One need not go to West African or anywhere else to contribute to research of manuscripts that contain instances of African languages written in Ajami (that is, Arabic characters).

What follows is a list of the most prominent collection of Ajami texts and or resources available on the internet that I could find.

NOTE: An easier-to-read and open-access PDF of this post is available here.

Selected Collections in the West

Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF)

Manuscrits Arabes

https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc135449

Inventory of the Umarian Library (AKA Fonds Archinard, which includes Umar Tal’s collection from 1890): https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1301519/f3.image

Catalogue des manuscrits arabes du fonds de Gironcourt (1878-1960): https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb43855829f

Arabic Manuscripts from West Africa: A Catalog of the Herskovits Library Collection at Northwestern

http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/arbmss/index.html

Guide to collection (newer introduction than the above link and includes a link to search their catalogue): http://libguides.northwestern.edu/c.php?g=492192&p=3366800. Most in Arabic. Some Hausa, Fulfulde, Wolof, Dagbani and Gonja. From Northern Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal in late 19th and early 20th centuries. Can be searched but not viewed online.

The ‘Umar Falke Collection

The John Paden Collection

The John Hunwick Collection

The University of Ghana Collection

Collected by Wilks. Photocopies of what he deposited at University of Ghana and used for books on Gonja and Wala in northwestern Ghana.

Selected Collections on the Internet

British Library’s Endangered Archive Program (EAP)

Digital preservation of Wolof Ajami manuscripts of Senegal (EAP334)

https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP334

Same as BU Ajami Library collection for Wolof. Includes Quran that Jeremy investigated in his article.

Digital Preservation of Mandinka Ajami Materials of Casamance, Senegal (EAP1042; same as BU Mandinka)

https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1042

Only significant collection of Manding manuscripts that is currently accessible online.

Safeguarding Fulfulde ajami manuscripts of Nigerian Jihad poetry by Usman dan Fodio (1754-1817) and contemporaries (EAP387)

https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP387

Digital Preservation of Mandinka Ajami Materials of Casamance, Senegal (EAP1042)

https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1042

Project to digitise and preserve the manuscripts of Djenné and surrounding villages (EAP690)

https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP690

Trinity College Dublin

http://www.tcd.ie/library/manuscripts/collections/asian.php

https://manuscripts.catalogue.tcd.ie/CalmView/Default.aspx?

https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/

Use the digital collections link to search for “Arabic manuscript” and then find the following shelf marks which are online and include Soninke and Mandinka Ajami as identified by Darya: IE TCD MS 3499, 3500, 2179, 2689.

They also have mss with Ajami Hausa: e.g. 2258 and 3335.

Leiden University

Leiden University Library, ms OR. 14.052 (with glosses in Soninke) (http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:1567357)

Bibliothèque Universitaire des Langues et Civilisations (BULAC)

Manuscrits arabes (https://bina.bulac.fr/items/browse?collection=1)

Twenty-seven digitized manuscripts.

MS.ARA.610bis: Fulani Ajami (names of plants)

African Languages Material Archive (ALMA)

http://alma.matrix.msu.edu/alma-authors#ajami

Brief introduction and then exclusively Wolof documents from Ngom’s documentation efforts. Not clear how distinct from the other stuff of his that is out there.

African Online Digital Library (AODL)

Diversity and Tolerance in the Islam of West Africa (http://aodl.org/islamictolerance/about.php)

Ajami in the Senegambia

http://aodl.org/islamictolerance/ajami/

Profiles by Ngom of different Ajami scholars along with texts, transliterations and media files.

Northern Factors in Asante History

http://aodl.org/islamictolerance/asantehistory/

Some Wangara interviews and pictures connected to Bobo-Dioulasso and Marhaba of Kong.

Qadiri Community of Buh Kunta

http://aodl.org/islamictolerance/ndiassane/

No Ajami

Pluralism and Adaptation in the Islamic Practice of Senegal and Ghana (http://aodl.org/islamicpluraxlism)

A continuation of the “Diversity and Tolerance” project listed above; Includes Ajami documents that can be searched via browse)

Discourses of Muslim Scholars in Colonial Ghana

http://aodl.org/islamicpluralism/goldcoast/

This gallery consists of English translations of Arabic and Hausa texts written by Al-hajj Umar ibn Bakri, a West African Muslim scholar of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Al-hajj Umar was a member of a Hausa Muslim family from Kano, Nigeria, who resided most of his adult life in Kete-Krachi, a town in what would be in today’s Ghana. His poems, considered some of best examples of Arabic expression in West Africa in this era, comment on European colonial rule, the activities of Muslim leaders, and other topics.

