Alyssa Banta Archivists at ... The air inside is stale, redolent of mildew and earth. "Regardez," he says. As my eyes adjust to the semidarkness, I take in the scene: cracked brown walls, rusting ...

This event spurred the great dispersal of the Timbuktu libraries. The re­maining collections were scattered among the families who owned them. Some were sealed inside the mud-brick walls of homes ...