Graziano Krätli is the International Digital Projects Librarian at Yale University. He has published articles and translations of American, British and Indian authors, travel literature, and the history of the book in non-Western societies.Ghislaine Lydon is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who specializes in the cultural and economic history of Western Africa and the Sahara.The contributors are Said Ennahid, Abdel Kader Haïdara, Bruce S. Hall, Graziano Krätli, Murray Last, Ghislaine Lydon, Stefan Reichmuth, Eric Ross, Judith Scheele, Charles C. Stewart, Houari Touati, and Terence Walz.

• Foreword – Houari TouatiChapter One: The Historic Geography of the Trans-Saharan Book Trade –Eric RossChapter Two: A Thirst for Knowledge: Arabic Literacy, Writing Paper and Saharan Bibliophiles in Southwestern Sahara – Ghislaine LydonChapter Three: The Paper Trade of Egypt and the Sudan in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries – Terence Walz Chapter Four: The Historic “Core Curriculum” and the Book Market in Islamic West Africa –Bruce S. Hall and Charles C. Stewart Chapter Five: The Book and the Nature of Knowledge in Muslim Northern Nigeria, 1457-2007 – Murray LastChapter Six: Notes on Arabic Manuscripts and Literary Culture in Nineteenth-Century Ilorin – Stefan ReichmuthChapter Seven: An Overview of Major Manuscript Libraries in Timbuktu – Abdel Kader Haïdara Chapter Eight: Information and Communication Technologies for the Preservation and Valorization of Documentary Heritage in Morocco – Said EnnahidChapter Nine: Coming to Terms with Tradition: Manuscript Conservation in Contemporary Algeria – Judith ScheeleChapter Ten: Camel to Kilobytes: Preserving the Cultural Heritage of the Trans-Saharan Book Trade – Graziano KrätliNote on ContributorsGlossariesIndex