Islamic Manuscript Collections in Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopian Muslims introduced literary culture and manuscript collection in the mosques after the introduction of Islam in the seventh century. Books stored and preserved in a bookshelves known as taqet (Arabic, tāqat, shelf). This clearly shows African endogenous culture of preserving textual material that before the introduction of European models for archives and museums. This article demonstrates the collection of Islamic manuscripts in Ethiopian state archives and private collections and illustrates their challenges with recommendation to rescue the collections.