A History of a Traveling Qur'an Manuscript in Inhambane, Mozambique

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Periodical article

Title:	A History of a Traveling Qur'an Manuscript in Inhambane, Mozambique
Author:	Mutiua, Chapane
Year:	2023
Periodical:	Islamic Africa (ISSN 2154-0993)
Volume:	14
Issue:	1
Pages:	42-54
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Mozambique
Subjects:	Religion and Witchcraft Koran manuscripts
External link:	https://brill.com/view/journals/iafr/14/1/article-p42_003.xml
Abstract:	The present article traces the history of a Qur'an manuscript that, according to oral testimony, travelled from Oman to Inhambane via Zanzibar between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The manuscript is kept at the Jam'a Mosque in the city of Inhambane, southern Mozambique. Inhambane fell under the sphere of influence of the ancient sheikhdom of Sofala, founded by Swahili Arab traders as part of the Zimbabwe gold trade in the eighth century ad and destroyed by the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century. The presence of this manuscript in Inhambane contradicts the general idea of a disconnect between the southern Mozambique region and Swahili trading networks as a result of the Portuguese presence in Sofala, Tete, Quelimane, and Mozambique Island. The properties of the manuscript, its materials (ink and paper), and its writing style (its script style and punctuation marks) are adduced, on the one hand, to argue that it was not produced in the territory of Mozambique; on the other hand, this highlights its connection with Qur'an manuscripts produced in other parts of the western Indian Ocean region.