This is an amazing story. People risked their lives to save these manuscripts. Read it.

The Brazen Bibliophiles of Timbuktu: How a team of sneaky librarians duped Al Qaeda

Over the summer, the Islamists became brasher and more destructive. They began a campaign of assault on the city’s most cherished religious sites, its mausoleums of Sufi saints. In July, the militants knocked down the doors of the fifteenth-century Sidi Yahia Mosque, doors that were meant to stay closed until the last day of the world. Then, in September, Haidara began to receive panicked calls from Timbuktu. The Islamists were breaking into private homes, particularly those of the city’s oldest families, and stealing anything that they could sell on the black market. For the moment, they were focused on flat-screen televisions, stereos, and computers, but Haidara knew eventually they would begin searching the houses more carefully. It was time for the manuscripts to leave Timbuktu altogether.