| # | Polity | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | Edit | Desc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Certainly absent.
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’All that remains, apart from all-important inscriptions on stone or metal, are those texts that were regularly recopied. These were mainly religious texts, the copying of which generated spiritual merit, various technical treatises on such subjects as agricul- ture, astrology and law, and court chronicles. In few of these, even the last, can be found any references, however, to political or even economic relations with China.’
[1]
[1]: (Stuart-Fox 2003, p. 35) |
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|
’All that remains, apart from all-important inscriptions on stone or metal, are those texts that were regularly recopied. These were mainly religious texts, the copying of which generated spiritual merit, various technical treatises on such subjects as agriculture, astrology and law, and court chronicles. In few of these, even the last, can be found any references, however, to political or even economic relations with China.’
[1]
[1]: (Stuart-Fox 2003, p. 35) |
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‘Some of the inscriptions of this reign show that, from the beginning, the Chenla received instruction in the sacred books of India. The inscription of the Prasat Ba An, near the village of Veal Kantel, province of Tonle Repou, just below the border of Laos, relates to an image of Tribhuvanesvara (Siva), accompanied by a figure of the Sun. The donation was made by a brahman savant, named Somasarman, husband of Bhavavarman’s sister. Among the gifts made to the temple were a complete copy of the Mahabharata, a copy of the Ramayana, and apparently a copy of the Puranas. Somasarman instituted daily readings of these works in the sanctuary, promised benedictions to those who participated in the readings, and pronounced imprecations against those who damaged any of the precious volumes.’
[1]
[1]: (Briggs 1951, 43) |
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’Most of the subjects are drawn from the Indian epics and sacred books—Ramayana, Mahabarata, Harivamsa, Puranas—and portray legendary scenes from the lives of Rama and Krishna, avatars of Vishnu. They begin less than a meter from the floor and cover more than two meters in height. Owing to their extent, their accessibility, and their perfect lighting, these bas-reliefs are among the most striking specimens of Khmer art and among those longest remembered.’
[1]
[1]: (Briggs 1951, p. 200) |
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|
’Most of the subjects are drawn from the Indian epics and sacred books—Ramayana, Mahabarata, Harivamsa, Puranas—and portray legendary scenes from the lives of Rama and Krishna, avatars of Vishnu. They begin less than a meter from the floor and cover more than two meters in height. Owing to their extent, their accessibility, and their perfect lighting, these bas-reliefs are among the most striking specimens of Khmer art and among those longest remembered.’
[1]
[1]: (Briggs 1951, p. 200) |
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|
’Most of the subjects are drawn from the Indian epics and sacred books—Ramayana, Mahabarata, Harivamsa, Puranas—and portray legendary scenes from the lives of Rama and Krishna, avatars of Vishnu. They begin less than a meter from the floor and cover more than two meters in height. Owing to their extent, their accessibility, and their perfect lighting, these bas-reliefs are among the most striking specimens of Khmer art and among those longest remembered.’
[1]
[1]: (Briggs 1951, p. 200) |
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|
Inferred from the fact that, a few years after the collapse of Ayutthaya, when its successor polity, Rattanakosin, was founded, "[a]ll surviving manuscripts were sought out and compiled into recensions of laws, histories, religious texts, and manuals on the practice of every aspect of government"
[1]
.
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 27) |
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|
"[Rama I] further encouraged the working harmony of the monkhood by sponsoring ecclesiastical commissions to consider textual questions, which culminated in 1788-89 in the convening of a grand council to establish a definitive text of the Pali-language Tipitaka, the scriptures of Buddhism"
[1]
.
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, p. 146) |
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ is coded as ‘1’ or ‘None’, not ‘Mnemonic devices’, or ‘Nonwritten records’, or ’True writing, no records’, or ‘True writing; records’.
|
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ is coded as ‘1’ or ‘None’, not ‘Mnemonic devices’, or ‘Nonwritten records’, or ’True writing, no records’, or ‘True writing; records’ Christian missionaries translated the Bible and other religious texts into the native language: ’The Japanese schools did not try to teach reading or writing in the native language, although some Trukese learned these skills from the Western Protestant and Catholic missionaries. Starting even before German rule, the missionaries had translated parts of the Bible and prepared hymns and other religious materials in Trukese, and continued to teach reading and writing in the native tongue to such children as would come to them.’
[1]
[1]: Fischer, John L. 1961. “Japanese Schools For The Natives Of Truk, Caroline Islands”, 85 |
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Inscriptions.
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The Bible.
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-
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E.g the Bible and the Koran.
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-
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The Bible (however, Castilian translations were destroyed during the Inquisition)
[1]
[1]: (Greenslide 1975, 123) Greenslide, S. L. 1975. The Cambridge History of the Bible: The West from Reformation to Present Day. Cambridge: CUP. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JQ22AIMK |
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Jain, Buddhist and Hindu canons.
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Hindu, Buddhist and Jain scriptures.
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Buddhist, Hindu and Jain texts.
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Hindu scriptures.
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Hindu scriptures.
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-
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present: 1526-1582 CE; absent: 1582-1605 CE; present: 1605-1857 CE Quran for Islam, Din-e Ilahi has no sacred scriptures.
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The Handsome Lake Code was canonized in the 19th century, around two decades after the end date of this data sheet: ’The present form of the Gai[unknown] wiio` was determined by a council of its preachers some fifty years ago. They met at Cold Spring, the old home of Handsome Lake, and compared their versions. Several differences were found and each preacher thought his version the correct one. At length Chief John Jacket, a Cattaraugus Seneca, and a man well versed in the lore of his people, was chosen to settle forever the words and the form of the Gai[unknown] wiio`. This he did by writing it out in the Seneca language by the method taught by Rev. Asher Wright, the Presbyterian missionary. The preachers assembled again, this time, according to Cornplanter, at Cattaraugus where they memorized the parts in which they were faulty. The original text was written on letter paper and now is entirely destroyed. [Page 8] Chief Jacket gave it to Henry Stevens and Chief Stevens passed it on to Chief Cornplanter who after he had memorized the teachings became careless and lost the papers sheet by sheet. Fearing that the true form might become lost Chief Cornplanter in 1903 began to rewrite the Gai[unknown] wiio` in an old minute book of the Seneca Lacrosse Club. He had finished the historical introduction when the writer discovered what he had done. He was implored to finish it and give it to the State of New York for preservation. He was at first reluctant, fearing criticism, but after a council with the leading men he consented to do so. He became greatly interested in the progress of the translation and is eager for the time to arrive when all white men may have the privilege of reading the “wonderful message” of the great prophet.’
[1]
Christian missionaries translated parts of the Bible into Iroquois languages and published religious newspapers: ’At the time, those Whites having business with Indians needed interpreters, and the missionaries and teachers in the mission schools were no exception. Nevertheless, with the help of interpreters, a few of them did translate hymns and parts of the Bible into Seneca. This work of translation was greatly expanded by the most noted missionary to the Senecas, Asher Wright. His translations included those of the four Gospels into Seneca. He also established a press to publish materials such as a newspaper, The Mental Elevator, in both Seneca and English (Pilling1888:175-178). Wright went to the Buffalo Creek reservationas a missionary in 1831 and spent the next 15 years there. When this reservation was sold, he and his wife moved to Cattaraugus where Wright died.’
[2]
We have assumed 1831 as a provisional date of transition.
[1]: Parker, Arthur C. 1913. “Code Of Handsome Lake, The Seneca Prophet”, 7 [2]: Abler, Thomas S., and Elisabeth Tooker 1978. “Seneca”, 510 |
||||||
|
The Handsome Lake Code was canonized in the 19th century, around two decades after the end date of this data sheet: ’The present form of the Gai[unknown] wiio` was determined by a council of its preachers some fifty years ago. They met at Cold Spring, the old home of Handsome Lake, and compared their versions. Several differences were found and each preacher thought his version the correct one. At length Chief John Jacket, a Cattaraugus Seneca, and a man well versed in the lore of his people, was chosen to settle forever the words and the form of the Gai[unknown] wiio`. This he did by writing it out in the Seneca language by the method taught by Rev. Asher Wright, the Presbyterian missionary. The preachers assembled again, this time, according to Cornplanter, at Cattaraugus where they memorized the parts in which they were faulty. The original text was written on letter paper and now is entirely destroyed. [Page 8] Chief Jacket gave it to Henry Stevens and Chief Stevens passed it on to Chief Cornplanter who after he had memorized the teachings became careless and lost the papers sheet by sheet. Fearing that the true form might become lost Chief Cornplanter in 1903 began to rewrite the Gai[unknown] wiio` in an old minute book of the Seneca Lacrosse Club. He had finished the historical introduction when the writer discovered what he had done. He was implored to finish it and give it to the State of New York for preservation. He was at first reluctant, fearing criticism, but after a council with the leading men he consented to do so. He became greatly interested in the progress of the translation and is eager for the time to arrive when all white men may have the privilege of reading the “wonderful message” of the great prophet.’
