any evidence of such destruction, even in those periods of anarchy when there was no central power. The question is what is the capital Banako, and the civil and military authorities going to do.

Werman: Let me just ask you about UNESCO. They’re very concerned right now about Timbuktu. It’s a world heritage site. What sort of artifacts and manuscripts might be endangered at this very moment?

Jeppie: Well, you know, the whole town is considered a world heritage site. There are three mosques, mud brick mosques. These are quite amazing structures and they have to be [reenforced] annually and there are festivals. So it’s an important thing. Then of course Timbuktu has tens of thousands of manuscripts written in the Arabic script but also in local African languages. There are at least 24 libraries in and around Timbuktu and many of the library owners have left and rushed out of town. They’ve locked up the items. The danger is that these items are going to wither away, they’re going to disappear, they may be stolen.

Werman: Shamil, if there were on thing you could rush in and save, one manuscript, what would it be?

Jeppie: I’ve always been fascinated by a couple of manuscripts that I’ve been shown but we’ve never been able to handle and that is reported to be the first quran from Timbuktu. We have to take this at face value but it is said to be a 13th century text. And there are other beautiful manuscripts but they are in such precarious condition. I mean they can’t be lifted up at all. They will just disintegrate. It’s all in a worrying state at the moment.

Werman: Dr. Shamil Jeppie, the team leader of Timbuktu Manuscripts Project at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, speaking with us about Timbuktu and the current troubles there. Thank you very much, Dr. Jeppie.

Jeppie: Thank you so much.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.