Ajami

E315178

Ajami is an adapted form of the Arabic script historically used to write various African languages, including Pulaar, for religious, literary, and administrative purposes.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Ajami canonical 2

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf script variant
writing system
adaptationFeature additional diacritics for vowels
innovative letter shapes
modified Arabic letters
associatedWithReligion Islam
culturalRole medium of indigenous literacy
preservation of African oral traditions
vehicle of Islamization in Africa
function recording Islamic scholarship
recording legal documents
recording local histories
recording poetry
recording trade records
hasVariant Fula Ajami
Hausa Ajami
linked to: Hausa

Mandinka Ajami
Wolofal
linked to: Wolof
historicallyUsedIn Central Africa
East Africa
West Africa
influencedBy Classical Arabic orthography
Persian and Ottoman Arabic-script practices
orthographicStatus often lacks standardization
scriptFamily Arabic-derived script
scriptUsageContext Quranic schools in Africa
Sufi brotherhoods in West Africa
local administration in precolonial states
timePeriod early modern period
medieval period
modern period
usedByCommunity Islamic clerics in West Africa
Muslim scholars in Africa
usedFor African languages
administrative documents
literary texts
religious texts
usedToWriteLanguage Fula language
Hausa language
linked to: Hausa

Kanuri language
linked to: Kanuri

Mandinka language
Pulaar
Songhay languages
Swahili language
Wolof language
linked to: Wolof

Yoruba language
linked to: Yoruba
usesScript Arabic script
writingDirection right-to-left
writingSystemType abjad

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.