Timbuktu Unbound: Islamic Texts, Textual Traditions and Heritage in West Africa (Heritage Studies in the Muslim World)

Timbuktu Unbound: Islamic Texts, Textual Traditions and Heritage in West Africa is a cutting edge collection offering a reconsideration of manuscripts in Muslim West Africa. The contributors give voice to the dynamic ways in which textuality operates through technological innovations, ongoing habituated practices, and how the workings of power and authority within these communities inform these texts and their roles. To that end this book explores a number of interrelated themes: the social value of texts as objects; personal libraries as forms of investment/legacy; social practices involved in the exchange, movement and gifting of certain kinds of manuscripts; hierarchies and evaluative treatments of manuscripts, and quasi-market forces. The recent destruction and subsequent salvage operations to protect the Timbuktu manuscript libraries has highlighted their role as the quintessential exemplar of manuscript heritage in newly historicized Africa. Yet these events also underscore the prevalent narrative about Muslim West African cultural heritage - embodied in the form of manuscripts, archives and documents - as under dramatic and existential threat. This volume seeks to diverge from this dominant salvific starting point of heritage discourse - namely, that such objects are things of intrinsic value to be saved - in order to examine the more nuanced activities of diverse actors engaged in the study, preservation, acquisition, movement and, in some cases, destruction and disposal of the wide range of materials that constitutes the textual heritage of these societies. Acknowledgements Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Timbuktu Unbound: Islamic Texts, Textual Traditions and Heritage in West Africa Tombouctou Sans Reliures: Textes Islamiques, Traditions Textuelles et Patrimoine en Afrique de l’Ouest West African Manuscript Heritage Texts, Textual Traditions and Textualities References Colonialism and Book Culture: The Resistance of the Muslim Scholarly Communities in Northern Nigeria Colonialisme et Culture du Livre: la Résistance des Communautés Savantes Musulmanes au Nord du Nigéria Introduction Pre-Colonial Scholarly Communities in Hausaland Scholarly Communities and Colonial Surveillance Scholarly Resistance Conclusion References A Treasure in Disarray: Reflections on the Institute of African Studies Arabic Manuscripts Collections Un Trésor en Désordre: Réflexions sur les collections de manuscrits arabes de. l’Institut des Études Africaines Introduction The Scaholars behind the Scripts: The Dyulas and Hausas Decolonizing Ghanaian History: Arabic Manuscripts as Indigenous Sources Managing the Collection: Prioritization Superimposed over Standard Practices Engaging the Manuscripts: Research, Translation and Publications Conservation and Preservation The Dawn of New Era: Revival of the IAS Arabic Project Final Thoughts: The Way Forward References Efficacious Texts: Unraveling Nineteenth-Century Islamic Talismans in Asante (Ghana) Textes Efficaces: Démêler les Talismans Islamiques du XIXe siècle à Asante (Ghana) Introduction Objects, Texts, Praxis and Controversies Beginnings Following the Trail... Textual Things Present Pasts Conclusion References Building Family and Community Ties Through Manuscripts Introduction Writing and Transmission West Africa as a Center of Manuscript Production Manuscripts Unbound Collective Reading and the Creation of Family Ties References Flecks of Timbuktu on the Skin: Excavating the Unbound Aspects of a Manuscript Collection Taches de Tombouctou sur la Peau: Fouillant les aspects non liés d’une collection de manuscrits Preparations A Recounting A Taphonomic Accounting A Ball-Point References Index