[1]
Christian missionaries translated parts of the Bible into Iroquois languages and published religious newspapers: ’At the time, those Whites having business with Indians needed interpreters, and the missionaries and teachers in the mission schools were no exception. Nevertheless, with the help of interpreters, a few of them did translate hymns and parts of the Bible into Seneca. This work of translation was greatly expanded by the most noted missionary to the Senecas, Asher Wright. His translations included those of the four Gospels into Seneca. He also established a press to publish materials such as a newspaper, The Mental Elevator, in both Seneca and English (Pilling1888:175-178). Wright went to the Buffalo Creek reservationas a missionary in 1831 and spent the next 15 years there. When this reservation was sold, he and his wife moved to Cattaraugus where Wright died.’
[2]
We have assumed 1831 as a provisional date of transition.
[1]: Parker, Arthur C. 1913. “Code Of Handsome Lake, The Seneca Prophet”, 7 [2]: Abler, Thomas S., and Elisabeth Tooker 1978. “Seneca”, 510 |
||||||
|
-
|
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|
This dispute depends on the timing of the Bible’s writing. Elements of the books of Samuel and Kings, at a bare minimum, almost certainly date back to this period, but whether they were first transmitted in written or oral form is disputed. For example, Finkelstein writes: "The history of ancient Israel in the Hebrew Bible was written by Judahite authors in Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom and the hub of the Davidic dynasty. As such it transmits Judahite ideas regarding territory, kingship, temple, and cult. Moreover, even what some scholars consider as the early layers of the history of ancient Israel, such as the books of Samuel (e.g., McCarter 1994; Halpern 2001; Römer and de Pury 2000, 123-28; Hutton 2009), were written after the northern kingdom was vanquished by Assyria and its elite was deported.… The original northern texts—or at least some of them—could have been written as early as the first half of the eighth century b.c.e. in the capital Samaria or in the temple of YHWH at Bethel, located on the northern border of Judah (also Fleming 2012, 314-21; for a later date of compilation at Bethel, see Knauf 2006; Davies 2007a, 2007b; for the archaeology of Bethel, see Finkelstein and Singer-Avitz 2009). Both written texts and oral traditions were probably brought to Judah by Israelite refugees after the fall of Israel in 720 b.c.e. (Schniedewind 2004; Finkelstein and Silberman 2006b)…"
[1]
[1]: Finkelstein (2013:2-3) |
||||||
|
This dispute depends on the timing of the Bible’s writing. Elements of the books of Samuel and Kings, at a bare minimum, almost certainly date back to this period, but whether they were first transmitted in written or oral form is disputed. For example, Finkelstein writes: "The history of ancient Israel in the Hebrew Bible was written by Judahite authors in Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom and the hub of the Davidic dynasty. As such it transmits Judahite ideas regarding territory, kingship, temple, and cult. Moreover, even what some scholars consider as the early layers of the history of ancient Israel, such as the books of Samuel (e.g., McCarter 1994; Halpern 2001; Römer and de Pury 2000, 123-28; Hutton 2009), were written after the northern kingdom was vanquished by Assyria and its elite was deported.… The original northern texts—or at least some of them—could have been written as early as the first half of the eighth century b.c.e. in the capital Samaria or in the temple of YHWH at Bethel, located on the northern border of Judah (also Fleming 2012, 314-21; for a later date of compilation at Bethel, see Knauf 2006; Davies 2007a, 2007b; for the archaeology of Bethel, see Finkelstein and Singer-Avitz 2009). Both written texts and oral traditions were probably brought to Judah by Israelite refugees after the fall of Israel in 720 b.c.e. (Schniedewind 2004; Finkelstein and Silberman 2006b)…"
[1]
[1]: Finkelstein (2013:2-3) |
||||||
|
The Achaemenid period "witnessed major developments in art, philosophy, literature, historiography, religion, exploration, economics, and science, and those developments provided the direct background for the further changes, along similar lines, that made the Hellenistic period so important in history."
[1]
[1]: T. Cuyler Young, Jr. Achaemenid Society and Culture http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/achaemenid_society_culture.php#sthash.wxVBVuth.dpuf |
||||||
|
Jewish texts?
|
||||||
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-
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|
Even according to the least sympathetic scholarly views, the Torah (Pentateuch) had existed for several hundred years by this point. [tk]
|
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|
Literacy only spread after the British occupation of the Garo hills: ‘Some of the Garos are of the opinion that they had their own alphabetic system of writing their language in some hoary past but this is not proved till now; it is really doubtful if the Garos had their own alphabet ever. Before the district of the Garo Hills was taken over by the British, the people living in the areas bordering Goalpara and Kamrup used to write in Assamese character while those living in the borders of the Mymensing and the Sylhet districts used to write in Bengali character; the Garos of the interior hills were mostly illiterate who are even now mostly illiterate. After the district came under the administration of the British the foreign missionaries introduced Roman characters of writing and this facilitated them to translate the holy Bible into Garo and preach christianity there. The Garos now write in Roman characters but even then all the letters of the English alphabet are not necessary to write the language.’
[1]
‘Most of the writings before 1940 had religious intonation though secular form of literature began in 1924. Before this, there were only two journals in A’chik language-one was the A’chikni Ripeng or “Friend of the Garos”, a powerful organ of the American Baptist Mission started in 1879. Since the journal was meant for propagation of plans and policies of the American Baptist Mission, articles dealing with one’s freedom of thought and expression were not accepted and published in it. The other journal, which was brought out in October, 1912 by three local leaders, namely Jobang D. Marak, Modhunath G. Momin and Alexander Macdonald Bassamoit, was Phringphrang or “Morning Star”. This journal, which was supposed to be secular in nature, was not very much different from the A’chikni Ripeng as most of the articles there, were connected with religion. The journal had its last publication in December, 1914 after which there were no more secular journals.’
[2]
[1]: Choudhury, Bhupendranath 1958. “Some Cultural And Linguistic Aspects Of The Garos”, 50 [2]: Shira, Lindrid D. 1995. “Renaissance In Garo Literature”, 176 |
||||||
|
SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ lists no mnemonic devices or nonwritten records or ’True writing, no writing’. Christian missionaries introduced a Latinized script and translated the Bible into A’chik: ‘Some of the Garos are of the opinion that they had their own alphabetic system of writing their language in some hoary past but this is not proved till now; it is really doubtful if the Garos had their own alphabet ever. Before the district of the Garo Hills was taken over by the British, the people living in the areas bordering Goalpara and Kamrup used to write in Assamese character while those living in the borders of the Mymensing and the Sylhet districts used to write in Bengali character; the Garos of the interior hills were mostly illiterate who are even now mostly illiterate. After the district came under the administration of the British the foreign missionaries introduced Roman characters of writing and this facilitated them to translate the holy Bible into Garo and preach christianity there. The Garos now write in Roman characters but even then all the letters of the English alphabet are not necessary to write the language.’
[1]
The missionaries also published religious newspapers: ‘Most of the writings before 1940 had religious intonation though secular form of literature began in 1924. Before this, there were only two journals in Garo language-one was the A’chikni Ripeng or “Friend of the Garos”, a powerful organ of the American Baptist Mission started in 1879. Since the journal was meant for propagation of plans and policies of the American Baptist Mission, articles dealing with one’s freedom of thought and expression were not accepted and published in it. The other journal, which was brought out in October, 1912 by three local leaders, namely Jobang D. Marak, Modhunath G. Momin and Alexander Macdonald Bassamoit, was Phringphrang or “Morning Star”. This journal, which was supposed to be secular in nature, was not very much different from the A’chikni Ripeng as most of the articles there, were connected with religion. The journal had its last publication in December, 1914 after which there were no more secular journals.’
[2]
[1]: Choudhury, Bhupendranath 1958. “Some Cultural And Linguistic Aspects Of The Garos”, 50 [2]: Shira, Lindrid D. 1995. “Renaissance In Garo Literature”, 176 |
||||||
|
-
|
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|
Christianity was adopted around 1000ce: ’By the end of the 10th century, the Norwegians were forced by their king, Olaf I Tryggvason, to accept Christianity. The king also sent missionaries to Iceland who, according to 12th-century sources, were highly successful in converting the Icelanders. In 999 or 1000 the Althing made a peaceful decision that all Icelanders should become Christians. In spite of this decision, the godar retained their political role, and many of them probably built their own churches. Some were ordained, and as a group they seem to have closely controlled the organization of the new religion. Two bishoprics were established, one at Skálholt in 1056 and the other at Hólar in 1106. Literate Christian culture also transformed lay life. Codification of the law was begun in 1117-18. Later the Icelanders began to write sagas, which were to reach their pinnacle of literary achievement in the next century.’
