News – A-label: African Languages Between the Lines

Updated abstracts and presentations from Ajami Lab Workshop, 31 Oct-1 Nov, 2018

Presentations and slides from the Ajami Lab’s Nov 2018 workshop

While preparing some new material on types of Ajami manuscripts and specific approaches to study them (based on this talk), I post here an updated programme of the last year’s workshop. A big thank you to all participants and presenters! Here are the links to slide presentations (following the order of the talks in the programme):

Notes from the “Manuscripts and Development” Conference in Bamako

From November 16-17, 2018, myself and Dr. Maria Luisa Russo had the pleasure of attending and presenting at a conference on “Manuscripts and Development” put on by the Arabic Department of the University of Bamako.

Invited talk on N’ko at Bamako’s ISH

On Nov 29, 2018, Coleman Donaldson was invited to speak at Bamako’s Institute for Human Sciences (l’Institut des Sciences Humaines, ISH).

Ajami Lab Workshop, 31 Oct-1 Nov, 2018

The Ajami Lab is pleased to announce its next workshop which will take place from 31 October to 1 November, 2018, at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at the University of Hamburg.

Welcome to A-label!

This blog is a companion to the research of the Ajami Lab within the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at the Universität Hamburg. Focused on historical and modern instances of Ajami—that is, sub-Saharan African languages written in Arabic script—we aim here to share updates, anecdotes, and conceptual and methodological tools as we work to catalogue and analyse African Islamic manuscripts. In doing so, the blog will serve both other scholars of Ajami as well as a wider audience of scholars interested in the insights that can be gleaned from these understudied documents and literacy practices.