Twenty-five miles east of Timbuktu, amidst the scattered acacias and sandburs that alone populate this desolate corner of the Sahel, lies the cemetery of Cheikh Sīdi al-Wāfi al-Amīr al-Arawāni. The moment this mausoleum was established, back in the early eighteenth century, it began its gradual surrender to the abrasive sand and dust borne along by north-easterly harmattan winds. Centuries of scouring have left the site, according to UNESCO’s 2014 Étude sur les mausolées de Tombouktou, “non-repérable”. It was to this forlorn place that the remains of the great librarian Ahmad bin Mbarak bin Barka bin Muhammad Bul’arāf were conveyed upon…