The Fuuta Jalon ʿAjamī Tradition

Abstract Fula ʿAjamī texts have served as an important pedagogical tool, allowing for the spread of Islamic knowledge. ʿAjamī texts were crucial to compiling and circulating Islamic knowledge, inculcating “proper” behavior, and disseminating knowledge about the region’s history. This article situates Fula ʿAjamī texts in the broader history of Fuuta Jalon, emphasizing the role of these texts in the region’s history and processes of knowledge production. Many of the texts from Fuuta Jalon used in the neh ʿAjamī project serve a dual purpose: to educate and prescribe the proper path of righteousness in Islam, and to validate the religious and political rulers of the region as inheritors of a larger Muslim genealogy. In Fula ʿAjamī poetry, the veneration of religious leaders serves to raise up the Islamic traditions of Fuuta Jalon, and to center the region as an integral part of the Muslim world and a center of Islamic learning.