[1]
The saga literature does not predate the introduction of Christianity when it comes to received written records: ’According to most authors writing was introduced to Iceland when the country was Christianized in the year 1000. In the two centuries that followed, writing was used for many purposes: religious works, a grammar, a law book and a short history. Most of the family sagas were written in the thirteenth century. The saga with which I am concerned, Eyrbyggja saga (ÍF 4), is commonly believed to have been written between 1230-1250 (Schach & Hollander 1959:xx). I shall deal only with a part of this saga, which I have called the Þórgunna story (ÍF 4, ch. 49-55). I consider the Þórgunna story a myth. Anthropologists believe that myths contain hidden messages in symbolic forms. According to Malinowski (1926) myths are social charters. Lévi-Strauss (1963) argues that myths have a binary structure and that their oppositions explore contradictions in social and other relations.’
[2]
’The Poetic Edda, a collection of verses compiled by an Icelander in the last half of the thirteenth century, offers another view into the worldview of the period by indicating what its compiler(s) found valuable. Scribal errors suggest it was not written from memory or dictation, but copied from at least two manuscripts. Paleographic evidence suggests that these two source manuscripts are not older than the beginning of the thirteenth century and must have been written by different scribes. Nothing is known of its provenance or compilation or composition. Linguistic evidence suggests the verses do not predate the ninth century (Hollander 1962).’
[3]
[1]: http://www.britannica.com/place/Iceland/Government-and-society#toc10088 [2]: Odner, Knut 1992. “Þógunna’S Testament: A Myth For Moral Contemplation And Social Apathy”, 125 [3]: Durrenberger, E. Paul 1992. “Dynamics Of Medieval Iceland: Political Economy And Literature", 93 |
||||||
|
Christianity was adopted around 1000ce: ’By the end of the 10th century, the Norwegians were forced by their king, Olaf I Tryggvason, to accept Christianity. The king also sent missionaries to Iceland who, according to 12th-century sources, were highly successful in converting the Icelanders. In 999 or 1000 the Althing made a peaceful decision that all Icelanders should become Christians. In spite of this decision, the godar retained their political role, and many of them probably built their own churches. Some were ordained, and as a group they seem to have closely controlled the organization of the new religion. Two bishoprics were established, one at Skálholt in 1056 and the other at Hólar in 1106. Literate Christian culture also transformed lay life. Codification of the law was begun in 1117-18. Later the Icelanders began to write sagas, which were to reach their pinnacle of literary achievement in the next century.’
[1]
The saga literature does not predate the introduction of Christianity when it comes to received written records: ’According to most authors writing was introduced to Iceland when the country was Christianized in the year 1000. In the two centuries that followed, writing was used for many purposes: religious works, a grammar, a law book and a short history. Most of the family sagas were written in the thirteenth century. The saga with which I am concerned, Eyrbyggja saga (ÍF 4), is commonly believed to have been written between 1230-1250 (Schach & Hollander 1959:xx). I shall deal only with a part of this saga, which I have called the Þórgunna story (ÍF 4, ch. 49-55). I consider the Þórgunna story a myth. Anthropologists believe that myths contain hidden messages in symbolic forms. According to Malinowski (1926) myths are social charters. Lévi-Strauss (1963) argues that myths have a binary structure and that their oppositions explore contradictions in social and other relations.’
[2]
’The Poetic Edda, a collection of verses compiled by an Icelander in the last half of the thirteenth century, offers another view into the worldview of the period by indicating what its compiler(s) found valuable. Scribal errors suggest it was not written from memory or dictation, but copied from at least two manuscripts. Paleographic evidence suggests that these two source manuscripts are not older than the beginning of the thirteenth century and must have been written by different scribes. Nothing is known of its provenance or compilation or composition. Linguistic evidence suggests the verses do not predate the ninth century (Hollander 1962).’
[3]
[1]: http://www.britannica.com/place/Iceland/Government-and-society#toc10088 [2]: Odner, Knut 1992. “Þógunna’S Testament: A Myth For Moral Contemplation And Social Apathy”, 125 [3]: Durrenberger, E. Paul 1992. “Dynamics Of Medieval Iceland: Political Economy And Literature", 93 |
||||||
|
Scholars copied and translated manuscripts, presumably Biblical ones in addition to narrative literature: ’But whatever advantages the union with Norway might bring, it produced no new era of development. Intellectual life continuted to flourish, and numerous literary works were written, but but a distinct decline in the quality of literary production becomes noticeable, especially towards the close of the thirteenth century. The old vigor and originality was dwindling, as the growing Christian medieval-time spirit, which was only strengthened throught a closer relation with Norway, was fostering a love for legends and chivalric romances which encouraged copying and translation rather than creative production and original scholarship.’
[1]
[1]: Gjerset, Knut [1924]. "History of Iceland", 208p |
||||||
|
Possehl states that there was no writing before the urban phase in the Indus valley.
[1]
While seals have been found in Mehrgarh III layers, these show no evidence of script or writing.
[2]
[1]: Gregory L. Possehl. The Indus Civilization. A Contemporary Perspective. Walnut Creek, Altamira, 2002, p. 51. [2]: , C. A. (in press) Chapter 11, Case Study: Mehrgarh. In, Barker, G and Goucher, C (eds.) Cambridge World History, Volume 2: A World with Agriculture, 12,000 BCE - 500 CE. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. |
||||||
|
"The Indus civilization flourished for around five hundred to seven hundred years, and in the early second millennium it disintegrated. This collapse was marked by the disappearance of the features that had distinguished the Indus civilization from its predecessors: writing, city dwelling, some kind of central control, international trade, occupational specialization, and widely distributed standardized artifacts. [...] Writing was no longer used, though occasionally signs were scratched as graffiti on pottery."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2008, 91-92) Jane McIntosh. 2008. The Ancient Indus Civilization. Oxford; Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio. |
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|
-
|
||||||
|
Zoroastrianism? Bible.
|
||||||
|
Buddhist scriptures.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
[1]
Khwarazm region: "The Khwarazmian solar calendar, related to the Zoroastrian system, is known to us thanks to Biruni, who argued that it was in advance of most other ancient systems for measuring time."
[2]
[1]: Litvinsky B.A.,Guang-da Zhang , and Shabani Samghabadi R. (eds)History of Civilizations of Central Asia p. 143 [2]: (Starr 2013) Starr, S. Frederick. 2013. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. Princeton. |
||||||
|
[1]
Khwarazm region: "The Khwarazmian solar calendar, related to the Zoroastrian system, is known to us thanks to Biruni, who argued that it was in advance of most other ancient systems for measuring time."
[2]
[1]: Litvinsky B.A.,Guang-da Zhang , and Shabani Samghabadi R. (eds)History of Civilizations of Central Asia p. 143 [2]: (Starr 2013) Starr, S. Frederick. 2013. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. Princeton. |
||||||
|
Jewish. Christian. Zoroastrian?
|
||||||
|
The Quran
|
||||||
|
Koran
|
||||||
|
e.g. the Qu’ran, Rigveda.
|
||||||
|
’Heian Buddhist vocal music, known as shomyo, consisted primarily of liturgical music, sacred texts, and eulogies, all of which were sung or chanted by monks - at first in Chinese styles introduced by the patriarchs of the esoteric sects, and later in naturalized styles, perfected especially by the Pure Land monk Genshin.’
[1]
[1]: Shively, Donald H. and McCullough, William H. 2008. The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 2: Heian Japan. Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press.p.429 |
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-
|
||||||
|
-
|
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|
SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ lists no mnemonic devices or nonwritten records or ’True writing, no writing’ Christian missionaries introduced Latinized characters: ’The Malays before their conversion to Mahomedanism may be presumed to have had no letters of their own. What they have now are made up out of the Arabic alphabet. To suit the tone of their language the letters are named accordingly. With reference to the Sea Dyaks, since the gospel of Christ has been preached to them, letters of the Roman character are used and pronounced accordingly to suit the tones of their pronunciation.’
[1]
The first true mission schools were established in the 1920s (see above). We chosen 1921 as a potential date of transition, despite the complicating factors (see above). The same general qualification applied to the below variables as well. All of this is provisional.
