Mali is a north African country. Timbuktu, a city in Mali  is a very famous city in history. It was the center of learning from 13th to the 17th century.

Islamic militants took control of Timbuktu  last year,  and the whole of Mali had been at a state of unrest since then.

Recently these militants were driven out by the french led forces. In retaliation, they were reported to have put on fire the ancient manuscripts locked at Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu. Some of the ancient notes were possible ten decades old.

However, there is good news now that most of the manuscripts are  safe, as they were moved long before the events of the past two weeks. People in Timbuktu have been protecting these manuscripts for a long time now. Thanks to the digital world, most of these scripts have been digitized and saved.