Chinguetti the library of the desert (Mauritania)
Chinguetti la bibliothèque du désert
Chinguetti (Arabic: شنقيط) is a ksour or ancient trading centre in northern Mauritania, lying on the Adrar Plateau east of Atar.
Founded in the 13th century, as the center of several trans-Saharan trade routes, this small threatened city continues to attract visitors who admire its spare architecture, exotic scenery and its ancient libraries.
The indigenous Saharan architecture of older sectors of the city feature reddish dry stone and mud-brick houses,featuring flat roofs timbered from palms. Many of the older houses feature hand-hewn doors cut from massive ancient acacia tress that have long disappeared from the surroundings. Many homes include courtyards or patios that crowd along narrow streets leading to the central mosque.
Notable buildings in the town include The Friday Mosque of Chinguetti,an ancient structure of dry stone featuring a square minaret capped with five ostrich egg finials; the former French Foreign Legion fortress; and a tall watertower. The old quarter of the Chinguetti is home to five important manuscript libraries of scientific and Qur'anic texts, with many dating from the later Middle Ages.
The Chinguetti region has been occupied for thousands of years and once was a broad savannah. Cave paintings in the nearby Amoghar Pass feature pictures of giraffes, cows and people in a green landscape quite different from the starkly beautiful sand dunes of the desert landscape found in the region today.
The city was originally founded in 777, and by the 11th century had become a trading center for a confederation of Berber tribes known as the Sanhadja Confederation. Soon after settling Chinguetti, the Sanhadja first interacted with and eventually melded with the Almavorids, the founders of the Moorish Empire which stretched from present-day Senegal to Spain. The city's stark unadorned architecture reflects the strict, Malikite Islamic beliefs of the Almavorids.
After two centuries of decline, the city was effectively re-founded in the 13th century as a fortified cross-Saharan caravan trading center connecting the Mediterranean with Sub-Saharan Africa. Although the walls of the original fortification disappeared centuries ago, many of the buildings in the old section of the city still date from this period.
For centuries the city was a principal gathering place for pilgrims of the Maghreb to gather on the way to Mecca and it became known as a holy city in its own right, especially for pilgrims unable to make the long journey to the Arab Peninsula. It also became a center of Islamic religious and scientific scholarship in West Africa. In addition to religious training, the schools of Chinguetti taught students rhetoric, law, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. For many centuries all of Mauritania was popularly known in the Arab world as Bilad Shinqit, the land of Chinguetti. Chinguetti is sometimes said to be the seventh holiest city of Islam. There is no recognition of this claim outside of West Africa, but whatever its ranking, the city remains one of the world's most important historical sites both in terms of the history of Islam and the history of West Africa.
Although largely abandoned to the desert, the city features a series of medieval manuscript libraries without peer in West Africa, and the area around the Rue des Savants was once famous as a gathering place for scholars to debate the finer points of Islamic law. Today its deserted streets continue to reflect the urban and religious architecture of the Moorish empire as it existed in the Middle Ages.
Today, along with the cities of Ouadane, Tichitt and Oualata, Chinguetti has been designated as a World heritage site. The Friday Mosque of Chinguetti, is widely considered by Mauritanians to be the national symbol of the country. Mauritania's recently discovered offshore oilfield was named Chinguetti in its honor.
While difficult to get to, Chinguetti's stark beauty and exotic, medieval Islamic architecture make the region an interesting, if challenging, tourist destination for both the adventurous traveler and the Islamic scholar.
VALPARD FILMS
New Chinguetti
Mauritania Nouakchott Artist Atar Azougui Bargaining Camels Dunes Frank Cole Game Interview Jeweller Jewellery
Museum New Chinguetti Night Dance Nomad Oasis Old Chinguetti Quadane Port de Peche Terjit Joker
Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and ... (UNESCO/NHK)
Founded in the 11th and 12th centuries to serve the caravans crossing the Sahara, these trading and religious centres became focal points of Islamic culture. They have managed to preserve an urban fabric that evolved between the 12th and 16th centuries. Typically, houses with patios crowd along narrow streets around a mosque with a square minaret. They illustrate a traditional way of life centred on the nomadic culture of the people of the ...