[1]: Howell, William 1908-1910. “Sea Dyak”, 3 |
||||||
|
SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ lists no mnemonic devices or nonwritten records or ’True writing, no writing’ Christian missionaries introduced Latinized characters: ’The Malays before their conversion to Mahomedanism may be presumed to have had no letters of their own. What they have now are made up out of the Arabic alphabet. To suit the tone of their language the letters are named accordingly. With reference to the Sea Dyaks, since the gospel of Christ has been preached to them, letters of the Roman character are used and pronounced accordingly to suit the tones of their pronunciation.’
[1]
The first true mission schools were established in the 1920s (see above). We chosen 1921 as a potential date of transition, despite the complicating factors (see above). The same general qualification applied to the below variables as well. All of this is provisional.
[1]: Howell, William 1908-1910. “Sea Dyak”, 3 |
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The Qu’ran, the Hadith.
[1]
[1]: Andrew Peacock ’SALJUQS iii. SALJUQS OF RUM’ http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/saljuqs-iii |
||||||
|
e.g. Qu’ran. Öljeytü commissioned a "gigantic Koran" from fine artists.
[1]
[1]: REUVEN AMITAI, ’IL-KHANIDS i. DYNASTIC HISTORY’ http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/il-khanids-i-dynastic-history |
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|
inferred continuity with earlier phases of this polity
|
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|
Inferred from the fact that "most [Italian peoples before the Romans] were not even literate"
[1]
, although some writing has been found in association with elite graves
[2]
. Religious inscriptions discovered at Lavinium.
[3]
probably applies to Roman Kingdom polity.
[1]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 37 [2]: G. Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome (2006), pp. 53-58 [3]: (Cornell 1995, 66) |
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Temple building would have been associated with written outline of beliefs and religious practices.
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The Catholic Church possessed the Bible, in addition to the writings of the Fathers, canon law, and a massive corpus of other material.
|
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The Bible, the patristic writings, and a wealth of other orthodox Christian material.
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The Bible remained the fundamental Christian sacred text.
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Sacred texts include the Catholic bible and the writings of the Fathers.
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The Bible and the writings of the Fathers
|
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-
|
||||||
|
The first recent script for the Sakha language was developed by 19th century Russian missionaries: ’The Yakut speak Yakut, a Northeast Turkic language of the Altaic Language Family. It is one of the most divergent of the Turkic languages, closely related to Dolgan (a mixture of Evenk and Yakut sometimes described as a Yakut dialect). The Yakut, over 90 percent of whom speak Yakut as their mother tongue, call their language "Sakha-tyla." Their current written language, developed in the 1930s, is a modified Cyrillic script. Before this, they had several written forms, including a Latin script developed in the 1920s and a Cyrillic script introduced by missionaries in the nineteenth century. Yakut lore includes legends of a written language lost after they traveled north to the Lena valley.’
[1]
It therefore seems likely that Biblical texts and Christian literature were spread first among the Sakha, although this remains to be confirmed. We have selected 1800 as a potential date of transition.
[1]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut |
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|
The first recent script for the Sakha language was developed by 19th century Russian missionaries: ’The Yakut speak Yakut, a Northeast Turkic language of the Altaic Language Family. It is one of the most divergent of the Turkic languages, closely related to Dolgan (a mixture of Evenk and Yakut sometimes described as a Yakut dialect). The Yakut, over 90 percent of whom speak Yakut as their mother tongue, call their language "Sakha-tyla." Their current written language, developed in the 1930s, is a modified Cyrillic script. Before this, they had several written forms, including a Latin script developed in the 1920s and a Cyrillic script introduced by missionaries in the nineteenth century. Yakut lore includes legends of a written language lost after they traveled north to the Lena valley.’
[1]
It therefore seems likely that Biblical texts and Christian literature were spread first among the Sakha, although this remains to be confirmed. We have selected 1800 as a potential date of transition.
[1]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut |
||||||
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-
|
||||||
|
SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ is coded as ‘1’ or ‘None’, not ‘Mnemonic devices’, or ‘Nonwritten records’, or ’True writing, no records’, or ‘True writing; records’
|
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Each temple had religious ritual books; to some extent standardized perhaps? Greco-Roman texts suggests standardization of temple building and design. (J.G. Manning, personal communication)
|
||||||
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-
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Libraries in temples.
|
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|
In temples.
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|
"On the contrary, the assertion of continuity with older tradition is combined with the exercise of considerable invention and originality both in materials and iconography, producing some of the most remarkable sculpture in the entire pharaonic corpus. For other spheres of cultural activity there is sometimes an unnerving lacuna in extant material—there are, for example, no literary texts securely dated to this period. For all that, close analysis of such evidence as we do possess confirms that Egyptian society and civilization as a whole were characterized by the same traits as the visual arts. We routinely encounter features with which the student of earlier periods will be completely familiar."
[1]
[1]: (Lloyd 2000, 383) |
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-
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Koran. "There are no written records of any description to throw light on the history of West Africa before 900 A.D."
[1]
"The West Africans who laid the foundations of their medieval empires during the centuries before 900 C.E. did not develop a written language they could use to record historical events."
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Bovill 1958, 51) Bovill, E W. 1958/1995. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Conrad 2010, 13) Conrad, D. C. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa. Revised Edition. Chelsea House Publishers. New York. [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
||||||
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-
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||||||
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||||||
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-
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||||||
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The Qur’an.
|
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-
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||||||
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-
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||||||
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-
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||||||
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-
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||||||
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Koran.
|
||||||
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-
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||||||
|
Koran.
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||||||
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-
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||||||
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Qur’an
|
||||||
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-
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||||||
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Qur’an.
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||||||
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-
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||||||
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-
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||||||
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Koran.
|
||||||
|
Unknown. The Shang had tablets
[1]
so it is not impossible a sacred text was written on a tablet. They also wrote on perishable materials, such as bamboo and silk.
[1]
We could infer the basic tenets of their religious beliefs concerning the Shang Di were written down.
[1]: (The Shang Dynasty, 1600 to 1050 BCE. Spice Digest, Fall 2007. http://iis-db.stanford.edu/docs/117/ShangDynasty.pdf) |
||||||
|
Does not seem to have been part of Ancient Chinese religious system in general to have sacrilized texts, not including collected sayings of wise men and sages (Confucius, etc.), since these seem to be more philosophical than ‘word of god’ type works.
|
||||||
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-
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||||||
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-
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||||||
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-
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||||||
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-
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Buddhist sacred texts. "In addition to commerce, these Central Asian kingdoms were also centers of Buddhism, and it was from the cities on the Central Asian trade route that Buddhism spread into the Middle Kingdom. Thus it is no accident that it was during the Western Jin that Buddhism began to establish itself as a significant presence, at least in north China."
[1]
[1]: (Knechtges 2010, 183) Knechtges, David R. in Chang, Kang-i Sun. Ownen, Stephen. 2010. The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. |
||||||
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-
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||||||
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Buddhist scriptures.
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-
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Buddhist scriptures.
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-
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|
c500 CE and after: "It may be assumed that by then some of the Juan-juan already lived a settled life and practised agriculture. The original sources repeatedly mention that their khagans obtained ‘seed millet’ from China (some 10,000 shi each time). This shows that the Juan-juan society and state had gradually developed from nomadic herding to a settled agricultural way of life, from yurts to the building of houses and monumental architecture, from the nomadic district to towns. They had invented their own system of writing and developed their own local culture and Buddhist learning flourished."
[1]
[1]: (Kyzlasov 1996, 317) |
||||||
|
c500 CE and after: "It may be assumed that by then some of the Juan-juan already lived a settled life and practised agriculture. The original sources repeatedly mention that their khagans obtained ‘seed millet’ from China (some 10,000 shi each time). This shows that the Juan-juan society and state had gradually developed from nomadic herding to a settled agricultural way of life, from yurts to the building of houses and monumental architecture, from the nomadic district to towns. They had invented their own system of writing and developed their own local culture and Buddhist learning flourished."
[1]
[1]: (Kyzlasov 1996, 317) |
||||||
|
Christianity in the towns? Bible?
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Koran.
|
||||||
|
"The Khitan now began to loot the capital thoroughly. It was decided to take back to Manchuria the entire body of Chin officials. This proved impossible, but in the third month of 947 they began shipping off to the Supreme Capital the personnel of the main ministries, the palace women, eunuchs, diviners, and artisans in their thousands; books, maps; astronomical charts, instruments, and astronomers; musical treatises and ceremonial musical instruments; the imperial carriages and ritual impedimenta; the weapons and armor from the arsenals; and even the copies of the Confucian classics engraved on stone slabs."
