Timbuktu, Lost City
At NPR, Peter Chilson writes about the tumultuous history of Timbuktu, Mali. In the last few weeks, the Islamist rebel group, Ansar Dine, began methodically “destroying ancient tombs and mosques,” which were built to honor Sufi saints, because Ansar Dine believes that venerating saints is un-Islamic, reports Chilson. “And yet,” writes Chilson, “across the spread of 1,000 years of history, this is nothing new in Timbuktu, which has been occupied and sacked by numerous armies, from the Tuaregs to the Songhai to the Arabs, from the Moors to the French.”