Les lettres du pouvoir au Sahel islamique : Marques, adaptations et continuités administratives au Borno (1823-1918)
- Submitting institution
-
The University of Warwick
- Unit of assessment
- 28 - History
- Output identifier
- 12147
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
10.4000/etudesafricaines.27491
- Title of journal
- Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 1047
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 236
- ISSN
- 0008-0055
- Open access status
- Deposit exception
- Month of publication
- October
- Year of publication
- 2019
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- Yes
- Additional information
- -
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- Yes
- English abstract
- This paper analyses 37 diplomatic letters from Borno (North-Eastern Nigeria), between 1824 and 1918 to explore the functioning of an administration serving the Muslim dynasty before colonization. The graphic variations in these letters reveal an administration at work, one that adapted its scriptural practices according to the recipient. The graphological analysis of the handwriting makes it possible to identify a family of secretaries dating back to the 16th century, whose responsibilities remained continuous throughout palace revolutions. These secretaries were descendants of the imam Aḥmad b. Furṭū (c. 1576), ensuring an extraordinary continuity of power writing practices in Borno until 1918.