Workshop: Voyage into Islamic Manuscripts of West Africa

Touching, Seeing, Hearing, Reading

Voyage into Islamic Manuscripts of West Africa 

The time when Africa south of the desert was considered to be a region bereft of any written culture are now over. Several publications, including the multivolume Arabic Literature of Africa (1993-present), do justice to the intellectual vibrancy of African Muslim intellectuals. However, West African Islamic manuscripts have mostly been studied as containers of texts, neglecting their material aspect as artifacts. This workshop approaches the study of these manuscripts from a holistic perspective as both containers and content, artifacts and texts, bringing together scholars from three continents that specialize in different aspects of manuscript studies. The workshop comprises introductory lectures to each of the macro themes: (1) manuscript as an object; (2) content of manuscripts; (3) languages of manuscripts. The lectures are followed by specific presentations on on-going research, hands-on manuscript sessions, a roundtable, and a public lecture.