[1]
[1]: (Twitchett, D.C. and K. Tietze. 1994. The Liao. In Franke, H. and D.C. Twitchett (eds) The Cambridge History of China Volume 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368 pp. 43-153. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. P. 73-74) |
||||||
|
Koran.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
The Qur’an.
|
||||||
|
Qu’ran.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
The Bible. “For Catholics, God’s will was to be found, first, in the Bible. But the Bible is a complicated document, written in ancient languages obscure to English men and women, such as Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, obscure to some readers even in translation, and seemingly contradictory in places. In any case, for most of the Middle Ages, few Europeans could read. Books of any kind, including Bibles, were rare and expensive because, prior to the invention of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century, they had to be copied out by hand. Therefore, the Roman Catholic Church reserved to itself the right and responsibility to interpret the Bible for the faithful.”
[1]
“When Welsh parliamentary lobbying managed to obtain an act for a Welsh translation of the Bible and Prayer Book in 1563, a proviso ordered that the English version should be placed in churches alongside the Welsh so that people comparing the two would learn English.”
[2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 93) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U [2]: (Guy 2002: 353) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
The Bible.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Bible.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Bible.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
"A growing body of literature, composed now in Akkadian instead of Sumerian, accumulated through the later second and first millennia. These included new versions of earlier stories, such as Ishtar in the Netherworld, and new stories, such as Enuma elish and The Story of Erra, as well as new compositions in old and new genres of religious literature and other branches of literary composition such as disputations, fables, and love poems, and the time-honored Sumerian lexical texts, now translated and greatly expanded and developed. Epic poems about historical monarchs began to appear, including fictive “autobiographies.” On the practical side, there was a growing body of “scientific” literature: compilations of omen and divination observations, treatments for illnesses, recipes and other treatises, as well as mathematical tables and exercises."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 291) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
||||||
|
In the temples.
|
||||||
|
e.g. Bible.
|
||||||
|
e.g. Bible.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
The Qu’ran.
|
||||||
|
Koran.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
The Qu’ran.
|
||||||
|
Koran.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Koran.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Koran.
|
||||||
|
Quran studied. Account from 1472 AD ‘Then after the Qur’an I studied the Quranic readings, individually and collectively, under my maternal uncle ... Then I studied Arabic under my maternal uncle and others. I studied also in particular under him arithmetic, algebra, anatomy, surveying, God’s ordinances and fiqb with the result that I derived benefit from all these disciplines’
[1]
[1]: G. REX SMITH, ‘THE TAHIRID SULTANS OF THE YEMEN (858-923/1454-1517) AND THEIR HISTORIAN IBN AL-DAYBA’, ‘’Journal of Semitic Studies’’, Volume XXIX, Issue 1, 1 March 1984, p. 151 |
||||||
|
e.g. The Qur’an.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
"The earliest parts of the Rig-Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, may have been composed as early as, or even earlier than, 1700 BCE, but was written down only after 500 BC. For forty generations and more it was handed down by word of mouth by bards and poets, who chanted the sacred hymn and the ritual prayers."
[1]
[1]: Avari, B. (2007) India: The Ancient Past: A history of the India sub-continent from c. 7,000 BC to AD 1200. Routledge: London and New York. p76 |
||||||
|
Jain, Buddhist and Hindu canons.
|
||||||
|
"Whatever their genesis, sanction for this accretion and fusion of cults was provided by the Puranas and the epics as they were recast, expanded and written down during and after the Guptas."
[1]
[1]: (Keay 2010, 148) Keay, John. 2010. India: A History. New Updated Edition. London: HarperPress. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/HSHAKZ3X. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
"Whatever their genesis, sanction for this accretion and fusion of cults was provided by the Puranas and the epics as they were recast, expanded and written down during and after the Guptas."
[1]
[1]: (Keay 2010, 148) Keay, John. 2010. India: A History. New Updated Edition. London: HarperPress. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/HSHAKZ3X. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Buddhist, Jain and Hindu texts.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Jain, Buddhist and Hindu canons.
|
||||||
|
Buddhist, Jain and Hindu texts.
|
||||||
|
Buddhist, Jain and Hindu texts.
|
||||||
|
Unknown. "normally it is only after writing comes to be used for display that archaeology begins to find traces of it. Because administrative documents were almost certainly written on perishable materials like bamboo and papyrus, we will probably never find them."
[1]
[1]: (Wang 2014, 179) Wang, Haicheng. 2014. Writing and the Ancient State: Early China in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge University Press. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
"There are no written records of any description to throw light on the history of West Africa before 900 A.D."
[1]
"The West Africans who laid the foundations of their medieval empires during the centuries before 900 C.E. did not develop a written language they could use to record historical events."
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Bovill 1958, 51) Bovill, E W. 1958/1995. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Conrad 2010, 13) Conrad, D. C. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa. Revised Edition. Chelsea House Publishers. New York. [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
"There are no written records of any description to throw light on the history of West Africa before 900 A.D."
[1]
"The West Africans who laid the foundations of their medieval empires during the centuries before 900 C.E. did not develop a written language they could use to record historical events."
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Bovill 1958, 51) Bovill, E W. 1958/1995. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Conrad 2010, 13) Conrad, D. C. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa. Revised Edition. Chelsea House Publishers. New York. [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
"There are no written records of any description to throw light on the history of West Africa before 900 A.D."
[1]
"The West Africans who laid the foundations of their medieval empires during the centuries before 900 C.E. did not develop a written language they could use to record historical events."
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Bovill 1958, 51) Bovill, E W. 1958/1995. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Conrad 2010, 13) Conrad, D. C. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa. Revised Edition. Chelsea House Publishers. New York. [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
Koran. "There are no written records of any description to throw light on the history of West Africa before 900 A.D."
[1]
"The West Africans who laid the foundations of their medieval empires during the centuries before 900 C.E. did not develop a written language they could use to record historical events."
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Bovill 1958, 51) Bovill, E W. 1958/1995. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Conrad 2010, 13) Conrad, D. C. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa. Revised Edition. Chelsea House Publishers. New York. [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
Scholars use oral tradition to help reconstruct life in the Segou kingdom.
[1]
The polity may not have used written documents but there were written documents in the semi-autonomous, Islamic ’marka’ towns, populated by Soninke and other Mande-speakers. The Bambara were not Muslims.
[1]: (Monroe and Ogundiran 2012) J Cameron Monroe. Akinwumi Ogundiran. Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa. J Cameron Monroe. Akinwumi Ogundiran. eds. 2012. Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa: Archaeological Perspectives.Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
Qur’an
|
||||||
|
"None of the native peoples developed a system of writing comparable to that of the Mayas, and much less would the Spaniards encounter a native empire such as that of either the Aztecs or Incas. By 1500 A.D., the most advanced of the indigenous peoples were two Chibcha groups: the Taironas and the Muiscas."
[1]
[1]: (Hudson 2010, 5) |
||||||
|
None of the native peoples developed a system of writing comparable to that of the Mayas, and much less would the Spaniards encounter a native empire such as that of either the Aztecs or Incas. By 1500 A.D., the most advanced of the indigenous peoples were two Chibcha groups: the Taironas and the Muiscas."
[1]
[1]: (Hudson 2010, 5) |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
"According to the Sanguo zhi [Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms], because Kebineng’s lands were near the Chinese border, many Chinese people (Zhongguo ren 中國人) fled the warlord depredations of late Han and Three Kingdoms China to join Kebineng, teaching the Xianbei how to make Chinese-style arms and armor, and even introducing some literacy."
[1]
[1]: (Holcombe 2013, 7-8) |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
importance of Buddhist monasteries.
|
||||||
|
Written records were introduced by colonial authorities and missions.
|
||||||
|
SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ is coded as ‘1’ or ‘None’, not ‘Mnemonic devices’, or ‘Nonwritten records’, or ’True writing, no records’, or ‘True writing; records’ The Bible played a prominent role in mission schools: ’Teachers are trained both in the mission and the government system, but the mission system is primarily aimed at training in Bible knowledge, religious doctrine and Christian values. In the early years of the mission any promising pupil, with two or more years of elementary schooling, might be chosen for training as a mission teacher. Certainly he would get some coaching in how to teach school, but the emphasis was above all religious. More recently, a number of courses were set up by government and mission teachers were encouraged to enter for such courses. The A course is open to men with a Standard 6 education and takes one year. The B course is open to men with a Form 2 education and takes two years. The administration insists on an A certificate as a minimum qualification; in the Northern District, new appointees were usually expected to have a B certificate. The mission is less fortunate; in 1966 in the Northern District, only 97 out of 274 mission teachers had either an A or a B certificate. Out of the Sasembata staff of 12, five were trained; out of the Hohota staff of four, one was trained.’