Source: UNESCO TV / © NHK Nippon Hoso Kyokai
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2009 Mauritanie Chinguetti, La Vieille Ville et Sa Mosquée, 7ème Ville Sainte de L' Islam
Fondée à la fin du XIIIe siècle, Chinguetti ville fut un important centre de commerce caravanier entre l'Afrique du Nord et l'Afrique noire, et surtout la plus grande métropole culturelle de la région depuis le début du XVIe siècle. Elle témoigne d'un mode de vie traditionnel, centré sur la culture nomade, de la population du Sahara occidental. Elle est devenue la 7e ville sainte de l'islam sous le nom de « ville des bibliothèques ».
Une mosquée à minaret carré, coiffée de 5 œufs d'autruche.
=== Source : Wikipédia ===
Mosque In The Sahara Desert Points To Mecca (Chinguetti)
- Welcome to Chinguetti. Even here, on the edge of the Sahara Desert in Mauritania, the mosque points to Mecca.
Drive Chinguetti Mauritania - Part 1
Driving inside the town of Chinguetti in Mauritania. This Sahara Desert town is one of the UNESCO sites in Mauritania. The 6th sacred city of Islam. Video March 2009.
Preserving ancient Arabic manuscripts
SHOTLIST
Chinguetti, northern Mauritana - October 18, 2008
1. Pan of Chinguetti
2. Wide of a Mauritanian walking across a stretch of desert
3. Mohamed Koulame of the Habott family library in Chinguetti opens a manuscript
4. Close up of manuscript Mohamed is looking at
5. Extreme close up of manuscript Mohamed is looking at
6. Pan of Chinguetti, ending on the mosque tower
7. Sahara Sand collecting against a Chunguetti building, illustrating the encroaching sand dunes.
Chinguetti, northern Mauritana - October 19, 2008
8. Mohamed Koulame opens up the Habott family library
9. Mohamed Koulame opens up cupboards housing manuscripts, inside the Habott family library
10. Mohamed places a manuscript in a display cabinet
11. Mohamed opens the oldest manuscript in the library, an eleventh century explanation of the Koran.
12. close up of this manuscript
13. Mohamed opens a manuscript on astronomy
14. Various close up astronomy manuscript
15. Mohamed shows a manuscript damaged by termites
16. SOUNDBITE (Hassaniya Arabic): Mohamed Koulame, manager of the Habott family library:
We need to conserve these manuscripts not only for Mauritanians, but for all people. What we still need to do here is make photocopies or scans of the manuscripts. Also, although this cupboard behind me was kindly donated we need wooden cupboards. Then manuscripts will be stored at lower temperatures which is better for them.
Chinguetti, northern Mauritana - October 18, 2008
17. Saif Ahmed Mamoud opens up his family library
18. Saif takes out some manuscripts from his library
19. SOUNDBITE (French): Saif Ahmed Mamoud, the Ahmed Mamoud family library:
These are some examples of the family collection.
20. Saif shows a manuscript on Arabic grammar
21. Saif demonstrates a sixteenth century manuscript
22. SOUNDBITE (French): Saif Ahmed Mamoud, the Ahmed Mamoud family library: (with footage of termite-damaged manuscript)
There is much work to be done. The buildings are made of stone and clay. When it rains, the clay slowly deteriorates, so we need to repair the walls frequently. The roof is made of palm leaves, which is very fragile and needs to be renewed regularly. We have books that are in a poor condition, termites being one of the reasons for their deterioration.
23. Saif demonstrates some scanned copies of manuscripts
24. close up of a scanned copy.
Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, October 28 2008
25. SOUNDBITE (French): Olivia lloze, visitor to Chinguetti:
At Saif's library I saw his oldest Koran which is covered by Gazelle skin. It was in good condition, but it was the only old manuscript I saw in a good condition. The other manuscripts are in a poor condition. Some pages are in more or less a good condition, but the general condition of the manuscripts is very deteriorated.
