MprinT@EAST_AFRICA
The project will explore a central hypothesis: Reforms in Islamic textual tradition and ritual practice during the 19th and 20th centuries took place within existing authority structures and led to a series of adaptations rather than breaks from tradition.
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Current research argues that “something” changed in Islamic thought during the 19th century and that this transformation is still ongoing. Where local Sufi brotherhoods once held religious authority based on a combination of ritual and text, a new, “global” Islam emerged that emphasized the foundational texts (the Quran and the Prophet’s practice). Researchers have offered many explanations for this shift, but particularly highlighted the rise of print from the mid-19th century. They argue that reformist texts could be more widely distributed as a result, and that traditional Sufi texts lost out in the modern world of print capitalism.
A core hypothesis of the MprinT project is that this perceived break between “traditional/local” and “modern/global” Islam must be tested by actual research into not only what Muslims read, but also HOW THEY READ. Were Sufi texts really discarded in the transition to print? How were texts transmitted orally after the transition – through recitation practices and rituals? How did this vary across locations? Are we really looking at a break from tradition, or was this a shift – via a series of adaptations – that took within the existing Islamic tradition?
In the MprinT project, we will answer these questions by mapping and documenting the manuscript-to-print transition along the Swahili coast of East Africa. By comparing texts that circulated in manuscript form with printed texts that started circulating from c. 1900, we will test whether the emergence of print actually favoured “global” Islam.
A database will be set up where digital versions of will be made available. The MprinT project will also investigate how selected texts have continued through oral transmission until the present, through communal recitation, ritual and teaching. By mapping the usage of text, we will determine how people’s perception of text has varied, between locations, generations and genders.
In this way, we will pave the way for a better understanding of the relationship between “local” and “global” Islam. This will nuance the widespread understanding of the former as peaceful and inclusive and the latter as puritanical and potentially violent.
MAY 2022: MprinT meets with staff of partner National Museum of Kenya in for a one week workshop on the mapping and digitizing of Islamic manuscripts in the Lamu Archipelago.
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
Follow the MprinT project along the way:
January 2024: Mprint field work Lamu/Pate, Hassen Kawo and the NMK team
The MprinT project has an outstanding “secret” team member who has yet to feature on this site. Hassen Muhammed Kawo has been head of department of Arabic at Addis Abeba University, and is presently a PhD student of Philosophy in Arabic Language and Literature at Mohamed Bin Zayed University in the UAE.
Hassen Kawo has his educational background from Addis Abeba and Zanzibar and long experience with Islamic manuscript collections in Ethiopia, including the rich and important collection in Harar. Hassen was also part of the team that digitized the Riyadha Mosque manuscript collection back in 2012 and which is now being properly catalogued (May be viewed online here)
In the MprinT project, Hassen Kawo has partcipated in field work in Lamu and Pate, together with the NMK team and with PhD student Raphael Michaeli. With his wide regional perspective he is also invaluable in identifying text fragments and obscure titles.
In January, Hassen, alongside the MprinT NMK team revisited Pate Island. The manuscripts collected during from the Alauddin family in 2023 were handed back to the owners after repair by NMK Lamu. This collection of manuscripts and prints derives from Shaykh Alauddin who was a Pate scholar who taught a halaqa (teaching circle) in his house. During this visit, focus was on the collection of early printed books, which shows the distribution of print beyond centres like Zanzibar and Lamu and – not least – histories of ownership and usage.
In the digitized collection of the Riyadha Mosque in Lamu and the Hassan bin Ameir collection in Zanzibar we find many interesting notes of ownership and stamps by booksellers. This information on printed books are very important for understanding the circulation of printed books, book collectors and local booksellers. As the MprinT project now moves into a new phase of detailed cataloguing and analysis, sellers, owners and collectors becomes an important focus.
A printed book with ownership note of the Shatiri family.
Printed books in Pate. Mwalimu Muhammad Aboud Nabhani.
