Register for a CSMC lecture

Wednesday, 11 June 2025, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm CET
Warburgstraße 28, 20354 Hamburg, room 3015, and online

Judicial Proceedings in Ajami Manuscript from the Bauchi Native Courts

Umma Aliyu Musa (University of Hamburg)

This presentation examines judicial proceedings from the Bauchi Native Courts during the colonial period in Nigeria. At the time, the Khadis (Islamic judges) were well versed in both Islamic jurisprudence and Ajami scholarship—Ajami being the use of Arabic script to write the Hausa language. With the advent of British colonial administration, Ajami was adopted as the medium for documenting court proceedings, particularly from around 1907 through to the late 1930s.

This presentation will explore the content of a manuscript to examine the roles of the Khadis, focusing on how they documented judicial proceedings—in terms of both writing style and the content, they chose to record. It will also consider the specific courts or regions where these cases took place, and the types of cases brought before them. By analyzing the structure and substance of these Ajami court records, the study aims to illuminate what was considered significant to be officially documented in the judicial records of Bauchi.

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