They demolished numerous mausoleums and burned more than 4,000 ancient manuscripts. However, a handful of courageous people risked their lives to rescue more than 300,000 manuscripts and hide them at secret locations, saving this unique cultural heritage from oblivion.
The Buddha statues in Afghanistan, the ruins of Nimrod, the temple at Palmyra: when Islamists take over, treasures of the world’s cultural heritage that do not fit into their religious-fundamentalist worldview come under grave threat. The jihadists’ attention-grabbing actions pervade the media and aim to destroy ancient identities and cultural commonalities. The famous manuscripts of the medieval university town of Timbuktu - testimony to a highly developed culture of scripture and Islamic-African learning - were in serious danger when Islamists occupied northern Mali. But some of Timbuktu’s residents were able to prevent the worst, bringing this world cultural heritage to safety in a historically unique operation supported by UNESCO. Our film ‘Monuments Men of Timbuktu’ combines the story behind the secret salvation of Timbuktu’s manuscripts with hitherto unreleased footage from the time of the jihadi occupation and documents the suffering of the people under Sharia law.