Hassen Kawo at work, 2023.
A break at the Mangrove, Lamu Town, 2023.
6-7 December 2023: MprinT project workshop Mombasa
The MPrint Project hosted its regional workshop in the beautiful premises of National Museums of Kenya Heritage Training Institute in Mombasa on 6-7 December 2023. This was the first occasion where the MPrinT teams from Zanzibar and Lamu came together to share experiences from the mapping, digitizing and cataloguing efforts in the two locations. Many good discussions ensued on the challenges faced by the teams who conduct excellent work in the field – building trust with custodians, handling books and manuscripts and the technical aspects of the digitizing process.It was also an occasion for MprinT researchers and regional scholars to share results from the project so far and to engage with leaders of the National Museum of Kenya and the Zanzibari Department of Museums and Antiquities.Overall, the workshop highlighted the shared scriptural heritage of coastal East Africa and the importance of joint efforts to make this available for research in the region.
Thank you to all who attended, to the National Museum of Kenya for being gracious hosts and to all who kept us well fed and in the right place at the right time.
Lamu and Zanzibar teams together at last. From left to right: Hassan Ali Mohamed, Khaulah Abdulkadir, Habibu Mustafa Fatawi, Thwaiba Abdullah Mohamed, Khadija Issa Twahiru, Moza Zahran Mohamed, Khatib Suleiman Khatib, Mohammed Mwenje, Maryam Mansab, Adam Bakari.
Lamu team en route to Mombasa.
The obligatory group photo.
An afternoon break in Mombasa. From left to right: Hideaki Suzuki, Mohamed Aidaroos Noor, Aimana Assouani, Anne K. Bang, Maryam Mansab, Khadija Issa Twahiru, Rapahel Michaeli.
Mprint researcher Kjersti Larsen interviewed by Voice of America Swahili who covered the workshop.
Hassan Ndzovou, Moi University Eldoret and Maryam Mansab, Director of Department of Museums and Antiquities, Zanzibar.
June-July 2023: MprinT Fieldwork in Zanzibar
The second MprinT fieldwork was conducted in Zanzibar in June-July 2023 by post-doc Kubra Nugay. The stay included trips with the Mprint partner ZIAR (Zanzibar Insititute for Archives and Records) to the villages in the south of Zanzibar to search for text within the scope of the project, and digitizing the manuscripts and early printed texts from villages beyond Kibuteni, Kizimkazi-Mkunguni, Kizimkazi-Dimbani, and Makunduchi-Kijini. Especially Sheikh Hassan b. Ameir’s collection in Makunduchi-Kijini turned out to be a very interesting corpus of early printed texts.
The support of Sheikh Saidi Suleyman who accompanied the team on this fieldwork should not be forgotten. He made important contributions in planning the trips and in meeting the sheikhs and shehas in the villages, and by spreading the importance of the written heritage of Zanzibar in the programs he made at the Zanzibar National Radio station.
Mprint/ZIAR team at the Madrasat Hassania in Makunduchi, Zanzibar. Behind: Maymuna, Omar, Habib, Shemsa, Fuad, Zaynab. In Front: Thwaiba, young man from the madrasa, Kubra.
Field digitizing Makunduchi.
Printed books from the Hassan b. Ameir Collection in front of Qadiri members doing dhikr by his grave.
June 2023: MPRINT partnership with CSMC Hamburg
MprinT has partnered with the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at the University of Hamburg. The CSMC has long experience in constructing and hosting databases with digitized images of manuscripts and texts. In the coming year, the Mprint team will catalogue and upload images that will be available to users on the CSMC site. During an intensive two days we learnt the procedures and systems used in Hamburg and made plans for the way forward.
Mprint researchers visiting partners in Hamburg.
