Locating and Sampling Arabic and Arabic-Malayalam Manuscripts in Kerala, South India (EAP1228)

Aims and objectives

The project aims at contacting archives holding Arabic and Arabic-Malayalam manuscripts and lithographs. We will sample texts from two public and one private archive and record recitations of selected texts by traditional performers. We aim at preparing for a major project by a. locating more archives (including signed agreements for digitisation), b. providing estimates for the volume of manuscripts / lithographs to be scanned, c. training and equipping at least one local student. The project is expected to uncover a yet-unexplored link in the medieval Muslim Indian Ocean literary and scholarly networks that evolved in and around the Malabar Coast.

Outcomes

Surveys were part of this project's outputs, the methodology and results are as follows: