From Here To Timbuktu
‘Googling’ the phrase “from here to Timbuktu” to find the origins of this antiquated thought brings some fascinating responses. It seems a whole lot of people interested in this phrase. But in our conversations of 2008 – it is hardly ever used. But then…every once in a while it jumps into the limelight again.
A quote from an article about a sale of a bank said….
According to Annabel Hepworth, writing in The Australian Financial Review, (12/9/2007), p. 15 major energy retailers, private sector generators and investment banks would be the big winners if the Iemma government adopts the Owen report’s recommendations. “Sales of this kind will have investment bankers lining up for mandates from here to Timbuktu,” is how one industry player puts it. ABN Amro utility analyst Jason Mabee said he would expect “there would be quite aggressive bids coming out” for the various state-owned assets on the blocks.
No look again. This authour is writing about this in Australia.
The idea if Timbuktu has laid dormant in my brain until I read the name on a map of Africa – situated in Mali. But then it isn’t not only known as “Timbuktu” but also “Tombuctou”.
Some simple ‘Googling’ produced the following…
From Jody Victor…
Even the well-known children's author, Dr. Seus, knew and wrote about Timbuktu - an exotic, distant land full of mystery and riches.
Timbuktu was established by the nomadic Tuareg as early as the 10th century. According to popular etymology its name is made up of : tin which means "place" and buktu, the name of an old Malian woman known for her honesty and who once upon a time lived in the region. Tuareg and other travelers would entrust this woman with any belongings for which they had no use on their return trip to the north. Thus, when a Tuareg, upon returning to his home, was asked where he had left his belongings, he would answer: "I left them at Tin Buktu," meaning the place where dame Buktu lived. The two terms ended up fusing into one word, this giving the city the name of Tinbuktu which later became Timbuktu. However, the French orientalist Rene Basset forwarded a more plausible translation: in the Berber languages "buqt" means "far away," so "Tin-Buqt(u)" means a place almost at the other end of the world, resp. the Sahara.
From the Timbuktu Foundation…
Timbuktu was founded by the Tuareg Imashagan in the 11th century. During the rainy season, the Tuaregs roam the desert up to Arawan in search of grazing lands for their animals. During the dry season, however, they returned to the Niger river where the animals grazed on a grass called "burgu." Whenever they camped by river they got sick from mosquitoes and stagnant water. Because of these unfavorable conditions, they decided to settle few miles away from the river where they dug a well. Whenever it started raining in the desert, the Turareg will leave their heavy goods with an old Tuareg women called Tin Abutut who stayed at the well. In the Tuareg language, Tin Abutut means "the lady with the big naval". With the passage time, the name Tin Abutut became Timbuktu.
From Islamonline….
In its heyday in the 15th and 16th centuries, Timbuktu had 100,000 inhabitants, almost a quarter of whom were Islamic scholars who had traveled from Egypt and Makkah to study at the great University of Sankore. How many Muslims know this? Timbuktu lay at the crossroads of trading routes linking North and West Africa with the Arab world and beyond. It was a trading center for gold and for salt. In fact, Timbuktu was so fabulously wealthy that when Emperor Mansa Musa traveled to Cairo in the 14th century on his way to perform Hajj, he is said to have given away so much gold as gifts that the local currency market crashed. It was he who brought architects from Al-Andalus in Spain to build the city's great mosque and also the mosque of Sankore, around which the university grew.
Now if you have continued to read this far consider my strange thought here…
I first heard this spoken in the ‘Kirkpatrick Clan’ in southern Saskatchewan in my very early days – probably at 5 or 6 years of age. When emphasizing something that was almost unattainable or lost… it could be inserted in a statement… for example…
“I have no idea where it is…it could be somewhere between here and Timbuktu..”
“I don’t have any idea where he is…he could be from here to Timbuktu”
I never thought anything of the saying while growing up. I just knew that the speaker was placing great emphasis on the fact the ‘thing’ or ‘person’ was either very lost of had gone a long way from where we were.
I never realized that while hearing this phrase I was standing in the middle of the prairie of Saskatchewan – I was just about one million miles from no where. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Truax, Saskatchewan was most of the world’s Timbuktu. But for me it was the center of the Universe.
And as the one popular etymology of the word suggests – Timbuktu came from “Tin Abutut” having the meaning ‘woman with a deep naval’. In Saskatchewan that certainly didn’t make sense and was never clearly defined to a little boy in 1949 or 1950.
My Aunt Marg and/or Aunt Peg had used that often. They were two of my teachers on the farm at that early stage.
So where do I go with this?
It seems that I still have the same dilemma today – all over again. However it is not with the name “Timbuktu” the city in Africa and with its new meaning and strangely twisted meanings of my boyhood days.
It is another name or word – “Easter”.
