Abstract Miṣbāḥ al-arwāḥ fī uṣūl al-falāḥ, written by a fifteenth-century Maliki scholar from Tlemcen, Muḥammad al-Maghīlī (d. c. 1505), had a great influence on the religious and legal thought of ʿUthmān b. Fūdī (d. 1817), the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, and the issue of takfīr in the history of his jihad movement. Although this work has not been fully examined because only one manuscript was previously known, I recently identified two manuscripts of this work held at al-Khizāna al-Ḥasaniyya (mss. 13446 and 13722). In the present paper, I provide a brief examination of these newly identified manuscripts, particularly from the perspective of the historical study of the early Sokoto Caliphate.

Abstract Due to its Christian roots, western education in Nigeria was initially resisted by Muslims as Judeo-Christian agenda, despite some acquiescence and appropriation of values of western education for Islamic education system. However, from the mid-1980s, neoliberal economic policies led to decline of government responsibility over education, and by the new millennium, private enterprise had become the major provider of education in Nigeria. The fear of Christianisation through education particularly challenged the Muslims. Socio-economic contingencies and prodding by the Muslim populace encouraged some of the ulama to venture into edupreneurship. Using the infrastructures of the madrasa, they adapted by establishing Western-style nursery/primary schools, running the two systems in the same space but at different times. What are the arguments of these scholars? Using the analytical lens of adaptive position-taking, this paper argues that, apart from the economic benefits, the trend also broadens Muslims’ socio-economic and political agenda.

Abstract Qurʾān exegesis (tafsīr) in African Muslim societies represented the pinnacle of scholarly achievement, and public explanation of the Qurʾān was the event that marked the emergence of one of Africa’s most successful Sufi revivals, the “Community of the Flood” of the Senegalese Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse (d. 1975). Niasse’s network of knowledge transmission, foregrounding the direct experiential knowledge of God (maʿrifa bi-Llāh), continued to emphasize Qurʾān learning, but Niasse’s own recorded Arabic tafsīr demonstrated a shift away from traditional West African sources in this field. Prior understandings of the West African tafsīr discipline locate the fifteenth-century Egyptian Tafsīr al-Jalālayn as the primary influence on West African understandings. But Niasse’s tafsīr exhibits a clear preference for an early eighteenth-century Ottoman multivolume work, Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqī’s “Spirit of Explanation” (Rūh al-bayān), one of the most comprehensive summaries of Sufi understandings of the Qurʾān. This paper not only demonstrates the globally-connected nature of Islamic knowledge production in West Africa but also argues that Niasse’s emphasis on gnosis built on the Rūḥ al-bayān to ultimately occasion a noteworthy addition to the existing literary corpus of Qurʾān exegesis.

Abstract This article provides an in-depth look at the past ten years of the African ʿAjamī Library project, founded and led by Dr. Fallou Ngom, Professor of Anthropology and former Director of the African Studies Center at Boston University, with the goal to serve as a digital continental open access public repository of aggregated digitized ʿAjamī texts from non-Europhone Africa. With over 31,400 pages of manuscripts – hosted at Boston University’s institutional repository, OpenBU – the African ʿAjamī Library has had over half a million individual views and downloads to-date. The article examines the types of manuscripts digitized; manuscript impact, visibility and usage; fieldwork locations and methodologies; the importance of local project teams and partnerships, and what the next ten years might look like for this project.

Abstract With Africa poised at the threshold of a typographic renaissance, its writing systems often face unique challenges when entering the digital environment. This chapter offers an overview of the current state of technical support for the digitization and creation of African ʿAjamī texts, the fonts and input methods currently available for that task, and the technical challenges remaining to be resolved to fully accommodate scholars and creators of textual content in African languages written with the Arabic script. The considerations that went into the design and production of the typeface family Kigelia Arabic are also briefly outlined, showing the challenges in creating fonts that address traditional sub-Saharan, Sahelian forms in all their variations and alternatives. This will be accompanied by an overview of the development of ʿAjamī-specific keyboards and methods for expanding features and key layouts for different language communities.

Abstract Using Mandinka ʿAjamī sources, the article explores the meaning, purpose, and usefulness of proverbs among the Mandinka people of Casamance, Senegal and The Gambia who speak the variety known as Western Mandinka. Proverbs are by nature vehicles for the transmission of moral, ethical, and philosophical wisdom in society. Therefore, they serve as pivotal educational tools. This article examines their persistence, spread, and social purpose in Mandinka societies of Senegambia and beyond. The examples discussed show how proverbs are not isolated sayings, but function in a complex social and cultural context. The article suggests that they present specific challenges for translators and interpreters who may not be familiar with relevant cultural and linguistic intricacies. Consulting with local communities and local language experts is therefore an indispensable part of such research.

Abstract How do ʿAjamī scholars translate Sufi spirituality and esoteric concepts into a language accessible to their audience? The body of Senegalese Wolof ʿAjamī poetry often seeks to translate divine concepts into a language that is local, both in time and place. This translation takes place within the local language in all of its literary dimensions. For the Wolof ʿAjamī poet, proverbs, parables, and metaphors are key literary devices that facilitate understanding among listeners. Studying ʿAjamī poems opens a window into a historic locality, teaching the contemporary reader-listener about both Sufi spirituality and the particular contexts in which the poems were produced. Through these metaphors, the poet ʿAjamizes, conferring sacred meaning onto practices and devices that otherwise might be outside the Sufi realm. In the process, metaphors become vessels of divine meaning. This article treats the metaphor as a key literary device whose understanding is paramount for grasping the meaning of the religious message. Treating the poems as social documents and works of literature also offers scholars new possibilities for understanding the everyday life of ordinary users in Senegambia.

Abstract The article discusses the rich oral and written traditions of the Mandinka communities in West Africa. Their oral traditions, which are embodied by the jali (griot) caste, have served for centuries to transmit multiple forms of knowledge between generations. Besides their oral traditions, multiple forms of literacy coexist with illiteracy in the Mandinka communities in Senegambia. The first form of literacy in Mandinka communities is ʿAjamī. Currently, ʿAjamī remains the primary means of written communication for many Mandinka speakers in Senegambia. They keep their records of various events and transmit various forms of knowledge in this medium. Using selected Mandinka ʿAjamī texts, this paper focuses on the innovations that Mandinka scholars have made to the classical Arabic script in order to develop their own ʿAjamī writing system. I discuss the people who use the system, the types of texts that are produced, and the broader social and cultural significance of ʿAjamī in Senegambian Mandinka communities.

Abstract African ʿAjamī literatures hold a wealth of knowledge on the history and intellectual traditions of the region but are largely unknown to the larger public. Our special issue seeks to enhance a broader understanding of this important part of the Islamic world, exploring the ʿAjamī literatures and literacies of four main language groups of Muslim West Africa: Hausa, Mandinka, Fula, and Wolof. Through increasing access to primary sources in ʿAjamī and utilizing an innovative multimedia approach, our research contributes to an interpretive and comparative analysis of African ʿAjamī literacy, with its multiple purposes, forms, and custodians. Our Editorial Introduction to the special issue discusses the building blocks and historical development of ʿAjamī cultures in West Africa, outlines the longitudinal collaborative research initiatives that our special issue draws upon, and explores the challenges and opportunities for participatory knowledge-making that accompany the rise of digital technologies in the study of African literatures and literacies.