On the edge of the vast Sahara desert, citizens snuck out of the city of Timbuktu and took to the wilderness. They buried chests in the desert sand, hid them in caves, and sealed them in secret rooms. Inside these chests was a treasure more valuable than gold: the city’s ancient books.
在浩瀚撒哈拉沙漠的邊緣, 市民悄悄溜出廷巴克圖市, 跑到荒野去。 他們把箱子埋在沙漠的 沙子裡,藏在洞穴中, 封在秘室裡。 箱子裡裝的是比黃金 還要有價值的寶藏: 該市的古書。
Founded around 1100 CE in what is now Mali, the city of Timbuktu started out as an unremarkable trading post. But its unique location soon changed that. Timbuktu marked the intersection of two essential trade routes, where caravans bringing salt across the Sahara met with traders bringing gold from the African interior. By the late 1300s, these trade routes made Timbuktu rich, and the city’s rulers, the kings of the Mali Empire, built monuments and academies that drew scholars from Egypt, Spain, and Morocco.
廷巴克圖市也就是現在的馬利, 在公元 1100 成立, 最初只是個平凡的貿易站。 但它獨特的位置很快就造成了改變。 廷巴克圖是兩條主要 貿易路線的交會點, 商隊會帶著鹽巴 穿過撒哈拉沙漠到那裡, 會見來自非洲內陸帶著黃金的商人。 到了 1300 年代末,這些 貿易路線讓廷巴克圖變富有, 而該城市的統治者, 馬利帝國的國王, 建造了紀念館和學院來吸引來自 埃及、西班牙,及摩洛哥的學者。
The city’s prime location also made it a target for warlords and conquerors. As the Mali Empire declined, one of its domains, Songhai, began to gain power. In 1468, the Songhai king conquered Timbuktu, burning buildings and murdering scholars.
該城市的絕佳位置也讓它 成為軍閥和征服者的目標。 當馬利帝國衰落時, 它的領土之一,桑海, 開始取得權勢。 1468 年,桑海國王征服了廷巴克圖, 將建築燒毀,將學者殺害。
But in time, intellectual life in the city flourished again. The reign of the second king of the Songhai Empire, Askia Mohammed Toure, marked the beginning of a golden age in Timbuktu. He reversed his predecessor’s regressive policies and encouraged learning.
但,最終,該城市的知識生活 又再次興旺起來。 桑海帝國第二任國王 阿斯基亞穆罕默德一世在位期間, 是廷巴克圖黃金時期的開端。 他反轉了前人會造成退步的政策, 並鼓勵學習。
The Songhai rulers and most of Timbuktu’s population were Muslim, and the scholars of Timbuktu studied Islam alongside secular topics like mathematics and philosophy. In the libraries of Timbuktu, tracts of Greek philosophy stood alongside the writings of local historians, scientists, and poets. The city’s most prominent scholar, Ahmed Baba, challenged prevailing opinions on subjects ranging from smoking to slavery.
桑海的統治者和大部分 廷巴克圖人民是穆斯林, 廷巴克圖的學者會研究伊斯蘭教, 以及非宗教的主題,如數學和哲學。 在廷巴克圖的圖書館中, 有大量的希臘哲學和當地歷史學家、 科學家,及詩人的著作放在一起。 該城市中最著名的學者艾哈邁德巴巴 會去挑戰主流的意見, 主題從抽菸到奴役都有。
Gold and salt trade had funded the city’s transformation into a center of learning. Now, the products of that intellectual culture became the most sought-after commodity. With paper from faraway Venice and vibrant ink from local plants and minerals, the scribes of Timbuktu produced texts in both Arabic and local languages. Written in calligraphy and decorated with intricate geometric designs, the books of Timbuktu were in demand among the wealthiest members of society.
