Ambassadors of Peace

Knowledge from the Malian manuscripts (see last week's post) has been passed down from one generation to the next for centuries. If your parents (I would guess father) were scholars, you were expected to be a scholar. For almost a thousand years, Islamic scholars who reached the pinnacle of learning as "Ambassadors of Peace" sat daily before sunrise in an assembly called the "Circle of Knowledge," instructing devotees with lessons and insights derived from these ancient manuscripts. The path to "Ambassadorship" is incomprehensibly demanding. Before reaching the age of five, each student must become an apprentice and pledge to study under the tutelage of the same teacher. The apprenticeship is a process lasting thirty-five years. By the age of ten, students must be able to converse in several languages and must be able to recite the Koran from memory. Prior to turning forty, every apprentice must have mastered Islamic jurisprudence in addition to his own chosen field of study. At that point, each candidate goes out into the streets as a beggar, to instill humility. Then, if they demonstrate that they are totally devoted to God, they become " Ambassadors of Peace. "

Trade routes through Timbuktu

The remarkable story of the Malian manuscripts began with an insurgency led by jihadists that overthrew the relatively stable government of Mali in 2012. Various groups within the rebels fought each other to gain control. One group, the Ansar Dine, bulldozed World Heritage Sites in Timbuktu, including the grave sites of Sufi saints. Timbuktu is known as the City of 333 Saints, for the Sufi Saints buried there. Sufism is a branch of Islam noted for its commitment to peaceful resolution of conflict. 

Eventually, France ordered the Foreign Legion to enter Mali and restore order. In retaliation for France's intervention, Ansar Dine destroyed 4,000 of Mali's ancient manuscripts in a blaze of fire.  The wanton destruction of these irreplaceable documents was a devastating blow.

Approximately 80,000 ancient manuscripts were reportedly housed in Timbuktu's official libraries, of which 20,000 had been catalogued. Many manuscripts are in private collections or have not yet been discovered, Abdel Kader Haidara, a  librarian featured in the film "333," devised a plan to save Timbuktu's remaining manuscripts mand raised roughly $1 million from the Ford Foundation, the German and Dutch governments, and an Islamic center in Dubai to collect and preserve them. Haidara bribed the insurgents, and with donkeys, boats and human haulers, smuggled as many as three-hundred-fifty-thousand manuscripts out of Timbuktu and into Bamako, the capital of Mali. But since then, Bamako's humidity has done more damage to these precious tomes than the Sahara's scorching sun had wreaked over the last 800 years.

Nearly 500,000 Malians were displaced from their homeland during the civil war. However, the Malians followed the ancient teachings set out in their historic manuscripts and applied Mali's centuries-old tradition of peacefully resolving conflict through dialogue to end the fighting. On Saturday, June 20, 2015, the various parties gathered at last, to sign a peace accord to end the years of fighting between them. A poignant example that Islam can be a religion of peace and understanding and not just one of violent jihad.

To see Sabatier Film Group's fascinating " 333 " trailer about the manuscripts and "Ambassadors of Peace", visit: http://www.SabatierFilmGroup.com.

Mali Manuscripts - Huffington Post