A THEMATIC EXPOSITION OF THE NUPE AJAMI MANUSCRIPT HERITAGE OF NORTHERN NIGERIA

After the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate in Nigeria early in the nineteenth century, various groups of Muslims adopted Ajami1 for transcribing their indigenous languages. The spread of Islam in Nupeland, like in other parts of the Muslim world, was thus accompanied by the growth of a local Islamic literature written in Arabic script. This essay calls attention to the Nupe Ajami manuscripts of northern Nigeria, with a view to clarifying their central themes. Previous studies reveal that the large intellectual output by the scholars of the Sokoto jihad includes not only Islamic religious sciences but also medicine, law, and administration. But researchers have not paid attention to the contents of Nupe Ajami manuscripts. I have chosen ten manuscripts for analysis in this essay. Seven of them are from the collection at the Northern History Research Scheme (NHRS), a postgraduate library in the department of history at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The remaining three manuscripts are from collections in private hands. I have cited only a few lines from each, and have provided their English transliterations and translations, followed by a concise commentary. By bringing this particular literary heritage to the attention of scholars, I hope this essay will stimulate research on Nupe Ajami that could broaden our understanding of the Islamic intellectual traditions of northern Nigeria