“Easter” in 2008 is about another holiday from work, with tons of candy and chocolate. Add to that the popular conception that an Easter Bunny comes to hide coloured eggs for little kids to find…each egg is a prize of sorts – either made from chocolate or is an actual egg coloured with a dye and then painted.
“Easter” has become one of our high points of the ultimate retail time of the year. After Christmas it is one of the highest selling times. A friend of mine told me that their store sells more candy and chocolate at Easter than at Valentines Day.
A short survey of friends of mine discovered that we all invested something in chocolate and gifts of some sort for our grandkids. Between $20 to $50 from each set of grandparents is not a bad sale for any Wal-Mart.
It was reported that one lady in the checkout had her cart full – with almost $300 worth of candy. Shish – that is certainly a lot of grandkids to sweeten up!
The 2008 meaning of ‘Easter’ for the world today is as far away from the meaning and reason of EASTER when it began. It is about as far as “from here to Timbuktu”.
Without preaching a long sermon here…let me remind you that Easter is about Jesus, with his death and resurrection from the grave that he was placed in being emphasized. It is not just a ‘popular Christian idea’ – it is THE CHRISTIAN IDEA. If you are CHRISTIAN you have accepted this core thought and live by it.
Sadly enough ‘popular etymology’ of Easter has devolved to having a Rabbit laying coloured Easter eggs for kids to find. Could it get anything further form the real truth? Sure could…in the next few years the Easter Bunny may well be riding in a wagon drawn by eight small turtles and making deliveries world wide for the full “CCD Week”. With CCD Week meaning the “Candy Celebration Days” this will be done to help Wal-Mart…. because they can’t get enough candy distributed in the one day weekend.
My guess is so far out that I would bet…. that the Canadian Government will be the first in world to outlaw anything Christian at Easter for fear of offending those that are not Christian.
Then there likely be Easter Bunny with many different styles of clothing matching the many cultures of our fine country.
Then someone will stand up and shout….“Whoa…! Now that is going to far – an Arabic Terrorist Outfit (ATO)on OUR Easter Bunny…that is going just too far! What is this world coming to?”
Let it be known… Murray Lincoln’s idea of the ‘Easter of Christianity’ and the popular Easter of 2008 is as far apart as “from here to Timbuktu”…or Saskatchewan is from Hong Kong…or from Ontario…or from Nova Scotia..or….
Happy Easter today! May you remember and/or actually discover the real meaning of Easter – Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour!
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1177156131894&pagename=Zone-English-ArtCulture%2FACELayout
http://jody-victor.blogcreek.com/blog/_archives/2008/2/25/3544944.html
http://www.timbuktufoundation.org/history.html
A quote from an article about a sale of a bank said….
According to Annabel Hepworth, writing in The Australian Financial Review, (12/9/2007), p. 15 major energy retailers, private sector generators and investment banks would be the big winners if the Iemma government adopts the Owen report’s recommendations. “Sales of this kind will have investment bankers lining up for mandates from here to Timbuktu,” is how one industry player puts it. ABN Amro utility analyst Jason Mabee said he would expect “there would be quite aggressive bids coming out” for the various state-owned assets on the blocks.
No look again. This authour is writing about this in Australia.
The idea if Timbuktu has laid dormant in my brain until I read the name on a map of Africa – situated in Mali. But then it isn’t not only known as “Timbuktu” but also “Tombuctou”.
Some simple ‘Googling’ produced the following…
From Jody Victor…
Even the well-known children's author, Dr. Seus, knew and wrote about Timbuktu - an exotic, distant land full of mystery and riches.
Timbuktu was established by the nomadic Tuareg as early as the 10th century. According to popular etymology its name is made up of : tin which means "place" and buktu, the name of an old Malian woman known for her honesty and who once upon a time lived in the region. Tuareg and other travelers would entrust this woman with any belongings for which they had no use on their return trip to the north. Thus, when a Tuareg, upon returning to his home, was asked where he had left his belongings, he would answer: "I left them at Tin Buktu," meaning the place where dame Buktu lived. The two terms ended up fusing into one word, this giving the city the name of Tinbuktu which later became Timbuktu. However, the French orientalist Rene Basset forwarded a more plausible translation: in the Berber languages "buqt" means "far away," so "Tin-Buqt(u)" means a place almost at the other end of the world, resp. the Sahara.
From the Timbuktu Foundation…
Timbuktu was founded by the Tuareg Imashagan in the 11th century. During the rainy season, the Tuaregs roam the desert up to Arawan in search of grazing lands for their animals. During the dry season, however, they returned to the Niger river where the animals grazed on a grass called "burgu." Whenever they camped by river they got sick from mosquitoes and stagnant water. Because of these unfavorable conditions, they decided to settle few miles away from the river where they dug a well. Whenever it started raining in the desert, the Turareg will leave their heavy goods with an old Tuareg women called Tin Abutut who stayed at the well. In the Tuareg language, Tin Abutut means "the lady with the big naval". With the passage time, the name Tin Abutut became Timbuktu.
