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 (1959 film) was originally meant to be shot on location in colour and widescreen based on an idea of Small and Frank Cavett with Stuart Heisler to direct. Later, there was a script done by Horace McCoy. At one stage, the film was going to be made by the team of Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse, who were making films for Small. In 1956 producer Edward Small registered several titles for the film, including: "East of Timbuktu", "West of Timbuktu", "North of Timbuktu", "South of Timbuktu" (a technique of titling films that William Witney described as "boxing the compass"), "The Road to