The Timbuktu School for Nomads: Across the Sahara in the Shadow of Jihad - Hardcover

Jubber, Nicholas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1857886542 ISBN 13: 9781857886542

Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2016

Synopsis

The Sahara: a dream-like, far away landscape of Lawrence of Arabia and Wilfred Thesiger, The English Patient and Star Wars, and home to nomadic communities whose ways of life stretch back millennia. Today it's a teeth-janglingly dangerous destination, where the threat of jihadists lurks just over the horizon. Following in the footsteps of 16th century traveller Leo Africanus, Nicholas Jubber went on a turbulent adventure to the forgotten places of North Africa and the legendary Timbuktu.

Once the seat of African civilization and home to the richest man who ever lived, this mythic city is now scarred by terrorist occupation and is so remote its own inhabitants hail you with the greeting, 'Welcome to the middle of nowhere'.

From the cattle markets of the Atlas, across the Western Sahara and up the Niger river, Nicholas joins the camps of the Tuareg, Fulani, Berbers, and other communities, to learn about their craft, their values and their place in the world.

The Timbuktu School for Nomads is a unique look at a resilient city and how the nomads pit ancient ways of life against the challenges of the 21st century.

About this title

About the Author

Nicholas Jubber has travelled in the Middle East, Central Asia, North and East Africa and across Europe. Along the way, he has worked as a teacher, carpet-washer and even had a stint as a tannery assistant. He has written three previous books, The Timbuktu School for Nomads, The Prester Quest (winner of the Dolman Travel Book Award) and Drinking Arak off an Ayatollah's Beard (shortlisted for the Dolman Award). He has written for numerous publications, including the Guardian, Observer, Globe and Mail, Irish Times and BBC History.

From the Back Cover

'The Timbuktu School for Nomads is an abundantly energetic gold-mine of a book. Heaped with background information and with ideas and adventures, it stares right in the face of current events. It will remind us all to look with care at what is happening on the great sandscape of North Africa now. A work of inspiration and scholarship' Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph's House

'Nomadic cultures are still vibrantly alive, as the intrepid Nick Jubber shows us in North Africa. A wonderful travel adventure, and a defense of journeys without end' Richard Grant, author of Dispatches from Pluto

'The Timbuktu School for Nomads takes us on an unforgettable journey through time and space, plenty of it, and gives voice to voiceless communities that inhabit one of the most problematic corners of the globe' Amir Taheri, author of Holy Terror

'Captures the feel of these complex, dangerous and compelling places' Dr Jeremy Swift, author of The Sahara

From the Inside Flap

The Sahara: a dream-like, far away landscape of Lawrence of Arabia and Wilfred Thesiger, The English Patient and Star Wars, and home to nomadic communities whose ways of life stretch back millennia. Today it's a teeth-janglingly dangerous destination, where the threat of jihadists lurks just over the horizon. Following in the footsteps of 16th century traveller Leo Africanus, Nicholas Jubber went on a turbulent adventure to the forgotten places of North Africa and the legendary Timbuktu.

Once the seat of African civilization and home to the richest man who ever lived, this mythic city is now scarred by terrorist occupation and is so remote its own inhabitants hail you with the greeting, 'Welcome to the middle of nowhere'.

From the cattle markets of the Atlas, across the Western Sahara and up the Niger river, Nicholas joins the camps of the Tuareg, Fulani, Berbers and other communities, to learn about their craft, their values and their place in the world.

The Timbuktu School for Nomads is a unique look at a resilient city and how the nomads pit ancient ways of life against the challenges of the 21st century.

Edition details

• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857886542
• ISBN 13: 9781857886542
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336