Spring semester 2023: Meet our guest researcher Dr. Ariela Marcus-Sells
Dr. Ariela Marcus-Sells is a guest researcher at the MprinT project in the spring semester of 2023. She is currently an associate professor in religious studies at Elon University in North Carolina. Her work focuses on the intellectual history of Muslim societies in West Africa. In particular, she has been part of a new wave of researchers who study texts and traditions that have been described as “magic” or “occult” and discuss these as part of a broader knowledge tradition within Islam. Her 2022 book Sorcery or Science? Contesting Knowledge and Practice in West African Sufi Texts (Pennsylvania State University Press) gives an in-depth discussion of how the Kunta scholars of the western Sahara Desert not only incorporated, but also defended the “sciences of the unseen” as a realm of knowledge. Many Islamic knowledge systems presume the existence of an invisible “realm of the unseen” that exists alongside of in, and sometimes within, the visible world of the senses. This invisible realm, and the practices associated with it, are apparent within manuscript traditions in Islamic Africa and beyond.
See interview below:
Dr. Ariela Marcus-Sells is a guest researcher at the MprinT project in the spring semester of 2023.
Interview with Dr. Ariela Marcus-Sells
Q: You have been among a group of scholars who have taken seriously the role of texts that earlier scholars simply labelled as “magic” and thus not part of the “grand” Islamic tradition. Why do you think this was the case before, and why do you think this is now changing?
A: In earlier research these texts were excised from the field of Islamic studies. This was partly because of the orientalist and colonial framing (and its protestant antecedents) which attempted to erect firm boundaries between science, religion and magic. There was also the element of racism; “magic” was a label for othering.
We are now coming off a couple of decades of post-colonial criticism which has undermined these old assumptions in the field of religious studies and which has tackled these old framings. After deconstructing a previous frameworks, it takes some time to build a new one. How can we approach knowledge systems within Islam (in this case) which does not fit easily on to these categories? What categories should we use instead?
My work – and that of others - build on excellent progress done in the study of Mediterranean and early/early modern European history that has sought to investigate how the category of magic has been labelled onto marginalised peoples. At the same time, this research has also brought to light how this type of knowledge was claimed by certain groups to shape and maintain their identity. In other words: What this research has shown, is that magic has entered into parallel discourses, aimed at exclusion and at claiming.
But why this surge now in the study of magic? I think it has to do with the cultural moment we find ourselves in. The synergy between knowledge and practice, we are now asking ourselves where they come from and how do we define them. We are asking questions about true knowledge (who defines it, and who has access to it) and how this translates into efficacious practice, for example in medicine, practice, self-help, hygiene, being a “good person”, improving the world, your family, your community etc. How do you know what works and what does not? What is that authority based on?This mirrors discussions in the past, and this is when we tend to ask these questions about the past. Such questions are never completely answered in any society. They permentantly challenged and contested. Fundamentally, from a humanistic framework, these are questions related to what it means to be human in a specific culture and a specific time.
These questions also form the theoretical framework of my book. What happens when someone tries to draw a boundary between “true” and “false” knowledge. The very act of doing so is what binds the drawer of the boundary to the opposing view. The two arenas are paradoxically reinforced. The discourse allows for these sites of challenge.
Q: As you have seen, texts that fall into the very broad category of “magic” also make up a substantial proportion of the MprinT corpus. At the moment, we do not yet have sufficient overview to give a percentage (it is somewhere around 15%). The vague number is partly because classification of such texts is hard to do. The line between Sufism, prayer collections and medicinal works and “magic” is hard – if not impossible - to draw. Miracles abound in Sufi narratives, amulets and incantations contain well-known prayers and healing practices often have elements of magic. Are these classification issues itself an indication that a differentiation between the sciences (ʿilm) and sorcery (sihr) is an outside (etic) attempt to introduce divisions where none existed?
LEFT: A talismanic chart using the so-called "seven seals of Solomon." Sīdi Muḥammad al-Kuntī, Al-Ṭarāʾif wa'l-talāʾid min karāmāt al-shaykhayn al-wālida wa'l-wālid, Manuscrits Orientaux, Arabe 6755, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fol. 208b. RIGHT: A talismanic chart using Arabic letters. Sīdī ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Ḥājj Ibrāhīm al-ʿAlawī, Sharḥ rushd al-ghāfil, Manuscrits Orientaux, Arabe 5599, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fol. 49a.