From Islamonline….
In its heyday in the 15th and 16th centuries, Timbuktu had 100,000 inhabitants, almost a quarter of whom were Islamic scholars who had traveled from Egypt and Makkah to study at the great University of Sankore. How many Muslims know this? Timbuktu lay at the crossroads of trading routes linking North and West Africa with the Arab world and beyond. It was a trading center for gold and for salt. In fact, Timbuktu was so fabulously wealthy that when Emperor Mansa Musa traveled to Cairo in the 14th century on his way to perform Hajj, he is said to have given away so much gold as gifts that the local currency market crashed. It was he who brought architects from Al-Andalus in Spain to build the city's great mosque and also the mosque of Sankore, around which the university grew.
Now if you have continued to read this far consider my strange thought here…
I first heard this spoken in the ‘Kirkpatrick Clan’ in southern Saskatchewan in my very early days – probably at 5 or 6 years of age. When emphasizing something that was almost unattainable or lost… it could be inserted in a statement… for example…
“I have no idea where it is…it could be somewhere between here and Timbuktu..”
“I don’t have any idea where he is…he could be from here to Timbuktu”
I never thought anything of the saying while growing up. I just knew that the speaker was placing great emphasis on the fact the ‘thing’ or ‘person’ was either very lost of had gone a long way from where we were.
I never realized that while hearing this phrase I was standing in the middle of the prairie of Saskatchewan – I was just about one million miles from no where. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Truax, Saskatchewan was most of the world’s Timbuktu. But for me it was the center of the Universe.
And as the one popular etymology of the word suggests – Timbuktu came from “Tin Abutut” having the meaning ‘woman with a deep naval’. In Saskatchewan that certainly didn’t make sense and was never clearly defined to a little boy in 1949 or 1950.
My Aunt Marg and/or Aunt Peg had used that often. They were two of my teachers on the farm at that early stage.
So where do I go with this?
It seems that I still have the same dilemma today – all over again. However it is not with the name “Timbuktu” the city in Africa and with its new meaning and strangely twisted meanings of my boyhood days.
It is another name or word – “Easter”.
“Easter” in 2008 is about another holiday from work, with tons of candy and chocolate. Add to that the popular conception that an Easter Bunny comes to hide coloured eggs for little kids to find…each egg is a prize of sorts – either made from chocolate or is an actual egg coloured with a dye and then painted.“Easter” has become one of our high points of the ultimate retail time of the year. After Christmas it is one of the highest selling times. A friend of mine told me that their store sells more candy and chocolate at Easter than at Valentines Day.
A short survey of friends of mine discovered that we all invested something in chocolate and gifts of some sort for our grandkids. Between $20 to $50 from each set of grandparents is not a bad sale for any Wal-Mart.
It was reported that one lady in the checkout had her cart full – with almost $300 worth of candy. Shish – that is certainly a lot of grandkids to sweeten up!
The 2008 meaning of ‘Easter’ for the world today is as far away from the meaning and reason of EASTER when it began. It is about as far as “from here to Timbuktu”.
Without preaching a long sermon here…let me remind you that Easter is about Jesus, with his death and resurrection from the grave that he was placed in being emphasized. It is not just a ‘popular Christian idea’ – it is THE CHRISTIAN IDEA. If you are CHRISTIAN you have accepted this core thought and live by it.
Sadly enough ‘popular etymology’ of Easter has devolved to having a Rabbit laying coloured Easter eggs for kids to find. Could it get anything further form the real truth? Sure could…in the next few years the Easter Bunny may well be riding in a wagon drawn by eight small turtles and making deliveries world wide for the full “CCD Week”. With CCD Week meaning the “Candy Celebration Days” this will be done to help Wal-Mart…. because they can’t get enough candy distributed in the one day weekend.
My guess is so far out that I would bet…. that the Canadian Government will be the first in world to outlaw anything Christian at Easter for fear of offending those that are not Christian.
Then there likely be Easter Bunny with many different styles of clothing matching the many cultures of our fine country.
Then someone will stand up and shout….“Whoa…! Now that is going to far – an Arabic Terrorist Outfit (ATO)on OUR Easter Bunny…that is going just too far! What is this world coming to?”
Let it be known… Murray Lincoln’s idea of the ‘Easter of Christianity’ and the popular Easter of 2008 is as far apart as “from here to Timbuktu”…or Saskatchewan is from Hong Kong…or from Ontario…or from Nova Scotia..or….
Happy Easter today! May you remember and/or actually discover the real meaning of Easter – Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour!
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1177156131894&pagename=Zone-English-ArtCulture%2FACELayout
http://jody-victor.blogcreek.com/blog/_archives/2008/2/25/3544944.html
http://www.timbuktufoundation.org/history.html
posted by Murray Lincoln at
Sunday, March 23, 2008
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