The language of the glosses in the Bornu quranic manuscripts

Abstract

The Bornu quranic manuscripts with interlinear ajami glosses in a Kanuri dialect were discovered by A. D. H. Bivar in the late 1950s. The unique corpus of written evidence for the Kanuri language as spoken over 300 years ago has never been analysed in any depth. The first part of the paper contains a general description of the collection and a discussion of codicological and palaeographical characteristics of the manuscripts. The second part comprises a brief note on the Kanuri language and a description of the Bornu writing system used for quranic commentary in this language. The third part explores the phonological and morphological properties of selected examples of glosses. Finally, a preliminary view on the dialect affiliation of the language of the glosses is suggested.

16 Language change induced by written codes: a case of Old Kanembu and Kanuri dialects

“…On the one hand, Tarjumo is associated with Qur'anic commentary and thus with the sacred knowledge possessed by Kanuri Muslim society. In literature we find references to a literary language in which the scholars communicate, including my own earlier publication (Bondarev 2006: 138; see also Bulakarima 1996;Dobronravin 1999). Thirdly, the notion of Tarjumo is linked to the educational and intellectual hierarchy within the ᶜulamāᵓ -the possessors of esoteric knowledge.…”

Multiglossia in West African Manuscripts: The Case of Borno, Nigeria

“…Unlike the gargams, the Borno Qur'ans have intensively been studied from the perspectives of various disciplines, including codicology and palaeography (Bivar 1960(Bivar , 1968(Bivar , 2007Bondarev 2006a, Blair 2008, linguistics (Bondarev 2005(Bondarev , 2006a(Bondarev , 2008(Bondarev , 2013, and Qur'anic/Islamic studies (Mustapha 1987, Bondarev 2006b, Al-Achtar and Bondarev 2008, Bondarev 2013a. In this section, I draw on this research to describe some salient features of the manuscripts and their content.…”

“…All manuscripts in the collection belong to an ancient calligraphic tradition characterised by heavy and angular strokes, and by distinctive letter-shapes and pointing (Bivar 1960, 1968, Bondarev 2006a. Bivar (1968) suggested that the Borno writing tradition represents the 'Ifrīqī' style,²⁰ so called by Ibn Khaldūn, the North African historian of the 4 th century who wrote that the old angular Ifrīqī script known in North Africa was being replaced by a more delicate (Maghribī) Andalusī script brought by the Spanish Muslims escaping the Reconquista.…”

“…According to Ibn Khaldūn, the old Ifrīqī script was preserved in the Sahara in south-western Tunisia. In my earlier publications (Bondarev 2006a(Bondarev , 2006b(Bondarev , and 2007) I followed Bivar's definition. In my earlier publications (Bondarev 2006a(Bondarev , 2006b(Bondarev , and 2007) I followed Bivar's definition.…”

An Archaic Form of Kanuri/Kanembu: A Translation Tool for Qur'anic Studies

“…b) The manuscripts, including the earliest, ShK, represent a high level of orthographic standardisation, indirectly attesting to a protographic tradition in early Borno (the 9 th /15 th century) or Kanem-Borno (the 7 th /13 th -8 th /14 th centuries). 27 c) The calligrapher of the only dated manuscript (1080/1669), traces his descent to the famous scholarly family of Masbarma, also of the early Borno period. 28 d) The language of Tarjumo has a secondary name, Kanembu, which reveals its linguistic and historical origin from Kanem.…”