黃金和鹽巴的貿易 讓該城市有資金 可以轉型成為學習中心。 那知識文化的產物 成了最受歡迎的商品。 用來自遙遠威尼斯的紙張 以及用當地植物 和礦物製成的鮮明墨水, 廷巴克圖的抄寫員會用阿拉伯文 及當地語言來抄寫文本。 廷巴克圖的書籍都是用書法撰寫, 並加上複雜的幾何設計, 讓社會上最富有的人都想要取得。
In 1591, the golden age came to an abrupt end when the Moroccan king captured Timbuktu. Moroccan forces imprisoned Ahmed Baba and other prominent scholars and confiscated their libraries. In the centuries that followed, the city weathered a succession of conquests. In the mid-1800s, Sufi Jihadists occupied Timbuktu and destroyed many non-religious manuscripts. 1894, French colonial forces seized control of the city, stealing even more manuscripts and sending them to Europe. French became the official language taught in schools, and new generations in Timbuktu couldn’t read the Arabic manuscripts that remained.
1591 年,黃金時代突然告終, 摩洛哥國王佔據了廷巴克圖, 摩洛哥軍隊囚禁了艾哈邁德巴巴 及其他知名學者, 並沒收了他們的圖書館。 在接下來的幾個世紀, 該城市度過了一連串的征戰。 1800 年代中期,蘇菲的聖戰士 佔據了廷巴克圖,並摧毀了 許多非宗教的手稿。 1894 年, 法國殖民軍隊控制了該城市, 偷走了更多手稿,並送回到歐洲。 法語成為學校教授的官方語言, 廷巴克圖的新世代 無法閱讀剩下的阿拉伯文手稿。
Through it all, the literary tradition of Timbuktu didn’t die— it went underground. Some families built secret libraries in their homes, or buried the books in their gardens. Others stashed them in abandoned caves or holes in the desert. The priceless manuscripts of Timbuktu dispersed to villages throughout the surrounding area, where regular citizens guarded them for hundreds of years. As desertification and war impoverished the region, families held on to the ancient books even as they faced desperate poverty and near-starvation.
經過這一切,廷巴克圖的 文學傳統並沒有滅亡—— 而是躲到地下。 有些家庭在家中建造了 隱藏式的圖書館, 或者把書籍埋藏在花園裡。 也有人把書籍藏匿到 廢棄的洞穴或沙漠的空洞裡。 廷巴克圖的無價手稿 分散到周圍地區各地的村落裡, 在那些地方,平民百姓 守護著這些書籍長達數百年。 隨著沙漠化和戰爭 讓該區域變得十分貧窮, 那些家庭即使在極度貧窮 且幾乎無法溫飽的情況下 仍然守著古書。
Even today, the struggle to protect the books continues. From the 1980s to the early 2000s, Timbuktu scholar Abdel Kader Haidara painstakingly retrieved hidden manuscripts from all over northern Mali and brought them back to Timbuktu. But in 2012, civil war in Mali once again threatened the manuscripts, most of which were evacuated to nearby Bamako. Their future remains uncertain, as they face both human and environmental threats. These books represent our best— and often only— sources on the pre-colonial history of the region. Many of them have never been read by modern scholars, and still more remain lost or hidden in the desert. At stake in the efforts to protect them is the history they contain— and the efforts of countless generations to protect that history from being lost.
甚至到現今,保護古老 書籍的努力仍然持續著。 從 1980 年代到 2000 年代初期, 廷巴克圖學者阿巴杜卡德海德拉 辛苦地從馬利北部各地 取回藏匿的手稿, 帶回廷巴克圖。 但,2012 年,馬利的內戰 再次威脅到這些手稿。 大部分的手稿被撤到鄰近的巴馬科。 它們的未來仍然充滿不確定, 因為它們既要面對人類威脅 也要面臨環境威脅。 若要了解該地區在殖民前的歷史, 這些書籍是我們最好的—— 通常也是唯一的——來源。 這些書籍中有很多 還沒被現代學者讀過, 還有更多遺失或藏匿在沙漠中。 盡力保護這些書籍, 是要守住書中的歷史—— 以及無數個世代為了不讓 那歷史失傳所做出的努力。