Abdou Khadre Cisse Manuscripts

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/2144/28419

The collection consists of three sets of manuscripts. The first is a poem that celebrates Prophet Muḥammad’s virtues and retraces his life and the history of his family. The poem is written in Arabic with interlinear and marginal glosses. A few glosses are vocalized and are written in Soninke Ajami. The second manuscript is a Mandinka Ajami exegesis of the popular Mālikī jurisprudence (figh) text known as Al-Akhdarī widely used in West Africa. The third set of manuscripts consists of five types of texts which include prayers to help people achieve social mobility, a manual of special prayers and techniques for finding solutions to people's social problems (including love), and a personal letter in Mandinka Ajami.

This is a joint project between Boston University and the West African Research Center (WARC), funded by the British Library/Arcadia Endangered Archives Programme. Support for this project was provided by the BU College of Arts & Sciences (Dean Ann E. Cudd and Associate Dean Nancy Ammerman), the Department of Anthropology, and Boston University Libraries. Fieldwork Team: Professor Fallou Ngom (Principal Investigator; former Director of the African Studies Center), Ablaye Diakité (Local Project Manager), Mr. Ibrahima Yaffa (General Field Facilitator), and Ibrahima Ngom (photographer). Technical Team: Professor Fallou Ngom and Eleni Castro (Technical Lead, BU Libraries). This collection of Mandinka Ajami materials is copied as part of the African Studies Center’s African Ajami Library. Access Condition and Copyright: These materials are subject to copyright and are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are fully cited using the information below. For use, distribution or reproduction beyond these terms, contact Professor Fallou Ngom (fngom@bu.edu). Required Citation: Materials in this web edition should be cited as: Ngom, Fallou, Castro, Eleni, & Diakité, Ablaye. (2018). African Ajami Library: EAP 1042. Digital Preservation of Mandinka Ajami Materials of Casamance, Senegal. Boston: Boston University Libraries: http://hdl.handle.net/2144/27112. For Inquiries: please contact Professor Fallou Ngom (fngom@bu.edu). For technical assistance, please contact open-help@bu.edu.

Browse

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Koleyaalu Jaararaŋo: Solutions to Problems
Cisse, Imam Keba; Cisse, Batuma
This collection contains five different texts. The first one consists of prayers designed to help people achieve social mobility. This text is a manual of special prayers and techniques for finding solutions to people's social problems, including love. It begins with a short introduction in Mandinka Ajami describing the usefullness of the document. The rest of the document is in Arabic with numerous magic squares and diagrams, Arabic prayers, and names of the Prophet and God. The second, third, and fourth texts are also designed to address people's preoccupations. The content in these three texts include: prayers, esoteric diagrams and letters written in Arabic with instructions on how to use them effectively written in Mandinka Ajami. There is a clear division of labor between Arabic and Ajami writing in these texts. The Arabic prayers, esoteric diagrams, and unmodified letters are treated as the potent text, while the Mandinka Ajami writings are used for explanatory purposes, (i.e. used to explain to Mandinka Ajami literates how to use the potent Arabic prayers, figures, and unmodified letters). The first four texts are written by the late Imam Keba Cisse and, the fifth text is a letter in Mandinka Ajami written on tracing paper by Batuma Cisse. Batuma Cisse, who was then living in Dakar with his family, wrote the letter to his brother Imam Keba Cisse, the father of the manuscript owner. In the letter, Batuma updates his brother on his life and that of his family in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. The manuscript was digitized in the home of the owner (Abdou Khadre Cisse) in the neighborhood of Kandialang in Ziguinchor, Senegal.
Al-Akhdarī in Mandinka Ajami
Darboh, Al-Haji Basiru
The manuscript is a Mandinka Ajami exegesis of the popular Mālikī jurisprudence text known as Al-Akhdarī, which is used across Muslim West Africa. Al-Akhdarī, is based on the name of the Algerian scholar, Abū Yazīd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān bin Muḥammad al-Ṣaghīr bin Muḥammad bin ʿĀmir, who authored the original text in Arabic. He is regarded as one of the greatest Muslim scholars of Algeria. Similar interpretations and commentaries of Al-Akhdarī in Ajami exist in West Africa, including among the Fuuta Jalon Fula. Al-Akhdarī is one of the key texts of Islamic jurisprudence studied in Islamic schools in West Africa. The author of the Mandinka exegesis of Al-Akhdarī, like many other Muslims in the region, used Mandinka Ajami in order to broadly disseminate the ethos and traditions of Islam among his people, which is based on the Malikī School of jurisprudence. His intention was to ensure that Mandinka readers understand Islamic jurisprudence in their own language so that they can practice their religion without any confusion. On page 2, the author provides a list of Mandinka Ajami letters he used throughout the text. The manuscript was digitized in the home of the owner (Abdou Khadre Cisse) in the neighborhood of Kandialang in Ziguinchor, Senegal.
Biniiboo: Celebrating Prophet Muḥammad
Cisse, Fode Lamine
The manuscript is a long poem that praises Prophet Muhammad. It celebrates his virtues and retraces his life and the history of his family. It highlights how he overcame the numerous challenges he faced as he sought to spread Islam. According to the owner, Fode Lamine Cisse who was an important Mandinka religious scholar in Pakao, wrote the poem. He was inspired by the Arabic poetry of the Mandinka scholar Shaykh Alpha Diadji. The poem is written in Arabic with extensive interlinear and marginal glosses. A few glosses are vocalized and are written in Soninke Ajami. Red ink is used to highlight key words (including the name of Prophet Muḥammad) and some key letters. The color red is also used to cross out some words and phrases. There are also small decorative illustrations in red and black ink with Arabic words written inside them. The small designs include the following shapes: square, rectangle, and circle. Watermarks have been photographed (5 pages total) but the page numbers were not recorded. The manuscript was digitized in the home of the owner (Abdou Khadre Cisse) in the neighborhood of Kandialang in Ziguinchor, Senegal.

Browse

Recent Submissions