Includes file with approximate translation

Failed Islamic States in Senegambia

http://aodl.org/islamicpluralism/failedislamicstates/

English translation of verses from ‘ajami poem of Mohammadou Aliou Tyam celebrating the triumph over and entry into the Bambara capital of Segu in 1861.

West African Online Digital Library

http://aodl.org/westafrica/

Galleries of photographs, audio interviews, and documents contributed by scholars, with research about best practices for international, multilingual digital repositories. List of galleries with descriptions: http://aodl.org/westafrica/galleries.php

Curtin: http://aodl.org/westafrica/curtin.php

Includes African language interviews and translations that Curtin did.

Bonduku: http://aodl.org/westafrica/bondoukou.php

Potentially interesting photos of typical Jula style mosques etc.

The history and culture of Futa Toro, Senegal and Mauritania: http://aodl.org/westafrica/futa2.php

Africa’s Sources of Knowledge – Digital Library (ASK-DL) at Harvard

http://ask-dl.fas.harvard.edu/

Includes Ajami materials for Fulani, Hausa and Swahili. “Bamanankan” is only in N’ko.

West African Arabic Manuscript Database

http://www.westafricanmanuscripts.org/home

Started by Charles Stewart

19,000 manuscripts from eleven different collections

Collaboration with Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation

Used to catalogue Northwestern collections

Archive of the Republic of Niger (AREN) at Boston University

http://www.bu.edu/library/african-studies/aren/

This collection includes some Ajami material, including children’s books in Hausa. While cataloging of this collection is a work in progress, a partial listing of books is available here (http://www.bu.edu/library/files/2015/04/Niger_Book_Donations.pdf)

The list lists works that are Arabic or Ajami—could search and put into a post

African Ajami Library at Boston University

https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/1896

Often (or always?) overlaps with the EAP collections

Mandinka Ajami Manuscripts (In Progress) [41]

Fuuta Jalon Pular Ajami Manuscripts [25]

Hausa Manuscripts [6]

Philippe Beaujard Sorabe (Malagasy) Ajami Collection [69]

Wolofal Manuscripts, Senegal [27]

The Oriental Manuscript Projet (OMAR)

http://omar.ub.uni-freiburg.de/index.php?id=homepage

Digital repository at University of Freiburg in collaboration with University of Tubingen

2,500 Arabic manuscripts from Mauritania

Digitized from microfilms collected between 1979 and 1997

Library of Congress

http://international.loc.gov/intldl/malihtml/malihome.html

2003 digital copies from the Mamma Haidara Library and Cheikh Zayni Baye Library in Boujheba, Mali.

Hill Museum and Manuscripts Library

https://www.vhmml.org/readingRoom/

Sign up for account to view for free

Digital copies of Savama-DCI from between 2013-2016

As of November 6, 2018: 7612 digitized but not catalogued from Aboubacar Bin Said Library; 20628 in process of being digitzed from the Mamma Haidara Library

As of November 6, 2018, 1471 from Mamma Haidara Library (2017-02-24) and 1492 from Aboubacar Bin Said Library (2017-07-31) are digitized, catalogued and viewable.

SOAS Digital Collections

Hausa Language Resources

https://digital.soas.ac.uk/hausa

Includes a History of Samory

Borno and Old Kanembu Islamic Manuscripts

https://digital.soas.ac.uk/okim

Other

Profiles in Nigerien Artisanry: The Artists of Niamey

http://www.bu.edu/africa/alp/index1/profiles/

The Niger Artisans Project consists of 12 candid conversations with artisans working in Niamey, Niger. The artisans featured here fall into a category more closely related to the corresponding Hausa term ma’aikatan hannu, or people who work with their hands. Each interview includes a transcription in Ajami.

Ajami Texts in BU Libraries

https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/8484

A page that includes bibliographies about BU’s holdings related to Ajami for the following languages: Swahili, Hausa, Kanuri, Joola, Fulani as well as a general Ajami references.

BU Library Guide

BU Library Guide

http://library.bu.edu/c.php?g=530950&p=3631942

A guide for researchers and students that lists potential Ajami resources that exist online.

Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Guide

https://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=806797&p=5756550

“This guide was created to help researchers locate manuscripts originating from West Africa, written in Arabic or in Ajami – a modified Arabic script used to write African languages. Here you will find information on our holdings here at the University of Illinois; electronic resources available for use; as well as archival holdings both in the United States and abroad.”

Super detailed guide covering manuscripts at Illinois, Electronic Resources and a brief overview of physical archives in West Africa and elsewhere.

Ngom 2017 Article

Ngom, F. (2017). West African Manuscripts in Arabic and African Languages and Digital Preservation. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. http://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/files/2017/10/Oxford-Research-Encyclopedia-article.pdf

Expansive article that tries to lay out the history and current state of West African manuscripts.

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