A: There were times and regions where there was no division. There were other times and places where scholars tried to impose such divisions. Political leaders – rulers – would also try. But even when they attempted to make such a division, their classifications were never clear.There is no one category that applies with a strict definition across space and time, nor was there ever a classification system that was universally accepted. This poses a problem for us as historians and cataloguers. If you choose an emic scheme, and impose a second-order classification, then you are choosing one voice over possible other voices. If you choose an etic scheme (say, for example “magic”) then you are choosing a framework from outside of the tradition, imposing a label that was not there. There are challenges with both. From within the tradition, the challenge is that since there is no one term, you actually create a fragmentation within the library or archive. You create the impression that certain things (like duʿāt and talismanāt) were completely separate categories when in fact they were closely linked.
Creating such separations will make it harder to both search across fields but moreover, to actually visualize a discourse that was in fact not bounded by discreet genres. Etic terms are not necessarily bad. They can be very useful for making sense of a cultural field beyond the kind of emic, technical terminology.
Sufism is itself an example. It is an etic term. There was no word for “Sufism” in the classical tradition. Rather, what we now know as “sufism” was a set of ethical guidelines on how to be a good Sufi. “Taṣawwuf” applied to this genre would have excluded literature of manaqib, silsila literature etc. So, having a heuristic term like Sufism/taṣawwuf helped focusing attention on a cultural current within Islam and gave rise to a whole field of research.
When it comes to magic, these terminologies are still being actively debated - unlike Sufism. The esoteric, the occult, the magic, sorcery, the unseen… (I am partial the latter term). To be honest, I am not sure we will get to the same level of terminology as we have for Sufism. This is because Sufism and its terminology was based on “a sufi” which is a emic term for a person, an individual identified as such. There is no comparable observable term for a “sāhir” – a sorcerer. There is also the fact that we have so many disparate, fragmented emic terms which in turn fragments the literature We are tied to the literature we study.
Q: In your book, you engage with the works of the Kunta scholars. Did you at the outset consider their textual production as either science or “magic” – i.e. did you make attempts at categorizing their works?
A: I started by trying not to impose framework but determine from within their writing. The question of sihr/magic versus ʿulūm/science derives from their own texts. Especially Sidi Muhammad, who spelled it out: Some scholars consider this specific practice to be sorcery, but, he says, they are not. Rather, he says, it is one of the ʿulūm al-ghayb (sciences of the unseen), and then proceeds to outline the sub-categories within them. He clearly defends it as a branch of science/ʿilm. His father is more concerned about the ʿilm itself and how it is to be accessed.
When I started, I did not assume any prior meaning to technical terms (like the magic squares or incantations/ruqya which Sidi Muhammad defines as a type of speech that produces healing. This was very challenging without preset definitions for the vocabulary! However, it often turned out that the Kunta too were using a common set of definitions, from the 13th century Egyptian scholar al-Buni etc. I really tried to avoid assuming that the Kunta were using preset categories – but the fact is that they often did. Trying to suspend assumptions about meaning was incredibly time-consuming.When I tried to decipher these texts in the 2010s there was not a lot published on this topic. My book came out in 2023 and by then there was a whole field emerging!
