Reclamation, Digitization and Translation of Old Manuscripts
Background:
According to Microsoft Encarta, 2009, ‘Hausa-speaking communities have existed in each major city of West and North Africa as well as along the trans-Saharan trade and pilgrimage routes’ since the 11th century, when Islam made contact with the African hinterland. They were merchants who were famous for their voyages to other lands to trade, seek and preach knowledge and perform the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Their intellectual forays led to the collection and development of extensive literature in Romanized script. An Arabic-based writing system, called Ajami which developed with the spread of Islam, led to documentation of Islamic-Arabic and indigenous knowledge and literature in indigenous languages for over a thousand years; this was further encouraged by the Islamic reformers of west Africa in the 19th century.
Kabara (2010) paraphrased that, Libraries helps in the development of knowledge and boosts for research compartmentalization, innovations were developed because of developing documented ideas; the discovered behavioural and scientific records were highly kept in a library. Today libraries are the nerve canters of research and knowledge development.
In Nigerian pre colonial scenario, Islamic scholars contributed a lot in the development of librarianship, especially in classical era to the extent of the following perspectives:
1. They contributed by boosting literacy and education that led to the inculcating of knowledge and reproduction and transformation of intellectual ideologies in form of written materials for further research and development (knowledge recycling).
Knowledge recycling
The impact of the Islamic scholars in the development of librarianship in Nigeria is a dual and positive one. In essence, one way they contributed directly by developing their private collections, while in the other way they contributed indirectly by producing intellectual outcomes and boosting literacy and Islamic education which essentially led to the serious production of scholars to reproduce other intellectual outcomes as a library collections.
In fact, the logic here is, the more learners you have the more scholars you gain, the more scholars you have the more intellectual outcomes you gain, the more intellectual outcomes you have the more library collections you gain, and vice-versa.
2. They contributed by producing intellectual outcomes in different disciplines, such as the science of the Holy Qur’an (Ulumul Qur’an) and Qur’anic interpretation (Tafseer), the science of the Tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (Hadith), Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh), Monotheism (Tauheed), Sufism (Tasawwuf). Others are Logic (Mantiq), intonation (Tajweed), Arabic Grammar and Syntax (Nahw), Rhetoric and Elocution (Balaga), Etymology (Sarf), Prosody (Rasm), Astronomy (Falak), Arithmetic (Hisab), Geomancy (Raml), Medicine (Tibb), Politics and Administration (Siyasah), Sociology (Mu’amalah), Education (Ta’allum), Economics (Iqtisad) etc.
3. They contributed by developing their own collections as private libraries with manuscripts and some of printed materials (in the case of those that reached the print age). For instance, Kano scholars like Sheikh Abdurrahman Zaite of 14th century, Sheikh Abdulkareem Almaghili and Emir of Kano Muhammadu Rumfa of 15th century, Sheikh Tunisi Muhammad Zara (Wali mai Kargo) of 16th century, Sheikh Fatahallah Abu Ras (Bunsurun Dala). Others were Sheikh Abdullahi Siqah, Sheikh Ibrahim Musa Gero, Sheikh Umar Malam Kabara, Sheikh Sa’ad Bin Abdurrahman and many others are among the scholars that have gigantic collections within Kano metropolis itself, during classical period.
The Shaikh Nasir Kabara Research Centre (SNKRC) targets these materials for acquisition, preservation, public access and utilization.
Area of support:
The centre has accessed vast amounts of manuscripts at an old institute in Kano Nigeria called the Kano State School for Higher Islamic Studies, Shahuchi, kept in their library. The manuscripts contain hermeneutic writings, local history and indigenous industry dating back to hundreds of years. The manuscripts were said to have been collected by the institute over time, the documents are however timeworn and are degrading fast. The process of reclaiming the manuscripts, copying them, digitizing them for public use, translating them and bringing them to the public domain is a financially demanding task. It is in this area that the centre would request for support from the foundation.
Project title:
Reclamation, Digitization and Translation of Old Manuscripts in Kano State School for Higher Islamic Studies Library in Ancient City of Kano
Project Duration:
The project is expected to run for three years (2012-2014). Details are provided under implementation plan.
Project objectives:
a. To reclaim, process and provide this reservoir of indigenous knowledge for public use and for posterity by digitizing them and making them available online for easy retrieval,
b. To produce a television documentary on this great find,
c. To promote scholarly activities and intellectual discourse through the manuscripts.
Goal:
The goal of the centre in this project is to utilize the old indigenous literary works as a window into the past that will hopefully ginger intellectual discourse and research.
Implementation Plan:
The project is to be run on a three - year implementation plan as follows:
1. January to December, 2012 - reclaiming the manuscripts, copying them, scanning, digitizing and making them available for public use, both as hard copies and on the e-library,
2. January to December, 2013 – translation and publishing of selected manuscripts written by indigenous scholars covering Science subjects i.e. Medicine, Astronomy, Arithmetic etc,
3. January to June, 2014 – production of a television documentary on the manuscripts.
4. July to December, 2014 – organization of scholarly discourse on the manuscripts
Innovation:
The centre’s effort at ensuring the preservation and accessibility of critical primary source content for indigenous knowledge in West Africa is original in this area, especially in the Hausa indigenous areas from Kano to Katsina, Sokoto in Nigeria, to Maradi in Niger Republic to the north, up to Libya, Algeria and Egypt, to Maiduguri and Yola to southern Chad and Southern Cameroon, parts of Sudan to the east; and Ghana, Cote d’ Ivoire, Senegal, Mali and Gambia to the west.
The project is a model one in terms of transforming the traditional library and archival indigenous resources into a modern information super highway system.
Impact:
The project will have impact on research activities in the area of Pure, Social and Management Sciences by introducing researchers with indigenous intellectual reservoir, and translating some selected works written by West African scholars in the field of Pure Science, i.e. Medicine, Mathematics, Astronomy etc.
Documentary evidence on librarianship history, development and use in administration, as well as on indigenous history and industry like agriculture, tanning, dyeing, weaving, and metalworking and even medicine and astronomy can help open new vistas for research and intellectual activity.
