'Manuscripts and Arabic-Script Writing in Africa'

Edited by Charles C. Stewart and Ahmed Chaouki Binebin [View this email in your browser]( Edited by Charles C. Stewart and Ahmed Chaouki Binebin One of the lesser-known secrets of the African past is the breadth of literary record dating back over four hundred years. This is a tradition founded on Arabic writing and the writing of African languages in Arabic script, the subject of this volume of essays by eminent authorities on the manuscript cultures of North and West Africa. 'Manuscripts and Arabic-Script Writing in Africa' charts the state of the art in this rapidly expanding field, which began as a conference convened by The Islamic Manuscript Association and Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s Manuscripts Center in September 2021. The book explores the Arabic script in its widest possible usage in Africa: in Arabic texts, as a sacred Islamic script and as a script for writing African languages. Through various contributions, the book examines the social impact of Arabic-script writing, aiming to parse the materiality of the book in African societies and to understand African manuscripts in their life cycles from creation to archival shelf. Essays examine Arabic-script manuscripts as material objects, statements of social values, cultural affirmations, and spiritual companions. They peel back the chronological layers of `ajamī writing that has been used for instruction and cultural and political identity, and remind us of how new technologies enhance access to these manuscripts, just as they present challenges to the intellectual property they represent. The essays are organised into five parts: Manuscript Collections, Manuscript Networks, Manuscripts and Social Values and Technical Issues, with a concluding essay that identifies the core texts in West Africa’s manuscript culture during the past 300 years. To order or for further information, please get in touch via [email](mailto:sales@islamicmanuscript.org) or visit the [Islamic Manuscript website](. [Follow Us] [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [Been forwarded this email and want to receive it regularly? Subscribe to this newsletter]( Copyright © 2023 Hali Publications Limited, All rights reserved. [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences](