Rahab and smugglers

Chapter two of Joshua has a great story, with Rahab as its heroine.

Joshua had led the people to Shittim which is within spitting distance of Jericho. He sent two men to spy out the prospects of getting into Jericho. Rahab, a “harlot,” was a -- what to call her? (I am reminded of the people in Europe during the Second World War who hid folk fleeing from the Nazis and the Italians. What were they called? Guerrillas? Part of networks of men and women getting the ones in danger to freedom.) 

Rahab didn't have a network. She thought it all out herself. (Wrong! We never think anything out for ourselves, do we?) She had heard of the wonders which had attended the Israelites in the journey out of slavery in Egypt, and she respected their God which had brought them through the Red Sea, etc. After the Israelites conquered Jericho her father's family were the only ones saved. (She had requested that of Joshua's two men.)

My Bible Dictionary says of Rahab: "According to later Jewish legend, Rahab was one of the four most beautiful women in history. She became a righteous convert, married Joshua, and was the ancestor of eight prophets (including Jeremiah) and of Huldah the prophetess (b. Meg. 151). In the New Testament, Rahab is cited as a heroine of faith (Heb. 11:31) and of righteous works (James 2:25), and is included in Jesus' ancestry by Matthew (1:5)".

I am currently reading a book called The Book of Smugglers of Timbuktu: The Quest for this storied city and the pace to save its treasures, by Charlie English. I wonder what the readers of this blog think about Timbuktu. Not much in the way of literature there perhaps. Old manuscripts and historic documents – no way, I would have thought. The book corrects that line of thinking.

First of all, Timbuktu, on the Niger River, is in Mali in West Africa (the rounded part), on the edge of the Sahara Desert. The official language is French.

It was fabled as being rich in gold. Mungo Park explored the area between 1795 and 1797, and though he didn't reach Timbuktu, at Kamala he found people reading Arabic texts. He was also shown The Book of Common Prayer.

Among the documents he saw was an Arabic version of the Pentateuch of Moses (Torah of Moses). And he found that the people were familiar with Old Testament stories like Adam and Eve; the death of Abel; Noah's flood; the lives of Abraham, Moses, David, and Solomon. Some could relate the stories in the local language, Manding.

Interestingly, Julie's exchange student from French-speaking Quebec visited Mali some years ago. I didn't take much notice at the time. Now I would love to hear about it.

Here is some of what Wikipedia says about Timbuktu:

Timbuktu Manuscripts 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Manuscript of Nasir al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Hajj al-Amin al-Tawathi al-Ghalawi's Kashf al-Ghummah fi Nafa al-Ummah. From the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library, Timbuktu.

A manuscript page from Timbuktu showing a table of astronomical information

Timbuktu Manuscripts (or Tombouctou Manuscripts) is a blanket term for the large number of historically important manuscripts that have been preserved for centuries in private households in Timbuktu, Mali. The collections include manuscripts about art, medicine, philosophy, and science, as well as copies of the Quran. The number of manuscripts in the collections has been estimated as high as 700,000.[1]

The manuscripts were written in Arabic and local languages...[2] The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire...

Perhaps I have strayed from Joshua a little. But isn't that all interesting. Does it tempt the reader to go find English's book? 

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Rahab certainly was brave to smuggle the 'spies' to safety.

PS. I find it interesting to conjecture from which direction the Israelites approached Jericho. And what did they carry with them of their African experience - physically, morally, educationally?