Book Review: Writing Timbuktu

Shamil Jeppie, Writing Timbuktu: the book in West African history. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2026. ISBN: 9780691273853. 

Genre: history, books

Subgenre: African Studies

Format: hardback

Source: Hutchins Library, Berea College.  

 

This book is a history of books and scholarly book culture in West Africa. Though much of the focus is on Timbuktu, the author makes clear that other cities in the region were book centers as well. One important detail I learned is that printed books did not arrive in West Africa until the early 20th century. Books in this context are handwritten books. Written by hand, these books for the most part were unbound pages held together by leather covers. Even with the availability of print books today, this manuscript culture still survives and thrives. 

The book features an introduction, eight chapters, and an epilogue. It also includes notes and a bibliography. In addition it features a few illustrations that I found helpful to visualize the kinds of books the author discusses. 

Most of these books were written by religions, i.e. Muslim, scholars writing for other scholars. Topics include religious commentary, doctrine, and legal opinions. Along the way, the author also discusses the book culture and how these scholars were educated by scholars who came before them. They formed a healthy scholarly community. Many students were taught in person by a scholar, but we do get at least one case of a student learning via letter writing, an early case of a correspondence course. 

I appreciated that the author acknowledges limitations. If a detail is known, he explains how we know. If not, he acknowledges we just don't know at this time. Overall, what we do know he documents well and cites sources. 

The book as a whole is interesting, especially if you enjoy books about book culture. It is an academic book, so it can be a bit dry on the narrative here and there. The author does a good job of starting at Timbuktu then expanding into the region to the writers of today. I learned a part of book history that is not widely known. I do hope more people read it and learn too. 

This book is mainly for academic libraries, especially those with strong African studies programs and/or humanities and history. Some LIS programs may find it of interest. It may be a bit too esoteric for public libraries. 

In the end, I liked it. 

3 out of 5 stars.