In our automobile-focused age we tend to think of deserts and oceans as barriers to travel but in medieval times they were more likely to spread ideas and trade than fertile well-watered land. If you are tending your crops you are bound to your plot and unlikely to travel further than the nearest market. If you make your living in a desert or at sea you have to travel. The caravan route through Tamegroute was a link to sub-saharan africa and the Songhai Empire rather than a barrier.
Abou Abdullah Mohammed Ben Naceur the founder of the zaouia was a great traveller and everywhere he went he collected books. The earliest is from 1069 and there are books on astronomy,mathematics, algebra, science and medicine, atlases, dictionaries and bestiaries, as well as copies of the Q'ran and commentaries thereon, and collections of poetry in both arabic and berber (written in arabic script). The library had established links with the equivalent library in Timbuctoo and was always a magnet for scholars. My favourite anecdote concerns Ahmed Baba.
In the reign of Sultan Al-Mansour he waged a war on the Songhai Empire and briefly occupied part thereof in response to Songhai's seizure of the Taghaza salt mines. The Songhai opposition was largely led by Ahmed Baba a Mali scholar. He was sent as a hostage to al-Mansour's court although as a respected scholar he was allowed a degree of autonomy as long as he remained in Morocco and travelled to study in Fes as well as making pilgrimages to Aghmat and the sanctuary of Sidi Bel Abbas (this being a political act as Abbas was the patron saint of the oppressed.) He remained in Morocco for about 8 years but was able to return to Songhai on al-Mansour's death when his throne was inherited by an infant son. In doing so he travelled through Tamegroute.
Baba of course visited the library. He was particularly taken with a copy of the Kitab al Mitar. This is a 15C geography/history of muslim Spain). Baba had had a large library which had been plundered in the capture of Timbuctu but had had access to the moroccan royal libraries and his work had a lasting impact on moroccan scholarship. However he had no copy of the Kitab al Mitar and persuaded the librarian to let him borrow the book to copy and then return with the next year's caravan.
The next year the book was not returned. The librarian wrote a letter asking for its return. The book did not arrive. The librarian wrote again. This continued for 15 years with increasingly pleading/threatening requests to return the book. After 15 years the librarian received a parcel. It was the copy. Baba kept the original.
Plus la change.....
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