The Transmission of Knowledge: A Note on the Islamic Literatures of Africa

Abstract

The following pages contain a summary of data collected during many years of research on Islam in Africa. The material is already amply sufficient for a book, but so far no publisher has been found. Eight books and a dozen collections of songs may give an idea of the Swahili mate rial.1 While collecting texts for my Islamic Poetry of Africa,2 and for my article 'The use of Arabic Script for the Languages of Africa',3 it became clear that there are many lacunae in our knowledge since no systematic research had been conducted and/or published, whereas all the while new material is coming to light in the form of manuscripts in languages which were hitherto believed to possess no litera ture at all, let alone Islamic literature in Arabic script.4