A Mauritanian family continues three centuries of preserving ancient library manuscripts

Mohammed Abdullah Ould Gholam Habott is preserving over 1,400 ancient manuscripts at the Habott Library in Chinguetti, Mauritania, CS Monitor reported. He has managed the stone library for almost half his life, maintaining one of the few active family-run libraries remaining in the historic desert town. [1]

According to CS Monitor, male ancestors in the Habott family collected the texts over three centuries. To expand the collection with Moorish texts, the caretaker's great-grandfather traveled from the isolated city of Chinguetti to Andalusia in southern Spain. [1]

Mauritania is located in West Africa, where 90 percent of its land area lies within the Sahara desert. The nation achieved independence from France in November 1960 and now operates as a presidential republic governed under Islamic principles. [2][3]