The man on a mission to save Mauritania’s ‘city of libraries’ from encroaching desert sands

Saif Islam, now in his sixties, is the custodian of the family library Al Ahmed Mahmoud. Photograph: Daouda Corera/The Guardian

On a recent afternoon, 67-year-old Saif Islam made his way into the courtyard of a library in Chinguetti, a tiny desert settlement nestled in the Sahara in Mauritania.

Decked in a flowing boubou gown striped in two shades of blue, his steps unsteady but his presence still commanding, he sat on a handwoven mat stroking his grey beard, with his black croc sandals neatly placed to the side.