Seminar | The African Community of Letters. Mapping Correspondence Practices in Premodern Islamic Africa
Sala Conferenze, Palazzo Liviano - Piazza Capitaniato, 7, Padova
15.04.2026
15 April 2026, 10.00-13.00
Over the past four decades, scholarly interest in the history of ordinary writing practices and the interplay of religion, power, and techniques in the production of private, commercial, legal, administrative, and diplomatic documents has grown considerably. However, the history of correspondence as an economic and political practice remains overlooked for premodern Africa.
This workshop aims to fill this gap by focusing on Arabic, Ajami, and Ottoman correspondence practices in premodern Islamic Africa. Inspired by projects such as Mapping the Republic of Letters, this seminar seeks to pave the way for mapping correspondence practices within the African Islamicate world—a region encompassing North Africa, the Sahara, the Sahel, Northeast Africa, and the Sahelian networks.
The seminar will examine the practices and materiality of writing within diplomatic, trade, and administrative networks extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Kongo River basin. To this end, specialists from diverse areas and historical periods of African history will offer an overview of the current state of research in this emerging field. This workshop operates within the framework of Rémi Dewière's Borsa Rita Levi Montalcini project, Amministrazioni statali in Africa premoderna.
Program
10:00-10:15 – Presentation
- DEWIERE Rémi (Padua University), “Mapping Correspondence Practices in Premodern Islamic Africa. A research Agenda”
10:15-11:15 – Early traces of African correspondences (16th-18th c.)
- ISIKSEL Gunes (Medeniyet University), "Methodological Dilemmas and Peripheral Solutions in Ottoman Diplomatic History"
- BARANSKI Tomasz (University of Warsaw), “Arabic Letters from Precolonial Old Dongola: Insights from Archaeology, History, and Linguistics”
11:15-11:30 – Break
11:30-13:00 – Arabic and Ajami correspondence in the 19th-early 20th century
- DUYMUS Kerem (Leipzig University), “Authenticating Diplomatic Letters from Bilad al-Sudan: How the Ottomans Verified Official Letters from Borno and Darfur”
- MUKAMBU NGANDU Ambroise (Université libre de Bruxelles), “Diplomatic Letters in Arabic and Ajami from Eastern Congo (Late 19th Century) : Political Communication and Epistolary Practices”
- BRION Christophe (EHESS), “A land charter that should not exist: the case of the aqid Ahmed Fadjack in Waday under French rule (1914)”
Presentations will be delivered in English and French (with PowerPoint slides in English), and discussions will be conducted in English.
Zoom meeting available: https://unipd.zoom.us/j/87905959299?pwd=6lRfKNq15tMRddWcPyIWdPf4kfO1ar.1