[1]
By the time of the eruption of Mt. Lamington, some Orokaiva communities were fairly familiar with Biblical themes: ’Certainly, the eruption would be followed by a resolve not to make the harsh power that brought the eruption angry again. Whether this power was primarily identified with God or with Sumbiripa is extremely hard to tell; it is even harder to tell whether these powers were viewed as being entirely distinct. Father Albert’s testimony strongly suggests that the eruption was treated as symbolic of divine wroth as it was presented in the Bible.’
[2]
But Schwimmer’s other comments (see above) suggest significant time-lags in the spread of literacy.
[1]: Schwimmer, Eric G. 1969. “Cultural Consequences Of A Volcanic Eruption Experienced By The Mount Lamington Orokaiva”, 118 [2]: Schwimmer, Eric G. 1969. “Cultural Consequences Of A Volcanic Eruption Experienced By The Mount Lamington Orokaiva”, 74 |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
No information found in sources so far.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Bible.
|
||||||
|
Bible.
|
||||||
|
Bible.
|
||||||
|
Bible.
|
||||||
|
Bible
|
||||||
|
Buddhist scriptures.
|
||||||
|
E.g. the Bible, Buddhist scriptures. "Sogdians used different types of script according to the religion to which they belonged. The Buddhists used a national script of Aramaic origin, with heterograms. This script is also known from secular writings and from what is probably the only Zoroastrian text in it.26 The Manichaeans had their own alphabet and the Christians used Syriac script, but both sometimes wrote in the national Sogdian script."
[1]
[1]: (Marshak 1996, 255) |
||||||
|
madrasas
|
||||||
|
Some shamans used written magic charms: ’(1) Spiritual Media. The names for spiritual media in An-shun are the same in the Miao-I language as in the Chinese. The men are known as Kwei-shin or Tuan-kung; the women, Mi-la or Mi-pu. Their duty is to sacrifice to the spirits to invoke their aid and to provide a medium between the spiritual and the human worlds. As such they are respected by the people. All ancestor worship and funeral events have to be presided over by the Kwei-shih. Every Miao-I center has one or two Kwei-shih, who learned their trade since childhood. Among the Chung-chia people the magic charms used for such spiritual purposes are marked with Chinese characters as phonetic symbols and written down as a scripture to be transmitted from master to disciple. The Kwei-shih, who are farmers by trade, take up mediumship as a side line to supplement their income from remunerations gained from its practice. In case of sickness the Miao-I believe the evil spirits are causing trouble, and it is the duty of the Mi-la to chase them away in order to cure the sick person. Often she is invited to the house to do her work. Sometimes in public gatherings the Mi-la is surrounded by people inquiring from her as to the best method of driving away spirits. Evidently the Mi-la is less able than the Kwei-shih, for in case of very serious illness or in the performance of funeral rites the man medium is always preferred.’
[1]
Christian missionaries introduced a romanized script for the publication of sacred texts and religious literature in the native languages: ’Since the reign of Kwang-hsu /1875-1907/ in the Ch’ing Dynasty, foreign Protestant and Catholic missionaries had come to Kweichow to rent houses for dispensing medicine and preaching the gospel. The Miao-I people were attracted by their kind and dignified bearings and many were subsequently converted. These preachers bought property where their congregation was the largest and established schools with teachers instructing the people in the gospel. Today Shih-men-k’an at Wei-ning is the southwest headquarters of the Christian missions. There many Hua Miao become sincere believers and followers. The missionaries have also introduced a romanized form of Miao language based on the English alphabet, which the Hua Miao learn as the “Miao language.”’
[2]
’The first missionaries among the Hua Miao belonged to the Bible Christian Church, a dissenting Methodist sect, that placed great importance on the ability to read the Bible for oneself. With missionary assistance and encouragement, a simple phonetic script was developed in 1905 and in the following years the New Testament was translated in full into Dian Dongbei. Hymnals and study guides were also produced, and a series of school primers. In the 1930s and 1940s a small newspaper was published. Village chapels, built with communal effort, functioned also as one-room primary schools and centers for adult education. The mountain community of Shimenkan (Stone Gateway) in northwestern Guizhou served as the headquarters of church activity. In addition to its own large primary school, it offered secondary schooling and teacher training. At least thirty Hua Miao continued on and graduated from university in the decades before 1949. Some of these became ordained Methodist ministers or doctors and one became a well-regarded anthropologist (Yang Hanxian). Generally the local chapels were served by lay preachers who were trained at Shimenkan. Other young people received training as nurses and agricultural extension workers. At various points in time, agricultural and industrial extension programs were held at Shimenkan. New strains of potatoes were introduced, fruit orchards were planted on the hillsides of many villages, vegetable gardens were encouraged, and a number of Miao learned the techniques of carpentry, brickmaking, and masonry. More efficient looms were designed for home production of cloth. During the prerevolutionary decades, some villages benefited from collective endeavors to build bridges and roads, and pipe systems that brought water into the community. Teams of medical workers, from Shimenkan or from the churchaffiliated hospitals in nearby Zhaotong City, traveled around the area periodically. Even those who were not interested in becoming church members participated in the economic innovations, accepted treatment from the medical workers, and sent their children to the schools.’
[3]
[1]: Chen, Guojun, and Lien-en Tsao 1942. “Religious Beliefs Of The Miao And I Tribes In An-Shun Kweichow”, 3 [2]: Che-lin, Wu, Chen Kuo-chün, and Lien-en Tsao 1942. “Studies Of Miao-I Societies In Kweichow”, 15 [3]: Diamond, Norma 1993. “Ethnicity And The State: The Hua Miao Of Southwest China”, 68 |
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There are lack of evidences suggesting that the writing system has been already invented.
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"The bulk of Sumerian texts, composed from late ED onward, survive as copies made in the OB period, the peak of Mesopotamian literary creativity, found particularly in private houses in Nippur and Ur. These included school exercises in mathematics and writing, accounts of school life, hymns and lamentations, mythological and historical poems, law codes, disputation poems, love songs and lullabies, proverbs and riddles, formal letters, and incantations."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 290) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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|
"The full affirmation of Marduk as chief deity of Babylonia, a process that had begun with Hammurabi, was consecrated in the final edition of the ‘Epic of Creation’ (Enu¯ma eliš, a title taken from the first line of the text). In the poem, Marduk defeated the primordial chaos, embodied by Tiamat, thus becoming the god responsible for the order of the universe."
[1]
[1]: (Liverani 2014, 463) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. London: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7DRZQS5Q/q/liverani. |
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"A growing body of literature, composed now in Akkadian instead of Sumerian, accumulated through the later second and first millennia. These included new versions of earlier stories, such as Ishtar in the Netherworld, and new stories, such as Enuma elish and The Story of Erra, as well as new compositions in old and new genres of religious literature and other branches of literary composition such as disputations, fables, and love poems, and the time-honored Sumerian lexical texts, now translated and greatly expanded and developed. Epic poems about historical monarchs began to appear, including fictive “autobiographies.” On the practical side, there was a growing body of “scientific” literature: compilations of omen and divination observations, treatments for illnesses, recipes and other treatises, as well as mathematical tables and exercises."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 291) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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"Documentary sources also become very scarce."
[1]
[1]: (Beaulieu 2017, 7Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. 2017. A History of Babylon, 2200 BC - AD 75. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/5T3ZBRQT. |
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Zoroastrianism? Bible.
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Koran.
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
Liverani says the so-called "urban revolution" of the Uruk phase occurred 3800-3000 BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 69-70) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
Liverani says the so-called "urban revolution" of the Uruk phase occurred 3800-3000 BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 69-70) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
Liverani says the so-called "urban revolution" of the Uruk phase occurred 3800-3000 BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 69-70) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
Liverani says the so-called "urban revolution" of the Uruk phase occurred 3800-3000 BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 69-70) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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"The great organisations of the first phase of urbanisation rose to prominence without writing. The latter developed relatively quickly as a response to these institutions’ needs."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 73) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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e.g. Biblical literature
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Koran
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Quran.
