My visit to the Chinguetti Library

In 2006 I went with my mom and aunt to Mauritania. While we were there we toured Chinguetti, the 7th holiest city in Islam. Chinguetty is a really nice little town. Mr Saif the Chinguetti librarian (or one of them) told us that there have actually been three Chinguettys. The first city of Chinguetty was built around 777 the second around 1267 the last was built around 1963.

Each city progressively gets covered with sand and the people move all their stuff out, knock out the windows and ceilings and write their family name on the inside walls so if the sands recede, then future generations can move back in. We learned this and more at Mr. Saif’s library in old Chinguetty. (as opposed to new Chinguetty which is being built because of encroaching dunes)

The town is falling apart but people still live there and there are 15-20 collections of ancient books and manuscripts stored there by several families. Mr. Saif started the tour with the traditional Mauritanian greeting. I screwed up the greeting but Aunti said it correctly. Then Mr Saif went over the architecture, the history of the architecture and the history of the town.

He displayed some ancient relics. Bone jacks (a game and not human bones –sheep knuckles I believe) bowls, stone cylinders, ancient stone axes etc Then he showed us an ancient key and showed us how it works and in order to view the library we each had to open the library door with the ancient key. The key was wood with metal spikes and looked for all the world like a giants toothbrush.

I went first and had it open in about 60 seconds then mom went, she had trouble with it so I tried to help but now neither she nor I could open it. We finally got it open and Mr. saif showed us his collection.

It was amazing to see these old books from the 17^th to 18^th century out in the middle of nowhere in a town that is a ruin but here they were and except for the few that had been eaten by termites they were magnificent. Mr. Saif showed us the old writing implements and the ingredients used to make the ink. And even the wooden board used to practice the Koran.

The tour was great and he ended it by reading from an ancient book of poetry.

I love the way he rolls the r’s, he sounds like a space kat. Then we all wrote in his tour book and scott translated for him what we wrote.

I wish there was a way to either save or record these ancient books for posterity before they are lost to the desert or to termites and time.