The Arts and Crafts of Literacy: Islamic Manuscript Cultures in Sub-Saharan Africa

During the last two decades, the (re-)discovery of thousands of manuscripts in different regions of sub-Saharan Africa has questioned the long-standing approach of Africa as a continent only characterized by orality and legitimately assigned to the continent the status of a civilization of written literacy. However, most of the existing studies mainly aim at serving literary and historical purposes, and focus only on the textual dimension of the manuscripts. This book advances on the contrary a holistic approach to the study of these manuscripts and gather contributions on the different dimensions of the manuscript, i.e. the materials, the technologies, the practices and the communities involved in the production, commercialization, circulation, preservation and consumption. The originality of this book is found in its methodological approach as well as its comparative geographic focus, presenting studies on a continental scale, including regions formerly neglected by existing scholarship, provides a unique opportunity to expand our still scanty knowledge of the different manuscript cultures that the African continent has developed and that often can still be considered as living traditions.

Frontmatter --; Acknowledgements --; Contents --; Introduction: African History and Islamic Manuscript Cultures /; Section 1: Writing Supports --; New Strategies in Using Watermarks to Date Sub-Saharan Islamic Manuscripts /; Fī Lawḥin Maḥfūẓ: Towards a Phenomenological Analysis of the Quranic Tablet /; Section 2: Around the Texts --; Islamic Education and Ample Space Layout in West African Islamic Manuscripts /; A Preliminary Appraisal of Marginalia in West African Manuscripts from the Mamma Haïdara Memorial Library Collection (Timbuktu) /; Section 3: Writing Practices and Authorship around the Continents --; Writing in Africa: The Kilwa Chronicle and other Sixteenth-Century Portuguese Testimonies /; Bamana Texts in Arabic Characters: Some Leaves from Mali /; Arabic and Swahili Documents from the Pre-Colonial Congo and the EIC (Congo Free State, 1885-1908): Who were the Scribes? /; Section 4: Notes --; Moodibbo Bello Aamadu Mohammadu and the Daada Maaje, a Handbook in an Indigenous Fulfulde Script /; Elements of a 'Timbuktu Manual of Style' /; Seven Gravestones at the Muslim Tana Baru Cemetery in Cape Town: A Descriptive Note /; Kaʾana Umar's 'CCI Quran': The Making of a Bornuan Manuscript in the Twenty-First Century /; Index of Place Names --; List of Contributors / Nobili, Mauro --; Biddle, Michaelle --; Brigaglia, Andrea --; Bondarev, Dmitry --; Lliteras, Susana Molins --; Delmas, Adrien --; Tamari, Tal --; Luffin, Xavier --; Halirou, Mohamadou --; Dédéou, Mahmoud Mohamed / Jeppie, Shamil --; Gori, Alessandro --; Mutai, Maimadu Barma / Brigaglia, Andrea --