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The earliest phonetic hieroglyphic writing was found in the tomb J at the Abytos Cemetary U - on the pottery vessels and small bone/ivory labels
[1]
. They are dated to Naqada IIIA. But it should be noticed that already in Naqada I, signs similar to hieroglyphs have been found, especially on the pottery vessels (pot marks). However "none of these signs hints at the existence of phonograms, phonetic complements or detenninatives" and "the absence of an important component of the hieroglyphic writing system does not allow us to designate these signs as "hieroglyphic writing""
[2]
. It can be rather treated as an abstract symbolic system
[3]
[1]: Köhler, E. C. "Theories of State Formation". [in:] Wendrich, W. [ed.]. Egyptian Archaeology. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing. pg: 41. [2]: Kahl, J. "Hieroglyphic Writing During the Fourth Millennium BC: an Analysis of Systems". Archeo-NiI 11 (2001); 122, 124. [3]: Meza, A. 2012. ANCIENT EGYPT BEFORE WRITING: From Markings to Hieroglyphs. Bloomington: Xlibris Corporation. pg: 25. |
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The earliest phonetic hieroglyphic writing was found in the tomb J at the Abytos Cemetary U - on the pottery vessels and small bone/ivory labels
[1]
. They are dated to Naqada IIIA. But it should be noticed that already in Naqada I, signs similar to hieroglyphs have been found, especially on the pottery vessels (pot marks). However "none of these signs hints at the existence of phonograms, phonetic complements or detenninatives" and "the absence of an important component of the hieroglyphic writing system does not allow us to designate these signs as "hieroglyphic writing""
[2]
. It can be rather treated as an abstract symbolic system
[3]
[1]: Köhler, E. C. "Theories of State Formation". [in:] Wendrich, W. [ed.]. Egyptian Archaeology. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing. pg: 41. [2]: Kahl, J. "Hieroglyphic Writing During the Fourth Millennium BC: an Analysis of Systems". Archeo-NiI 11 (2001); 122, 124. [3]: Meza, A. 2012. ANCIENT EGYPT BEFORE WRITING: From Markings to Hieroglyphs. Bloomington: Xlibris Corporation. pg: 25. |
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Temple libraries.
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The first written records in the Valley of Oaxaca are from the Rosario phase (700-500 BCE).
[1]
[2]
Written records are therefore coded as absent for this period.
[1]: Flannery, K. V. and J. Marcus (1983). "The Cloud People." New York. [2]: Marcus, J. and K. V. Flannery (1996). Zapotec civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley, Thames and Hudson London. |
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The first written records in the Valley of Oaxaca are from the Rosario phase (700-500 BCE).
[1]
[2]
Written records are therefore coded as absent for this period.
[1]: Flannery, K. V. and J. Marcus (1983). "The Cloud People." New York. [2]: Marcus, J. and K. V. Flannery (1996). Zapotec civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley, Thames and Hudson London. |
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Glyphs dating to this period have been deciphered as either calendrical dates or the names of prisoners. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Spencer, C. S. and E. M. Redmond (2004). "Primary state formation in Mesoamerica." Annual Review of Anthropology: 173-199, p179 [2]: Marcus, J. and K. V. Flannery (1996). Zapotec civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley, Thames and Hudson London, p130 |
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Glyphs dating to this period have been deciphered as either calendrical dates or the names of prisoners. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Glyphs dating to this period have been deciphered as either calendrical dates or the names of prisoners. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Glyphs dating to this period have been deciphered as either calendrical dates or the names of prisoners. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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|
Glyphs dating to this period have been deciphered as either calendrical dates or the names of prisoners. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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|
Genealogical registers of noble ancestry (including important marriages, and sometimes important life events of individuals) were recorded in stone during this period. Also carved glyphs denoting calendrical dates. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Detailed documentation of life in the Valley of Oaxaca were written only after the Spanish conquest in the 1520s.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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"Notably, none of these documents is a poem, a hymn, a collection of sayings, a mythological narration, a chronicle, a manual, or indeed any other sort of literary or technical composition."
[1]
[1]: (Robin 2015: 92) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZMFH42PE. |
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"Notably, none of these documents is a poem, a hymn, a collection of sayings, a mythological narration, a chronicle, a manual, or indeed any other sort of literary or technical composition."
[1]
[1]: (Robin 2015: 92) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www-oxfordscholarship-com.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.001.0001/acprof-9780199654529-chapter-3. |
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"Notably, none of these documents is a poem, a hymn, a collection of sayings, a mythological narration, a chronicle, a manual, or indeed any other sort of literary or technical composition."
[1]
[1]: (Robin 2015: 92) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www-oxfordscholarship-com.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.001.0001/acprof-9780199654529-chapter-3. |
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The primary works of reference were Qur’an and Sunna: ’A primary sort of textual authority was derived:4 it followed from the existence and importance of an original, genuine, and ultimately reliable text, which refers back to the position and identity of the Quran. “In the genealogy of texts,” Edward Said writes (1983: 46), “there is a first text, a sacred prototype, a scripture, which readers always approach through the text before them.” A genealogy of authoritative texts in Islam must begin with a consideration of the Quran as the authoritative original. The paradigmatic, Ur text qualities of the Quran concern both content and textual form. Substantively, the Quran and the Sunna, the practice of the Prophet, constituted the two fundamental “sources” (usul, sing. asl) for the elaboration of shariʽa jurisprudence. Discursively, the Quran represents both the end and the beginning of the kitab (text, scripture, writing, book). Just as Muhammad was the last, the “seal,” of the Prophets, and also the first Muslim, the Quran was the definitive and final kitab, whose particular authority would initiate and delimit a discursive tradition.’
[1]
[1]: Messick, Brinkley 2012. "The Calligraphic State", 16 |
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-
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Bible.
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||||||
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Bible.
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The Bible.
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The Bible.
|
||||||
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The bible.
|
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|
The Bible; manuscripts. “In the second half of the 14th century, the first Czech translation of the Bible was made (entitled the Leskovec or Dresden Bible; in Moravian it overlaps with the Olomouc version), and so the Czechs were numbered after Italy and France among the first nations to undertake such a task.”
[1]
“Wenceslas IV followed in Charles’s footsteps. The former had an unusual interest in the book and created a collection of superlative illuminated manuscripts, of which are preserved only a handful scattered through European libraries and galleries.”
[2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 149) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. 2009. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ [2]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 148) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. 2009. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ |
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-
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The Roman Catholic Bible.
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The primary sacred text in the Russian Orthodox tradition was the Bible, comprising the Old and New Testaments. This also included texts specific to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, such as the Septuagint version of the Old Testament and the Orthodox Liturgical texts.
[1] [1]: Neil Kent, A Concise History of the Russian Orthodox Church (Washington: Academica Press, 2021). Zotero link: YC6JFSXF |
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The Bible.
|
||||||
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Conversion to Islam in the fourteenth century introduced the Qu’ran to the Golden Horde.
|
||||||
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The Bible. Introduced by the Romans after it became the official religion of the empire.
|
||||||
|
“Although the ancient people of the Southwest didn’t have a written language, they had effective ways to communicate.”
[1]
[1]: (“Chaco Culture - Communication”) “Chaco Culture” NPS Museum Collections, accessed May 8, 2023, https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/chcu/index6.html. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NMRVDA5I |
||||||
|
The Bible.
|
||||||
|
The Bible.
|
||||||
|
The primary sacred text in the Russian Orthodox tradition was the Bible, comprising the Old and New Testaments. This also included texts specific to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, such as the Septuagint version of the Old Testament and the Orthodox Liturgical texts.
[1] [1]: Neil Kent, A Concise History of the Russian Orthodox Church (Washington: Academica Press, 2021). Zotero link: YC6JFSXF |
||||||
|
The Constitution of the USSR guarantees religious freedom, but the ruling Communist Party actively encourages the disappearance of religion. In the 1930s there was comprehensive religious persecution, but despite the virtual disappearance of the Russian Orthodox Church as an institution, the believing population did not give up its faith. During World War II, Stalin adopted a new policy. He granted the churches a limited institutional existence, and in return church leaders have been expected to speak favorably of Soviet political and social realities. Only a proportion of the clergy is, however, fully acceptable to the government, and a significant number tries to serve the religious needs of its flock the best it can. The ordinary believer is treated as a second-class citizen. Individuals who try to make the plight of Soviet Christians known in the world at large or to bear witness to their faith in public can expect reprisals from the authorities.
[1]
[1]: Walters, Philip. “The Russian Orthodox Church and the Soviet State.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 483 (1986): 135–145. Accessed November 24, 2023. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1045546. Zotero link: WU2BZFEE |
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|
The Bible. Introduced by the Romans after it became the official religion of the empire.
|
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|
Quran likely read by literate, high-ranking Muslim minority. "In southern Senegambia, where non-Manding populations predominated, Manding was a prestigious language of the pagan aristocracy and, on the other hand, the language of the Muslim merchant network of Jakhanke. The existence of Manding Ajami in that area was already attested in the first half of the 18th century (Labat 1728; cited by Giesing & Costa-Dias 2007: 63), long before the pagan rule of the ñàncoo elite of the Kaabu was definitely smashed by Muslim Fulbe troops from Fuuta Jalon. In any case, the emergence of Ajami is not related to the establishment of a Muslim political power in this area: the main holders of Islamic writing in the area, the Jakhanke merchants, were for centuries integrated into the social system of the Kaabu confederation and often served as advisers and intermediates for the political elites."
