SMC 12

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.

FrontmatterI - VI

AcknowledgementsVII - VIII

ContentsIX - X

Introduction: African History and Islamic Manuscript Cultures1
by Mauro Nobili

Writing Supports

New Strategies in Using Watermarks to Date Sub-Saharan Islamic Manuscripts27
by Michaelle Biddle

Fī Lawḥin Maḥfūẓ: Towards a Phenomenological Analysis of the Quranic Tablet69
by Andrea Brigaglia

Around the Texts

Islamic Education and Ample Space Layout in West African Islamic Manuscripts105
by Dmitry Bondarev

A Preliminary Appraisal of Marginalia in West African Manuscripts from the
Mamma Haidara Memorial Library Collection (Timbuktu)143
by Susana Molins Lliteras

Writing Practices and Authorship around the Continents

Writing in Africa: The Kilwa Chronicle and other Sixteenth-Century Portuguese Testimonies181
by Adrien Delmas

Bamana Texts in Arabic Characters: Some Leaves from Mali207
by Tal Tamari

Arabic and Swahili Documents from the Pre-Colonial Congo and the EIC (Congo Free State, 1885–1908):
Who were the Scribes?279
by Xavier Luffin

Notes

Moodibbo Bello Aamadu Mohammadu and the Daada Maaje, a Handbook in an Indigenous Fulfulde Script299
by Mohamadou Halirou

Elements of a ‘Timbuktu Manual of Style’309
by Mahmoud Mohamed Dédéou and Shamil Jeppie

Seven Gravestones at the Muslim Tana Baru Cemetery in Cape Town: A Descriptive Note313
by Alessandro Gori

Kaʾana Umar’s ‘CCI Quran’: The Making of a Bornuan Manuscript in the Twenty-First Century331
by Maimadu Barma Mutai and Andrea Brigaglia


Index of Place Names353

List of Contributors365