26. Conservationist Mohamed Ould Nel Tfeil enters the IMRS building
27. Mohamed opens one of the cupboard's where the 3700 manuscripts are kept
28. Mohamed pulls out one of the files from the cupboard
29. Close up showing cataloguing detail
30. Mohamed pulls out one of the treated manuscripts
31. A researcher uses a microfilm apparatus to look at a manuscript
32. close up microfilm manuscript being observed
33. Mohamed demonstrates some of the microfilm
34. SOUNDBITE (Hassaniya Arabic): Mohamed Ould Nel Tfeil, IMRS Conservationist:
We would like to partner up with a regional or international organisation which could assist both in a technical and financial capacity. We'd like to expand the microfilm project, and also to make quality copies of the manuscripts. With some assistance we'd be better placed to carry out our conservation work.
35. A researcher at IMRS
Chinguetti, northern Mauritana - October 19, 2008
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Mauritania | Nomads of the Sahara
Mauritania. The land of which, since ancient times, a thousand poets have sung. The country of the bidanes. And of the ADRAR TMAR, the fabulous mountains of sweet dates.
These lonely escarpments hide some of the most jealously guarded treasures of the great Sahara desert.
For as long as anyone can remember, the nomads have come to these oases to rest and escape from the burning heat. Small islands of intense green and babbling waters.
The oasis of TERYIT is home to some of the most important endemic plant species, such as the Saharan fern.
In the crystalline waters that gush from the spring live, inexplicably, dozens of small fish, true living fossils from the time when rivers flowed across this desert.
In the Mauritanian Adrar, one of the most spectacular phenomena in the world can be found.
This is GUELB ER RICHAT, a gigantic primitive volcano the enormous size of which can only be appreciated from the air. Mauritania is a country entirely of desert and with a fascinating history.
The terrifying canyons of the AMOJIAR ravine, its vertical walls, and the frequent landslides formed part of the dangers of the road which the ancient caravans had to negotiate in order to reach the mythical cities of the Gold Route. The lost cities of Mauritania. WADAN, the legendary city of palm groves, and its mysterious founders, the BAFUR, who trained dogs for war and were great musicians.
To Wadan came the caravans of thousands of dromedaries from the black kingdom of GHANA with slaves, gold and shellac, to exchange them for the salt the wadanies mined in the SEBJA of IYIL.
In these lands, the fierce Almoravid warriors conceived their epic plan of creating a vast African empire which would stretch from the river Niger to the shores of the Ebro, in Al-Andalus.
They brought together all the tribes of the Sahara under the flag of the most orthodox Islam.
This city, formerly rich thanks to its immense palm groves, stands in the centre of the TURAB AL BIDAN, “The Land of the White Men”, the natural frontier with Black Africa.
Like all the great cities along the caravan routes, Wadan, before its final decline as a result of the internal struggles which laid it to waste in the eighteenth century, was an important centre for the dissemination of culture. Today, all that remain are the ruins of the once bustling city. It is virtually deserted, its former prosperity now reduced to the very image of desolation.
The other great caravan centre in the Adrar of Mauritania is CHINGUETTI.
According to popular belief, it was founded by the Almoravids, though studies have suggested it was of later construction. Like Wadan, it is in a lamentable state of conservation, despite the funds donated by UNESCO in order to preserve it.
The mosque is the most important building in Chinguetti and perhaps in all of Mauritania.
Every year, below its minaret, of dry-stone masonry and reconstructed several times, thousands of the Turab al Bidan faithful gathered to set out on the pilgrimage to Mecca.
For this reason, Chinguetti was considered the seventh holy city of Islam.
The precarious state of the city is due to the inexorable advance of the desert and the circle of encroaching dunes which are slowly burying it forever.
So, the people abandon their homes which, empty and unattended, in time simply crumble.
The few inhabitants that still remain are elusive and the streets are empty. It is, to all intents an purposes, a ghost town. Only the odd crafts stall, where you can now buy a family’s most treasured memories, reminds us of the former splendour of Chinguetti, once the source of all erudition and knowledge in Mauritania.
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Zikr of Chinguetti, Mauritania / 사하라 오아시스 도시의 기도소리 또는 경 읽는 소리
[세상의 끝에서 만난 음악] 143쪽 - 사하라에 도서관이?
