https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110541441-010, © 2017 Dédéou/Jeppie, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. Mahmoud Mohamed Dédéou and Shamil Jeppie Elements of a ‘Timbuktu Manual of Style’ Abstract: This is a translation of a short text that clarifies the role of additional markings in manuscripts from Timbuktu. It is the work of an experienced reader and author of manuscripts in Timbuktu, Mahmoud Mohamed Dedéou, known as Cheikh Hamou. It is therefore a very useful introduction to an often overlooked practice in the art of scholarship in that part of the world. 1 Addendum on the techniques of the copyists: introduction to the text The single-page text described here was written by Mahmoud Mohamed Dedéou, known as Cheikh Hamou (b.1955). It originates from a lecture that he gave in Cape Town in 2008. He always speaks from well prepared notes, often, it appears, fully written up. Thus, this text is typical of his thorough preparation for a lecture, which he has always been happy to pre-circulate on request or distribute after- wards. Cheikh Hamou is a senior scholar from Timbuktu who was educated in the local traditional schools of the town and has run early morning classes for chil- dren at his home for many years. He also works as an inspector in the state school system with the responsibility for supervising Arabic language education. He was involved in collecting manuscripts for the Ahmad Baba Centre (officially known as the Institut des Hautes Etudes et de Recherches Islamiques Ahmed-Baba, IHERI- AB) when it was developing its collections. The first and only list of his written work is by the late John O. Hunwick in Arabic Literature of Africa vol. IV which counts 19 works. 1 However, the number of Cheikh Hamou’s works has increased since then. In a recent listing he provided, he gave the titles of 35 works (which includes, what we would call essays, as well as larger manuscript works classifi- able as books). Indeed, his largest and probably most important work is Kashf al- ḥā’il fī al-ta‘rīf bi-kutub al-fatāwā wa-l-nawāzil – a biographical dictionary of the scholars of Timbuktu up until his own time, which runs to 335 folios, and was completed in the year 2000. The original manuscript in Cheikh Hamou’s hand remains in his possession, but he has circulated a digitized copy; a typescript of the handwritten text is in preparation under his supervision. It is a manuscript in || 1 Hunwick et al. 2003, 64–66.