The Trans-Saharan Book Trade: Manuscript Culture, Arabic Literacy and Intellectual History in Muslim Africa

Thông tin sách: The Trans-Saharan Book Trade: Manuscript Culture, Arabic Literacy and Intellectual History in Muslim Africa (Leather Bound, 440 trang) – Brill, 2010. Ngôn ngữ: Tiếng Anh.

As the manuscript treasures in the libraries of Timbuktu and throughout the northwestern quarter of Africa become known, many questions are raised. How did a manuscript culture flourish in the Sahara and in Muslim Africa more generally? Under what conditions did African intellectuals thrive, and how did they acquire scholarly works and the writing paper necessary to contribute to knowledge? By exploring the history of the trans-Saharan book and paper trades, the scholarly production and teaching curriculae of African Muslims and the formation, preservation and codicology of library collections, the authors of this original volume provide a variety of answers. The select number of invited contributions represents current research in the material, technological, economic, and cultural dimensions of manuscript production, circulation, and preservation, and the development of specific scholarly and intellectual traditions in Saharan and Sudanic Africa Editorial Reviews About the Author Graziano Krätli is the International Digital Projects Librarian at Yale University. He has published articles and translations of American, British and Indian authors, travel literature, and the history of the book in non-Western societies.

Ghislaine Lydon is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who specializes in the cultural and economic history of Western Africa and the Sahara.

The contributors are Said Ennahid, Abdel Kader Haïdara, Bruce S. Hall, Graziano Krätli, Murray Last, Ghislaine Lydon, Stefan Reichmuth, Eric Ross, Judith Scheele, Charles C. Stewart, Houari Touati, and Terence Walz.