Timbuktu's famed manuscripts escaped al-Qaida but the threat remains

TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) — Thirteen years ago, Abdoulaye Cissé risked his life to smuggle tens of thousands of fragile manuscripts out of Timbuktu as al-Qaida -linked extremists swept into the desert town.

At night, he loaded crates of manuscripts from the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic Studies and Research onto donkey carts, aware that their pages carried evidence of his people’s glorious past. They were taken to the river, where wooden boats and then buses took them to Mali’s capital, Bamako — a 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) journey.

“It was dark, but we knew the route by heart,” said Cissé, the institute’s general secretary.

Moving the manuscripts took a month. The institute’s staff knew they risked their lives.

The 28,000 manuscripts returned safely to Timbuktu in August after a request from local leaders and civil society. It reflected both the city’s pride in cultural preservation and concerns about the potentially damaging humidity in Bamako. Mali’s government has portrayed it as a victory.

But al-Qaida remains a threat. Its fighters attacked Timbuktu as recently as June, and affiliated fighters with the JNIM group have imposed a fuel blockade on landlocked Mali, threatening to bring down the military regime.

Beyond the institute, which is owned by the government, Timbuktu is home to private libraries holding an estimated 377,000 manuscripts in total. All were smuggled to the capital, where they remain.

“What we find in these documents does not exist anywhere else in the world,” said Mohamed Diagayeté, director of the institute, who specializes in old manuscripts.

The trove contradicts assumptions that African history has been primarily oral. The manuscripts are an archive of dealings among West African empires and tribes, with histories dating back centuries.

A world comes to life on their pages. Letters between scholars and emirs debate whether tobacco was sin or solace, and outline demands by officials to shrink women’s dowries so poor men might marry.

Scribbled notes in the margins detail events that shaped history, like earthquakes that shook the region in the 15th century.

Timbuktu was once a center of Islamic learning, with scholars also coming to study mathematics, science, astrology and governance.

The manuscripts offer evidence that Islam in the region was long marked by tolerance and respect. One manuscript in a private library records a local decree warning men not to impose themselves on women, and granting women the right to seek justice if they do.

The brutality of al-Qaida’s arrival in 2012 was a shock. The militants destroyed more than 4,000 manuscripts, some dating back to the 13th century, according to the findings of a United Nations expert mission. They also destroyed the mausoleums of Timbuktu, which are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the city’s “sacred gate.”

Al-Qaida’s rampage was a wake-up call for protecting Timbuktu’s treasures.

Before the manuscripts were smuggled out of the city, only 20% of the institute’s manuscripts had been digitized, Cissé said. Now nearly all are digitized, and the archives are backed up on servers based elsewhere.

“Even if one server is damaged, we can still recover these manuscripts,” he said.

Archivists and librarians say challenges remain.

The manuscripts are still stored in aging mud-brick libraries, though staffers of the institute say their holdings are now in “a secure place.” They plan to install surveillance cameras inside.

Timbuktu’s history-loving residents try to balance protection with accessibility.

“As long as these manuscripts remain in trunks, they remain dead because people cannot enjoy them,” said Sane Chirfi Alpha, a founding member of a local nonprofit, SAVAMA-DCI, for their preservation.

For students like 24-year-old Baylaly Mahamane, the manuscripts offer fresh insights from traditional practices. One text describes doctors crushing white wormwood leaves to soothe the stomach, blending millet with mutton to stop vomiting, and packing swollen feet with clay and henna.

“I want to study the Timbuktu manuscripts on herbal medicine so that I can help doctors in Timbuktu hospitals treat patients who cannot obtain medication at home,” Mahamane said.

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An employee of the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic Studies and Research displays manuscripts at the exhibition hall in Timbuktu, Mali, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Baba Ahmed)

An employee displays a manuscript at the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic Studies and Research in Timbuktu, Mali, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Baba Ahmed)

Abdoulaye Cissé, Left, an employee of the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic Studies and Research, inspects crates containing manuscripts in Timbuktu, Mali, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Baba Ahmed)

Manuscript pages are being scan at the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic Studies and Research in Timbuktu, Mali, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Baba Ahmed)

An employee of the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic Studies and Research displays manuscripts at the exhibition hall in Timbuktu, Mali, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Baba Ahmed)

A federal law enforcement operation at an Arizona taco shop resulted in a fracas on Friday, with agents deploying pepper spray as a group of protesters tried to stop authorities.

Two agents were injured, and U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva was in the vicinity as protesters were sprayed. The Democratic congresswoman from Arizona took to social media, claiming she was sprayed in the face and accused immigration enforcement officers of operating without transparency or accountability.

“While I am fine, if that is the way they treat me, how are they treating other community members who do not have the same privileges and protections that I do?” she said in a statement.

It was less than a month ago that Grijalva was sworn in as the newest member of Congress. She won special election in September to fill the House seat last held by her late father.

In a video posted to social media, Grijalva said she, two members of her staff and members of the media were harassed and sprayed by agents during a federal immigration raid that local residents had interrupted “because they were afraid that they were taking people without due process, without any kind of notice.”

The video shows a man stepping in front of Grijalva, raising his arm and turning the congresswoman away as a federal agent sprays nearby protesters. Later in the video, as Grijalva continues walking in the street, a projectile is seen landing near her foot.

She said she did not know what substance she was sprayed with, but it was “still affecting” her with a cough.

Federal officials confirmed that Grijalva was not pepper sprayed and that agents with Homeland Security Investigations were targeting multiple Tucson restaurants as part of a years-long investigation into immigration and tax violations. Several search warrants were served across southern Arizona on Friday as part of the operation.

In a statement, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described the group gathered in Tucson as a mob. She said two agents were seriously injured during the clash and took issue with Grijalva's account of what happened.

“If her claims were true, this would be a medical marvel. But they’re not true. She wasn’t pepper sprayed. She was in the vicinity of someone who (asterisk)was(asterisk) pepper sprayed as they were obstructing and assaulting law enforcement,” McLaughlin wrote. “Presenting one’s self as a ‘Member of Congress’ doesn’t give you the right to obstruct law enforcement.”

Authorities used yellow tape to cordon off the restaurant and its parking lot as agents removed boxes from the building early Friday. By mid-morning, protesters had gathered outside with signs and whistles. Some in the group were hit with pepper spray as they tried to keep federal vehicles from leaving the area.

Tucson police said federal tactical agents responded to extract investigative special agents from the area where the protesters were gathered. After deploying chemical munitions, police said federal agents then requested emergency support from local authorities to help with exiting the area.

Grijalva thanked officers from the Tucson Police Department for “making sure everyone is safe” and stressed that the local officers had not interrupted traffic or harassed local residents. They did not make any arrests. “They were not the aggressors here,” she said.

The Arizona Democrat’s experience is the latest incident this year of members of Congress being stonewalled by or put in physical altercations with federal law enforcement officers while attempting to conduct congressional oversight. The incidents have typically involved congressional Democrats appearing at federal immigration facilities or at immigration raids.

U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, is in an ongoing legal dispute with the Trump administration after a May altercation at a Newark immigration facility in her district. And Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, was thrown to the ground and detained by federal agents in June after appearing at a press conference for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

FILE - Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)