Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-k7p5g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T21:25:25.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Nigerian Qur'anic Manuscript Project: retrieving a unique resource on the Kanuri language and culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Dmitry Bondarev
Dmitry Bondarev*
Affiliation:
SOAS, University of London
Get access

Extract

“Many African languages have a long written tradition, e.g. Ge'ez, Kiswahili, Hausa, etc.” reads the summary of panel 21 of the AEGIS conference “African Manuscripts and Museum Collections in Europe”. The list could be extended to include other names familiar to a wider audience, e.g., Fula(ni) (Fulfulde), Manding (Mandenkan, Bambara, Dyula, Mandinka), Wolof, Asante (Akan), Songay. The Kanuri language however, needs some introduction. This is to a certain extent a historical paradox, because Kanuri was in fact the first African language to be extensively documented in the middle of the 19th century by Sigismund Koelle. In 1854 Koelle published two large volumes on Kanuri grammar and an anthology of oral narratives (1854a, 1854b). Remarkably, four tales from the Koelle's Kanuri anthology found their way into Volume 3 of the 3rd edition of the Grimm Brothers’ Children and Household Tales (1856).

Type
Articles
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 103 , 2007 , pp. 65 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Benton, Philip Askell. 1911. Kanuri readings. London: Oxford University Press [Repr. in P.A. Benton, The languages and peoples of Bornu. Vol. 2. London: Frank Cass, 1986].Google Scholar
Bivar, A.D.H. 1960. ‘A dated Kuran from Bornu’, Nigeria Magazine, 65, 1960, 199–205.Google Scholar
Bivar, A.D.H. 1968. ‘The Arabic calligraphy of West Africa’, African Language Review, 7, 1968, 7.Google Scholar
Bobboyi, Hamidu. 1992. The ‘Ulama of Borno: A study of the relations between scholars and state under the Sayfawa, 1470-1808. Ph.D. thesis. Evanston: Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Bobboyi, Hamidu. 1993. ‘Relations of the Borno ʿUlamāʾ with the Sayafawa rulers: the role of the mahrams’ Sudanic Africa, IV, 1993, 175–204.Google Scholar
Bondarev, Dmitry. 2006a. ‘The language of glosses in the Bornu Quranic manuscripts’, SOAS Bulletin, 69, 1, 2006, 113–140.Google Scholar
Bondarev, Dmitry. 2006b. ‘Archaic Kanembu in the Borno Qur'anic Manuscripts’, Borno Museum Society Newsletter (in press).Google Scholar
Bondarev, Dmitry. 2006c. ‘An archaic form of Kanuri/Kanembu (Lake Chad): a translation tool for Qur'anic studies’, Journal of Qur'anic Studies (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Déroche, François 1985. Les manuscrits du Coran. Du Maghreb è l'Insulinde. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale.Google Scholar
Ebied, R. Y. and Young, M. J. L.. 1976. ‘Some Maghribi manuscripts in the Leeds University collection’, Journal of Semitic Studies, 21, 109–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimm, Gebrüder [Jacob and Wilhelm]. 1856. Kinder-und Hausmärchen., 3. Band. 3rd edition, Göttingen: Dieterich.Google Scholar
Hopkins, J. F. and Levtzion, N.. 1981. Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hunwick, John. 1997. ‘The Arabic literary tradition of Nigeria’, Research in African Literatures, vol. 28, No 3, 1997, 210–223.Google Scholar
Imam, Y. O. 2004. ‘The tradition of Qur'anic learning in Borno’, Journal of Qur'anic studies, vol. 6, issue 2, 2004, 98–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koelle, Sigismund Wilhelm. 1854a. Grammar of the Bornu or Kanuri language. London: Church Missionary Society.Google Scholar
Koelle, Sigismund Wilhelm. 1854b. African Native Literature, or proverbs, tales, fables, and historical fragments in the Kanuri or Bornu language. London: Church Missionary Society.Google Scholar
Lange, Dierk. 1977. Le diwan des sultans du Kanem-Bornu. Chronologie et histoire d'un royaume africain. (de la fin du Xe siecle jusqu'a 1808). Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner.Google Scholar
Lange, Dierk. 1987. A Sudanic chronicle. The Borno expedition of Idris Alauma (1564-1576) according to the account of Ahmad b. Furtu. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.Google Scholar
Macdonald, J. No date. Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, I-VI. Unpublished catalogue, University of Leeds.Google Scholar
Palmer, H. R. 1928 Sudanese memoirs. Being mainly translations of a number of Arabic manuscripts relating to the Central and Western Sudan. V. I-III. Lagos: The Government Printer.Google Scholar
Palmer, H. R.. 1936 The Bornu Sahara and Sudan. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Young, M. J. L. 1980. Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, VII-VII. Unpublished catalogue, University of LeedsGoogle Scholar