The Swahili Manuscripts Project at Soas, 2000-2004

The Swahili Manuscripts Project started in October 2000 at the School of Oriental and African studies (SOAS), funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and administered by the SOAS Faculty of Languages and Cultures, under the supervision of Prof. Graham Furniss, Dr Farouk Topan, and the SOAS Archivist, Ms Rosemary Seton. The lead researcher of the project was Sh. Yahya Ali Omar, who is one of the few remaining scholars who can read and comment on the content of manuscripts. The expertise of Sh. Yahya has been fundamental for the creation of the catalogue. Sh. Yahya was assisted by two research assistants, Annmarie Drury and Angelica Baschiera. The main focus of the Project has been to create an online academic catalogue of the extensive collections of Swahili Manuscripts held in the SOAS Archives.