Bibliotheque Blitzkrieg.

As I enter the final stretch of my stay in Tunisia, I am trying, with the aid of my family, to exhaust every possible source of information available to me. My trip to the Bayt Al Hikma was disastrous. My aunt took me to the Bayt Al Hikma (which, comically, means "House of Wisdom" in Arabic) at the suggestion of my uncle's sister. We entered the library, which fit in perfectly near the carthiginian ruins on the beach and i noticed a tombstone near the entry sitting on a plot of grass. I read the inscription and found that the grave belonged to a Tunisian writer and philosopher named Ibn Khaldun. I was pleasantly surprised, since I had been told to look up Khaldun's writing about the movement of political power, so I took the fact that this man was buried under the Bayt Al Hikma, foolishly, as a good omen.
My aunt and I entered the building and were directed to an office within the building stuffed with a few glass-paned cabinets whose shelves were lined with books. We were greeted by a librarian, a short man, who my Aunt addressed and asked for books written by Ibn Khaldun. The man hurried off to search for them. As he was leaving the room, a woman approached us and asked my Aunt if she could help us. My aunt asked her if there were any books about "tribes," to which the woman replied, "No. No, no, no, no."
I was disappointed that the woman dismissed our inquiry so quickly, but immediately after she shot us down the man returned. He held in his hand a single book. It was not written by Ibn Khaldun, but about him, which was relatively useless to me. My aunt asked if that was the only thing they had. Evidently, it was. I should have felt disappointed or upset, but the whole ordeal was just too absurd. The encounter took no longer than a minute and a half and it ended in such an anti-climax. For god's sake, the writer I was looking for was literally buried beneath the library, yet they supposedly had nothing written by him at all. The four of us stood in silence, my aunt and I on one side of the door of the office facing the two librarians on the other, waiting for something to happen. As it became more and more evident that we would have no luck, my aunt uttered simply, "Well, I guess that's it," and we left.
Today I went to the market with my uncle to get some food for a party my family is throwing tonight. Afterwards, we stopped by the Mediatheque Charles De Gaul to see if I would have better luck there than I did at Bayt al Hikma. Unfortunately, it was closed, which means that I will have to check it later this week. I will also be going to a second "Bibliotheque National" near the Sooks, a vast trading network located in the ancient streets of Tunis, as well as to "La Marsa" Library. Hopefully I'll find something useful.
- Duncan