Ajami script
Ajami (Arabic: عجمي, ʿajamī) or Ajamiyya (Arabic: عجمية, ʿajamiyyah), which comes from the Arabic root for 'foreign' or 'stranger', is an Arabic-derived script used for writing African languages, particularly Songhai, Mandé, Hausa and Swahili, although many other languages are also written using the script, including Mooré, Pulaar, Wolof, and Yoruba. It is an adaptation of the Arabic script to write sounds not found in Standard Arabic. Rather than adding new letters, modifications usually consist of additional dots or lines added to pre-existing letters.[1]
History
The first languages written in the script were likely old Taseelhit or medieval Amazigh, Kanuri, or Songhay.[1] Later, Fulfulde, Hausa, Wolof, and Yoruba would use the script.[1][3] By the 17th century, the script was being used to publish religious texts and poetry.[3] Guinean Fulani poetry was written in Ajami from the middle of the 18th century.[3]
There is no standard system of using Ajami, and different writers may use letters with different values. Short vowels are written regularly with the help of vowel marks (which are seldom used in Arabic texts other than the Quran). Many medieval Hausa manuscripts, similar to the Timbuktu Manuscripts written in the Ajami script, have been discovered recently. and some of them describe constellations and calendars.[6]
Arabic ajami
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ـَ ـَا ب ب (same as b), ٻ (not used in Arabic) ث د د (same as d), ط (also used for ts) ـٜ (not used in Arabic) ـٰٜ ی (not used in Arabic) ف غ ه ـِ ـِى ج ك ك (same as k), ق ل م ن ـُ (same as u) ـُو (same as u) ر س ش ت ط (also used for ɗ), ڟ (not used in Arabic) ـُ (same as o) ـُو (same as o)
The script was first used between the 10th and the 16th centuries.[1] It was likely originally created with the intent of promoting Islam in West Africa.[2] The first languages written in the script were likely old Taseelhit or medieval Amazigh, Kanuri, or Songhay.[1] Later, Fulfulde, Hausa, Wolof, and Yoruba would use the script.[1][3] By the 17th century, the script was being used to publish religious texts and poetry.[3] Guinean Fulani poetry was written in Ajami from the middle of the 18th century.[3] During the pre-colonial period, Qur'anic schools taught Muslim children Arabic and, by extension, Ajami.[2] After Western colonization, a Latin orthography for Hausa was adopted and the Ajami script declined in popularity. Some anti-colonial groups and movements continued to use Ajami. An Islamic revival in the 19th century led to a wave of Ajami written works. Ajami remains in widespread use among Islamic circles[3] but exists in digraphia among the broader populace. Ajami is used ceremonially and for specific purposes, such as for local herbal preparations in the Jula language. There is no standard system of using Ajami, and different writers may use letters with different values. Short vowels are written regularly with the help of vowel marks (which are seldom used in Arabic texts other than the Quran). Many medieval Hausa manuscripts, similar to the Timbuktu Manuscripts written in the Ajami script, have been discovered recently. and some of them describe constellations and calendars.
this modified Arabic script was used everywhere. Shopkeepers kept records with it and poets wrote sprawling verses in it. religious texts, medical diagnoses, advertisements, love poems, business records, contracts, and writings on astrology, ethics, morality, history, and geography, all exist from people who were considered illiterate by the official governmental standards of their countries.centuries-old writing system was still thriving in many African countries. In the same way that the Roman alphabet has been adopted to write English, French, and Spanish languages, people in Senegal, Guinea, Nigeria, and other parts of West Africa use a modified Arabic alphabet to write in a number of local languages: Wolof, Hausa, Fula, Mandinka, Swahili, Amharic, Tigrigna, and Berber among them. It was an enormous discovery. This writing system, called Ajami, dispelled the false notion peddled by European colonialists that large swaths of communities in sub-Saharan Africa were illiterate, with no native written languages of their own. Some of the documents Ngom found on subsequent trips to the continent showed that their authors were code-switching throughout the text: writing in strict Arabic and in its modified Ajami form. Such writers were not just literate, but able to read and write in multiple languages.
Timuktu manuscripts Timbuktu Manuscripts, or Tombouctou Manuscripts, is a blanket term for the large number of historically significant manuscripts that have been preserved for centuries in private households in Timbuktu, a city in northern Mali. The collections include manuscripts about art, medicine, philosophy, and science, as well as copies of the Quran. Timbuktu manuscripts are the most well known set of West African manuscripts. The manuscripts are written in Arabic and several African languages, in the Ajami script; this includes, but is not limited to, Fula, Songhay, Tamasheq, Bambara, and Soninke. The dates of the manuscripts range between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranges from scholarly works to short letters. After the decline of the Mali Empire, the manuscripts were kept in the homes of Timbuktu locals, before research and digitisation efforts began in the 20th and 21st century. The manuscripts, and other cultural heritage in Mali, were imperilled during the Mali War. 4,203 of Timbuktu's manuscripts were burned or stolen following between 2012 and 2013. Some 350,000 manuscripts were transported to safety, and 300,000 of them were still in Bamako in 2022.
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