ARABIC SCRIPTS IN WEST AFRICAN MANUSCRIPTS: A TENTATIVE CLASSIFICATION FROM THE DE GIRONCOURT COLLECTION

Arabic scripts employed in West African manuscripts have not been fully explored in scholarly literature. The aim of this paper is twofold: to discuss the literature available on this issue and to advance a classification of West African writing styles. This classification is based on the case study of the “de Gironcourt” collection of Arabic manuscripts, gathered in the modern states of Mali, Niger, and Nigeria at the beginning of the twentieth century.