In the 1980's a young archivist, Abdel Kader Haidare, jouneyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were crumbling in the trunks of pastoralists and farmers. His goal: to preserve this crucial part of the world's patrimony. But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door. The bad-ass librarians of Timbuktu tells the remarkeble true tale of how mild-manered Haidara became one of the world's most prolific smugglers, organizing a heroic heist to sneak all 350.000 manuscripst to the safety of southern Mali.
