The Prosody of Pearls that Limit the Deleterious Effects of the Abhorrent World.

Timbuktu (present-day Tombouctou in Mali), founded around 1100 as a commercial center for trade across the Sahara Desert, was also an important seat of Islamic learning from the 14th century onward. The libraries there contain many important manuscripts, in different styles of Arabic scripts, which were written and copied by Timbuktu's scribes and scholars. These works constitute the city's most famous and long-lasting contribution to Islamic and world civilization. Al-Durar al-manẓūmah fī taḍmīm al-dunyā al-muqabaḥah (The prosody of pearls that limit the deleterious effects of the abhorrent world) extols the ascetic life style, which allows the individual to concentrate on God's will and gives inner peace, enabling neighbors to live in harmony with each other.