Q: In terms of cataloguing, we are trying in MprinT to stick with emic categories, such as fiqh, tawḥīd etc. However, this is complicated when it comes to the more occult texts, as no one emic category exists. Duʿāʾ, dhikr, ṭalismanāt, fawāʾid, siḥr, ṭibb, manāqib – these are all terms that are in use. They may change over time and with location. In your experience, what is the best way to go about this? Ideally without spending too much time on simply description…
A: Here is a very concrete suggestion: Create a primary category as the closest emic term. If you have a search field that is something like “comments”, I would choose one heuristic term that can signal to researchers that this is related to the field of the occult – an etic term. “ʿIlm al-ghayb” could be one such term. Whatever you choose, carefully define and discuss it on the site where the catalogue is hosted. This can now be done with reference to specific framework, as for example done by Liana Saif or Bernt Christian Otto. The important thing is that it is carefully argued and made transparent to other researchers who can understand why this term is chosen. A: Problems are also aplenty when it comes to authorship, or they are compilations assembled at unknown times. In your experience, what ways do we have to attribute authorship or date these manuscripts?
This is a massive challenge. Large parts of these works are either unattributed (no specific author) and they are undated. In order for a researcher to say anything about them, you need to tie them to historical context of some kind. I think putting work into the historical context (like by pinpointing the copyist is space and time) might help us going past the question of authorship. These texts are most often bricolages and there are many misattributions and deliberate forgeries. It is in fact more interesting to know where, when and why these copies were produced rather than who composed them in the first place. To achieve this, we need a much more concerted effort on paleography. Paleograhy was so central to the study of European text, especially for situating them in context. If we made only a fraction of this effort on the African Islamic manuscript tradition, we could make huge strides.
I think the main questions we should ask are: What material has lived on? How has it been re-contextualized and interpreted anew – and why? And conversely: What was discarded or abandoned and why?The fact that the author then has to feature as “unknown” is less of a problem in this context. Very often, this is anyway attributed. What will you do for example when an early printed copy of al-Bunī’s Shams al-Maʿārif al-Kubrā turns up in your MPrinT corpus? We know that it is attributed to al-Bunī, and it would say so on the title page. We also know that it was not authored by al-Bunī. Maybe it should be part of the title: “Shams al-Maʿārif al-Kubrā by al-Bunī”? In any case, the interesting point is that it was circulating in this particular region at this particular time.
LEFT: Surat al-Ikhlās in chart form with angel names on the corners. RIGHT:Talismanic chart with Arabic numerals. Mprint collection, MS from Zanzibar.
28 February–1 March 2023: MprinT project meeting in Bergen
For two days, the now fully staffed MprinT team met in Bergen to take stock of our work thus far and share experiences from the field and from our readings. Our project partners have collected thousands of digital images of a wide range of texts – from printed legal volumes to the most convoluted magic and astronomy fragments. One of our main challenges going forward will be catalgouing, and keeping order and system in the wealth of material. Above all, we discussed the core questions of the MpinT project: What changes and adappations can we see in this 19th-20th century corpus? What does this say about the manuscript-to-print transition and about the Islamic scriptural tradition during this shift?
Back row: Scott Reese (University of Hamburg), Mohamed Aydaroos Noor (PhD student, UiB), Raphael Michaeli (PhD student UiB). Front row: Kjersti Larsen (University of Oslo), Hatice Kubra Nugay (post-doc, UiB), Anne K. Bang (UiB).
Februar–March 2022: MprinT Field Work, Zanzibar
The first MprinT field work was conducted in Zanzibar in February-March 2022. The field work included early mapping and digitising of manuscripts from villages beyond Zanzibar Stone Town, as well as mosques within the city.
Activities also included a workshop with partner institutions from Kenya (National Museum of Kenya, Lamu Branch) and Zanzibar (Zanzibar Insititute for Archives and Records). Also part of the workshop were local scholars and custodians of textual and ritual heritage.
In this way the MprinT project aims to produce new historical insight, but not least to bring attention to a documentary heritage that is literally crumbling as we speak.
At the hawliya (commemoration) of Abd Allah BaKathir, a renowned Islamic scholar who died in Zanzibar in 1925.
Workshop with partners and custodians in Zanzibar.
Field digitizing.
