Timbuktu Manuscripts decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, affording only rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the "Tombouctou Manuscripts Project" in the 2000s. With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were
Timbuktu spelling of Timbuktu has varied a great deal: from "Tenbuch" on the Catalan Atlas (1375), to traveller Antonio Malfante's "Thambet", used in a letter he wrote in 1447 and also adopted by Alvise Cadamosto in his "Voyages of Cadamosto", to Heinrich Barth's "Timbúktu" and "Timbu'ktu". French spelling often appears in international reference as "Tombouctou". As well as its spelling, Timbuktu's toponymy is still open to discussion. At least four possible origins of the name of Timbuktu have been described: The validity of these theories depends on the identity of the original founders of the city: as recently as 2000, archaeological