Preliminary notes on a page of premodern Songhay and Tamasheq poetry from Timbuktu

Among catalogued non-Arabic materials at the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, one fragment consisting of a single page stands out in several respects. Its format is quite unusual among West African Ajami materials in the prominence given to the Ajami material: it consists of two finely calligraphed non-Arabic poems, one in Koyra Chiini (Songhay) and one in Tamasheq (Tuareg Berber), with Arabic marginal and interlinear commentaries explaining the first of them. Linguistically, unlike most material examined, it seems to reflect a relatively early source: both the Koyra Chiini and the Tamasheq poems show archaisms predicted for earlier stages of the languages but unattested in 20th century materials. This presentation will explore the content of this fragment and its consequences for our understanding of the linguistic history of the region.

Blog: ajami.hypotheses.org/
Project: www.manuscript-cultures.uni-hamburg.de/ajami/index_e.html