Hide the manuscripts or share them?
In Timbuktu families inherited precious manuscripts in law, medicine and the stars. With fear of raiders and decay the decision: hide them in chests to protect them, or open them to students and copyists so they live?
The positions
the manuscript keepers
a ruined manuscript is never copied; safekeeping first
The evidence
they buried their chests in wall hollows and sand at danger
Sources: place/timbuktu
the teachers and copyists
a kept book unread is dead; copying is life
The evidence
they taught and copied until the texts multiplied in every student's hand
Sources: place/timbuktuexhibit/pathway-g11-chw3m-baghdad-and-the-silk-roads
You decide
If you held a single manuscript, would you keep it or spread it? Write your reason.
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