May 2022: Start of collaboration with National Museum of Kenya
MPRINT GETS UNDERWAY IN LAMU, KENYA: One week workshop with staff of MprinT partner National Museum of Kenya, Lamu Branch, on the mapping and digitizing of Islamic manuscripts in the Lamu Archipelago. An excellent team with diverse expertise, from Islamic scholarship to conservation and cataloguing, to historians and social anthropologists. And not to forget the IT champions! During the workshop a unique collection came in all the way from Ndau Island, just in time for the experts to identify, wrap and prepare for digitizing. All in the beautiful surroundings of Lamu Fort.
MPRINT GOES TO PATE ISLAND: Over the course of just one week, the NMK/MprinT team conducted a first mapping of Islamic manuscripts in Pate Island, Lamu. The field trip included onsite cataloguing by the best experts, order and system ensured by the Lamu Fort Library staff, and thoroughly documented by the right expertise. The meetings with custodians is an integral and important part of the MprinT project to enable local conservation of textual heritage, and to document the usage of the knowledge enshrined in these texts.
MAY 2022: The field trip to Pate Island, Lamu, included onsite cataloguing by the best experts, order and system ensured by the Lamu Fort Library staff.
Mapping and digitising of Islamic manuscripts in Pate Island, Lamu.
Mapping and digitising of Islamic manuscripts in Pate Island, Lamu.
Mapping and digitising of Islamic manuscripts in Pate Island, Lamu.
May 2022: Early findings in Pate Island. With National Museum of Kenya team
MPRINT SPREADS ITS MESSAGE: An important part of the MprinT project is the interaction with custodians of texts, and their knowledge about its usage over time. During the recent field trip in Lamu, parts of the MprinT team spoke with local and regional media to raise awareness about the project on the East African coast. "Discovering" manuscripts is the media headline here, but in fact the textual heritage of East Africa is in no need to be discovered, as much as preserved, studied and appreciated as an inherent and living part of the Islamic tradition.
Media coverage by Nation:
Early findings in Pate Island. With National Museum of Kenya team.
National Museum of Kenya/MprinT
Video celebrating the Lamu local Ibrahim Athman BaSheikh who repairs worn-out books for the community.
Celebrating the Lamu local Ibrahim Athman BaSheikh who repairs worn-out books for the community.
August 2022: MprinT PhD student Raphael Michaeli
Raphael Michaeli formally joined the MprinT team on August 1st – after several months as an “apprentice” in field work. Since his first travel to Egypt in 2010, Raphael has been learning Arabic and Muslim History in different contexts and institutions. His MA thesis at the FU Berlin focused on three early Sufi compilations written in Arabic. While comparing stories, narratives, and writing styles, he studied the process of the early Sufi ethos formation as reflected in these works. As part of the MprinT project he will focus the influence of print on Arabic Muslim textual production in East Africa. While comparing manuscript textual tradition and early prints, the aim is to study the process of textual validation, continuity, and change in the East African coast of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Raphael Michaeli Assists in sorting out of Ndau fragile piece of the Manuscripts at Lamu Fort Library.
October/November 2022: Start of collaboration with Zanzibar Institute for Archives and Records
MPRINT TRAINING AT ZIAR: In October/November, MprinT staff Kjersti Larsen and Anne K. Bang held a training workshop with staff of MprinT partner Zanzibar Institute of Archives and Records (ZIAR), on the mapping and digitizing of Islamic manuscripts.
Working in the beautiful setting of the national archives, and with some of its unique treasures as training objects.
ZIAR staff mastering the digitalizing equipment used in the MprinT project.
ZIAR staff mastering the digitalizing equipment used in the MprinT project.
