Hwar AlMadar: Centers of the Islamic World: From Timbuktu to Cairo

Dr. Mohamed Diagayeté is a renowned researcher and professor specializing in Islamic literature and manuscripts. He holds an Advanced Studies Certificate in Islamic Civilization (2001) and a PhD in Islamic Sciences (2007). He currently serves as a professor and Manuscript Department Head at the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research in Timbuktu, Mali.  

Dr. Mohamed Al-Kadi, born in 1979 in Tendbi, Gao Region (Mali), is a researcher and university professor specializing in Arabic literature and manuscripts. He holds a PhD in Literature and Civilization (2024), a Master’s in Arabic Literature (2019), and a Bachelor’s degree in Arabic Language and Islamic Studies (2004). He has been a university professor at the Ahmad Baba Institute since 2019, and the curator of the institute’s manuscript department since 2013. He was also a researcher and cataloger at the institute from 2005 to 2020. 

Amira Hemaya is a curator at the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, she also leads the museum’s international cooperation department, fostering global collaborations to promote and preserve Islamic heritage. She studied Islamic monuments at Ain Shams University, graduating in 2005, and later earned a Master’s in Heritage Conservation from Helwan University. Her career started as an Islamic monuments inspector in the Al-Azhar and Al-Ghouri Monuments Area, where she assessed and conserved historic sites. 

Hala Abuzeid is a cultural consultant, and independent curator, specializing in museums development, community-driven cultural programs, with a strong passion for heritage preservation. She is the founder of Takleelah, a research and design studio dedicated to documenting elements of intangible cultural heritage, with a focus on photo documentation and oral narratives of Jeddah and the Western region of Saudi Arabia. Through Takleelah, she aims to build an accessible archive to preserve the memory of place. 

The Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research - Timbuktu, one of the oldest heritage-focused institutions in West Africa, is dedicated to preserving African and Islamic cultural heritage and advancing scientific research. It is named for Ahmed Baba (AH 963-1036/1556-1627 CE), an eminent scholar of Timbuktu. Founded in Timbuktu in AH 1392/1973 CE by the government of Mali, the institute has amassed approximately 43,000 historical manuscripts from all over Mali and from neighboring Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Niger, and Algeria. To ensure global access to these materials, digitization efforts began in AH 1424/2003 CE, but temporarily halted during the Northern Mali Crisis in AH 1433/2012 CE, when the manuscripts were safely relocated to Bamako.

From the 6th to 11th centuries AH/12th to 17th centuries CE, the historic town of Timbuktu served as a major nexus for trade and intellectual pursuits in West Africa. Books were imported from North Africa and beyond, while local scholars wrote works on astronomy, medicine, mathematics, literature, law, and the Islamic sciences. The Ahmed Baba Institute is dedicated to preserving this heritage by collecting and protecting historical manuscripts and documents, while conducting scientific research and providing financial and technical support to researchers and students. The institute also organizes seminars, conferences, and lectures, provides training in cultural heritage, publishes books and scientific journals, and offers advanced academic programs in Islamic and African studies.

Having participated in the inaugural Islamic Art Biennale, the Ahmed Baba Institute returns to AlMadar with rare Malian manuscripts focusing on the theme of astronomy. 

The Museum of Islamic Art, located in Bab AlKhalaq in the heart of Historic Cairo, is considered to be the largest Islamic Art museum in the world, as it houses close to a hundred thousand antique Islamic artifacts of various types collected from India, China, Iran, all the way to the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Egypt, North Africa and Andalusia. This collection is characterised by its breadth of coverage of all the branches of Islamic Art throughout the ages, which makes it a beacon of Islamic Art and Civilization for all times.