Ajami Lab

2017 – 2029

Coined in 2018, the Ajami Lab is a label that refers to past and present research related to Ajami, meaning sub-Saharan African languages written in Arabic script, conducted by scholars at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at the Universität Hamburg.

The Ajami Lab is a collaborative research hub for a network of specialists at the Universität Hamburg and beyond who investigate Ajami literacy, texts and manuscripts across Africa and its global diaspora. If you are interested in more information or in contributing to the network’s activities, please contact Dr Dmitry Bondarev at dmitry.bondarev"AT"uni-hamburg.de, and we would be happy to hear from you.

Currently, we are carrying out wide-scale documentation and study of Ajami writings in West Africa under the auspices of a long-term research project ‘African voices in the Islamic manuscripts from Mali: Documenting and exploring African languages written in Arabic script (Ajami)’, headed by Dr Dmitry Bondarev. The project – started in 2017 and projected until 2029 – is funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschunsgemeinschaft, DFG). The aim is to catalogue Ajami manuscripts held in private and state collections of Mali and West Africa as well as to carry out historical and linguistic analysis of the material brought to light by the cataloguing process. These endeavors are being jointly pursued by the Hamburg Unit working in Germany and the Bamako Unit in Mali.

For additional information and updates, visit the project website, follow us on our blog A-label: African Languages Between the Lines and on the Ajami Lab Twitter.