Mprint in Swahili
Malengo na Dhamira ya Mradi wa Mprint
Utafiti wa sasa unashinikiza kwamba kuna jambo lilibadilika katika fikra na utekelezaji wa Uislamu mnamo karne ya 19, na kwamba mabadiliko haya bado yanaendelea. Pale ambapo tarika za Kisufi za kienyeji zilikuwa zimeshika mamlaka ya kidini kwa msingi wa mchanganyiko wa mila na maandishi, Uislamu mpya, wa “kimataifa" uliibuka ambao ulisisitiza maandishi ya msingi ya Qur’an na mwenendo wa Mtume (Sunna). Watafiti wamependekeza maelezo mengi kwa mabadiliko haya, lakini wameashiria zaidi haswa ni kwa kuongezeka uchapishaji kutoka katikati ya karne ya 19. Wameelekeza kwenye uhakika wa kwamba maandishi ya Kiislamu yanaweza kusambazwa kwa upana zaidi, na wamejadili kuwa maandishi ya jadi ya Kisufi yalififia katika ulimwengu wa kisasa wa uchapishaji wa kiraslimali.
Nadharia ya msingi ya mradi wa MPrint ni kwamba mgawanyiko huu unaofikiriwa kati ya Uislamu wa “jadi/kienyeji na "kisasa/ulimwengu" lazima ujaribiwe na utafiti halisi sio tu wa kile Waislamu wanachosoma, lakini pia jinsi wanavyosoma. Je, ni kweli maandishi ya kisufi yalitupwa katika kipindi cha mpito cha uchapishaji? Ni jinsi gani maandishi yaliendelea kwa masimulizi, kupitia kukariri na mila, na vipi hili lilitofautiana kwa mujibu wa maeneo mbali mbali? Je, ni kweli tunaangalia mpasuko kutoka ujadi, au badala yake mabadiliko haya ni msururu wa hali ya kukabiliana na yanayofanyika ndani ya desturi za Uislamu uliopo ?
Katika mradi wa MPrint, tutajibu maswali haya kwa kuchora ramani na kuweka kumbukumbu juu ya mpito wa maandishi-hadi-uchapishaji katika pwani ya Waswahili ya Afrika Mashariki. Kwa kulinganisha maandishi ambayo yalisambaa katika hati ya mkono na maandishi yaliyochapishwa ambayo yalianza kusambaa kutoka takriban mwaka wa 1900, tutapima iwapo kuibuka kwa uchapishaji kulipendelea Uislamu wa “kimataifa”. Hifadhi itawekwa ambapo matoleo ya kidijitali ya maandishi ya hati ya mkono na maandishi ya kuchapisha yatapatikana. Mradi wa MPrint pia utachunguza jinsi maandishi maalum yalipitishwa kwa masimulizi, kupitia ukariri wa jumuiya, mila na mafundisho. Kwa kuchora ramani ya matumizi ya maandishi, tutabainisha jinsi mtazamo wa watu wa kuhusu maandishi umetofautiana, kati ya maeneo, vizazi na jinsia.
Kwa njia hii, tutafungua njia kwa ajili ya ufahamu bora wa uhusiano kati ya Uislamu wa "jadi" na "kimataifa". Hili litabadilisha uelewa ulioenea wa Uislamu kuwa ule wa zamani ulikuwa "wa amani" na ule wa baadae kuwa wa chuki na wenye uwezekano wa vurugu.
MPRINT KWA KISWAHILI
Radio segment from Zanzibar Broadcast Corporation, by Shaykh Saidi Suleiman. This segment highlights the importance of Islamic textual heritage in Zanzibar and explains the role of the Zanzibar Institute of Archives and Records in preserving this. It encourages custodians of such material to make it available for digitizing, and explains the process of digitizing on-site.
MAELEZO BAADA YA HABARI JUU YA NYARAKA TRH 06 JULY 2023 NA SH SAID SULE (mp3)
MAELEZO BAADA YA HABARI JUU YA NYARAKA TRH 06 JULY 2023 NA SH SAID SULE (mp3)
KEY FACTS
Full project title: MprinT@EAST_AFRICA. Islamic Manuscript, Print and Practice: Textual adaptations in coastal East Africa, c. 1880-2020
Project Manager: Anne Katrine Bang
Funding: Research Council of Norway
Project period: 2021–2025
Mprint in Swahili