모리타니 동부 사하라의 깊은 사막 가운데 있는 오아시스 도시 싱게티는 수백 년 전 사하라 캐러밴 대상들이 지나가던 길목에 있었던지라 상당히 번성했었고 많은 유적이 남아 있어 도시 전체가 유네스코세계유산으로 지정된 곳이다. 한창 때는 12개의 모스크가 있을 정도였다는 이 도시는 이슬람 7대 성지 중의 하나이고 13세기에 지은 큰 모스크가 구도심에 아직도 남아 있는데 우리의 첨성대와 비슷한 크기와 모양의 미너렛이 남아 있다. 이 미너렜은 이슬람 세계에서 두번째로 오래된 것으로 알려져 있기도 하다. 그런 성지여서 그런지 마을 한복판에 스피커를 걸어두어 하루종일 기도 소리인지 경 읽는 소리가 들려왔다.
Place: Chiguetti, Mauritania
Date: March 28, 2017
Recorded by Sangil Choi
The Ancient Desert Town Of Chinguetti
Chinguetti chinguitti mauritanie désert mauritanien
Chinguetti chinguitti mauritanie désert mauritanien
Mauritania Chinguitti Holy words of islam / Mauritanie Chinguetti Parole sainte de l'islam
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La majorité des journalistes dans le monde ont choisi de développer leur sujet sur des thèmes polémiques et sensationnels : violence, guerre, criminalité. Mais tous ces faits ne représentent que 1 % de notre monde et de ses habitants, en oubliant les 99 % restant dont on ne parle jamais.
J’ai choisi de visiter chaque pays de la planète et de les filmer pour vous les présenter en format Haute définition mais de manière brute, sans musique, sans commentaire. Simplement, la réalité dans toute sa vérité. Ainsi, vous pourrez vous faire votre propre idée sur le monde dans lequel vous vivez.
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2009 Mauritanie Tamouchet, Oasis entre Chinguetti et Wadane
2009 Mauritanie, à Chinguetti, chez Mahmoud de l' auberge Eden (le meilleur guide de la région et peut-être du pays), entre Chinguetti et Wadane, dans le désert du Sahara, à l' Oasis Tamouchet, les balanciers , le thé, le sable qui mange le village, les femmes du village.
2009 Mauritanie Chinguetti, La Vieille Ville, Mosquée, Portes, Serrures, La 7ème Ville Sainte
WIKIPEDIA :
Chinguetti ou Chinguitti (arabe : شنقيط) est une ville du centre-ouest de la Mauritanie, située sur les plateaux désertiques de l'Adrar. Avec d'autres villes anciennes (ksour) de Mauritanie, la ville est classée comme site du Patrimoine Mondial de l'Unesco depuis 1996.
Fondée à la fin du XIIIe siècle, la ville fut un important centre de commerce caravanier entre l'Afrique du Nord et l'Afrique noire, et surtout la plus grande métropole culturelle de la région depuis le début du XVIe siècle. Elle témoigne d'un mode de vie traditionnel, centré sur la culture nomade, de la population du Sahara occidental. Elle est devenue la 7e ville sainte de l'islam sous le nom de « ville des bibliothèques ».
Progressivement envahie par les sables, la ville a gardé son tissu urbain élaboré entre le XIIe siècle et le XVIe siècle, avec ses maisons à patio se serrant en ruelles étroites autour d'une mosquée à minaret carré, coiffée de 5 œufs d'autruche. Les matériaux utilisés pour ses constructions étaient essentiellement la pierre, et le banco local de couleur ocre. Les toitures sont faites à partir de troncs et de branches d'arbres ou de palmiers dattiers. On y voit quelques anciennes portes massives en acacia.
TheWorldOffroad Expedition: Chinguetti Short Documentary
A walk through the streets and libraries of magical Chinguetti village, Mauritania
Muslim Khutbat Mosque Atar Mauritania
Muslim Khutbat Jumu3a in Mosque in Atar Mauritania. While my friend Moha went to pray I recorded it. He actually was very happy about it.
03 Video de Mauritania, Camino de Atar y Chingueti
Mauritania 2009
Mauritania Senegal. Dakar Nouakchott St. Louis Chinguetti Atar
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Seïf, in érudit, un homme bon, rempli d’humour ! Qui me présente des trésors.