CONTENTS -- Note on Transliteration and Spelling -- Maps -- Foreword -- A Historical Geography of the Trans-Saharan Trade -- A Thirst for Knowledge: Arabic Literacy, Writing Paper and Saharan Bibliophiles in the Southwestern Sahara -- The Paper Trade of Egypt and the Sudan in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries and its Re-export to the Bilād as-Sūdān -- The Historic "Core Curriculum" and the Book Market in Islamic West Africa -- The Book and the Nature of Knowledge in Muslim Northern Nigeria, 1457-2007 -- Literary Culture and Arabic Manuscripts in 19th-Century Ilọrin -- An Overview of the Major Manuscript Libraries in Timbuktu -- Information and Communication Technologies for the -- Coming to Terms with Tradition: Manuscript Conservation in Contemporary Algeria -- Camel to Kilobytes: Preserving the Cultural Heritage of the Trans-Saharan Book Trade -- Glossary -- African Toponyms Mentioned in the Volume -- Bibliography -- Notes on Contributors -- Index.