African voices in the Islamic manuscripts from Mali: documenting and exploring African languages written in Arabic script (Ajami)

用阿拉伯文字(阿贾米语)书写的非洲语言是非洲研究中一个被忽视的领域。当地语言在多语言和多民族的西非存在了几个世纪的穆斯林识字和伊斯兰手稿文化中所起的作用仍然知之甚少。为了填补我们在了解非洲语言和文化方面的空白，该项目将对转移到巴马科的廷巴克图藏品以及马里其他一些图书馆中保存的阿贾米人手稿进行大规模研究。该项目的主要目标如下。(1)对大量具有代表性的阿加米手稿进行深入编目。(2)对编目过程中发现的材料进行历史和语言分析。(3)为阿贾米研究的跨学科领域建立一个基金会。这些任务将由一个学者小组执行，一个小组在德国工作，另一个在马里工作。这项研究计划持续12年，将与国际专家合作进行。该项目的成果将对许多领域的研究具有重要意义，例如撒哈拉以南非洲的历史、伊斯兰思想史、人类学、扫盲研究、社会语言学和比较手稿研究。

African languages written in Arabic script (Ajami) are a neglected field of African studies. The role played by local languages in the Muslim literacy and the Islamic manuscript cultures that have existed for centuries in multilingual and multiethnic West Africa is still only poorly understood. In order to fill the gaps in our understanding of African languages and cultures, the project will carry out large-scale research on the Ajami manuscripts held in the Timbuktu collections transferred to Bamako, as well as in some other Malian libraries. The main objectives of the project are as follows. (1) In-depth cataloguing of a large and representative number of the Ajami manuscripts. (2) Historical and linguistic analysis of the material brought to light by the cataloguing process. (3) Establishment of a foundation for the interdisciplinary field of Ajami studies. These tasks will be performed by a team of scholars, one unit working in Germany and the other in Mali. The research, planned to span twelve years, will be conducted in collaboration with international specialists. The results of the project will be of importance for many fields of research, such as the history of sub-Saharan Africa, the history of Islamic thought, anthropology,literacy studies, sociolinguistics and comparative manuscript studies.