[1]
"A number of terms have been used in this volume to refer to the usage of Arabic script for languages other than Arabic. Crosslinguistically, such writing systems are often termed ‘Arabic literature’, ‘Islamic literature’ or ‘Islamic writings’, and locally they are known by a large number of names, such as Wolofal, or Kiarabu. The term Ajami in particular (or variations, such as Äjam, Ajamiya, etc.), derived from the Arabic word ʿaǧam ‘non-Arab; Persian’, has gained some degree of popularity in academic literature and is also encountered as a self-denomination for these writing systems in some languages, such as Hausa."
[2]
[1]: (Vydrin 2014: 201-202) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/E8Z57DNC/collection. [2]: (Mumin and Verstegh 2014: 1) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/PVIK4HGV/collection. |
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"Despite its limitations the Muslim revolution was followed by a genuine cultural revolution for the marabouts soon translated the Kur’än (Qoran) into Fulfulde to facilitate the religious instruction of the masses."
[1]
[1]: (Barry 1999: 294-295) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/SU25S5BX/items/24W2293H/item-list |
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|
The following quote implies that indigenous writing emerged in the region in the 19th century. "The first documented autochthonous, Mande script to appear in West Africa was the one created by Duala Bukere from Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia who created a Vai syllabary in 1833, which has been standardized to 212 characters (Dalby, 1967: 14-18). [...] Appearing first in the region, the Vai syllabary became the prototype for other writing systems that were created in the inter-wars among indigenous peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Speakers of southern Mande languages such as the Mende (1921) and the Kpelle (1935), and speakers of the Kru languages such as the Bassa (1920-25) have based their writing systems on the syllabary (Dalby, 1967: 2-4)."
[1]
[1]: (Oyler 2001: 75) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/X7HQWWH9/collection. |
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|
The following quote suggests that this era has left behind few written texts. "Historical information on those emerging years of the empire is dim and has to be carefully extracted from the accounts of Arab writers (Levtzion and Hopkins 1981), the scanty internal evidence in the Kanem-Borno king lists (Lange 1977), and the few fragments of internal scripts that have been recorded by the German traveler Heinrich Barth (1857-59; Lange 1987) and the British colonial officer Richmond Palmer (1967; 1970)."
[1]
[1]: (Gronenborn 2002: 103) |
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The following quote implies that indigenous writing emerged in the region in the 19th century. "The first documented autochthonous, Mande script to appear in West Africa was the one created by Duala Bukere from Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia who created a Vai syllabary in 1833, which has been standardized to 212 characters (Dalby, 1967: 14-18). [...] Appearing first in the region, the Vai syllabary became the prototype for other writing systems that were created in the inter-wars among indigenous peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Speakers of southern Mande languages such as the Mende (1921) and the Kpelle (1935), and speakers of the Kru languages such as the Bassa (1920-25) have based their writing systems on the syllabary (Dalby, 1967: 2-4)."
[1]
[1]: (Oyler 2001: 75) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/X7HQWWH9/collection. |
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The following quote implies that indigenous writing emerged in the region in the 19th century. "The first documented autochthonous, Mande script to appear in West Africa was the one created by Duala Bukere from Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia who created a Vai syllabary in 1833, which has been standardized to 212 characters (Dalby, 1967: 14-18). [...] Appearing first in the region, the Vai syllabary became the prototype for other writing systems that were created in the inter-wars among indigenous peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Speakers of southern Mande languages such as the Mende (1921) and the Kpelle (1935), and speakers of the Kru languages such as the Bassa (1920-25) have based their writing systems on the syllabary (Dalby, 1967: 2-4)."
[1]
[1]: (Oyler 2001: 75) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/X7HQWWH9/collection. |
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"Hence, such sacred books of the Tamils as the Dēvāram preserve, among other things, a kind of regional sacred geography of medieval Tamilnad. That such hymns helped to endow various temples with rich, sacred traditions undoubtedly helped to promote the growth of pilgrimage networks and the development of what might be called ’regional consciousness’ among the Tamils.”
[1]
[1]: (Spencer 1969, 48-49) Spencer, George W. 1969. ‘Religious Networks and Royal Influence in Eleventh Century South India’. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. Vol 12: 1. Pp. 42-56. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/5XDG98BE/collection |
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Buddhist and Hindu texts.
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Buddhist and Hindu texts. “Just as Pāli was the language of Sinhalese Buddhism, Sanskrit, was the sacred language of the Brāhmans (and Hinduism) and of Mahāyānist scriptures were written in that language.”
[1]
“Literature for much of the Anurādhapura period was Buddhist, written in the Pāli language. The Buddhist scriptures were preserved on the island, first orally and then in writing. The three main monastic orders added their own commentaries, but only some of the Mahāvihāra texts survive. In the later Anurādhapura period, the production of Pāli literature declined and literary works in Sinhala appear.”
[2]
[1]: (De Silva 1981, 59) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection [2]: (Peebles 2006: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/HJG4VBC5/collection. |
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Buddhist and Hindu texts. “Just as Pāli was the language of Sinhalese Buddhism, Sanskrit, was the sacred language of the Brāhmans (and Hinduism) and of Mahāyānist scriptures were written in that language.”
[1]
[1]: (De Silva 1981, 59) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection |
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Buddhist and Hindu texts. “Literature for much of the Anurādhapura period was Buddhist, written in the Pāli language. The Buddhist scriptures were preserved on the island, first orally and then in writing. The three main monastic orders added their own commentaries, but only some of the Mahāvihāra texts survive. In the later Anurādhapura period, the production of Pāli literature declined and literary works in Sinhala appear.”
[1]
[1]: (Peebles 2006: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/HJG4VBC5/collection. |
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The Bible.
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“Literature for much of the Anurādhapura period was Buddhist, written in the Pāli language. The Buddhist scriptures were preserved on the island, first orally and then in writing. The three main monastic orders added their own commentaries, but only some of the Mahāvihāra texts survive. In the later Anurādhapura period, the production of Pāli literature declined and literary works in Sinhala appear.”
[1]
[1]: (Peebles 2006: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/HJG4VBC5/collection. |
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Buddhist and Hindu literature.
|
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“Literature for much of the Anurādhapura period was Buddhist, written in the Pāli language. The Buddhist scriptures were preserved on the island, first orally and then in writing. The three main monastic orders added their own commentaries, but only some of the Mahāvihāra texts survive. In the later Anurādhapura period, the production of Pāli literature declined and literary works in Sinhala appear.”
[1]
[1]: (Peebles 2006: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/HJG4VBC5/collection. |
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Quran. Islam seems to be prevalent after 1830 CE when King Sanna Abba Jifar adopted Islam. “About 1830 Sanna Abba Jifar succeeded in uniting many of the Jimma Galla under his rule as king of Jimma-Kakka, known also as Jimma Abba Jifar. As Bofo before him, Abba Jifar adopted Islam and encouraged the spread of Islam among his subjects.”
[1]
[1]: (Rubenson 2008, 85) Rubenson, Sven. 2008. ‘Ethiopia and the Horn’ In The Cambridge History of Africa c.1790 – c.1870. Edited by John E. Flint. Vol. 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Sven/titleCreatorYear/items/VRU64Q8P/item-list |
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The Quran. “Some of the Arabic inscriptions on tombstones collected between the modern towns of Harar and Dire Dawa bear thirteenth-century dates, and show the existence of fairly well-developed Muslim communities in the region of Harar, which probably was an important centre of dispersal for many of the founders of other Muslim settlements further inland.”
[1]
[1]: (Tamrat 2008, 140) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list |
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The Quran. “However they did accept the first Muslim migrants, the Hatimi from Yemen and the Amawi from Sham (Syria), around the 10th century, for both religious and commercial reasons. The town prospered and became one of the major Islamic centers in the Horn, the Barawaani Ulama, attracted students from all over the region. Muslim scholars of the time, such as al-Idrisi, wrote about Barawa as ‘an Arabic ‘Islamic’ island on the Somali coast.’”
[1]
[1]: (Mukhtar 2003, 50) Mukhtar, Mohamed H. 2003. Historical Dictionary of Somalia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/J8WZB6VI/collection |
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The Quran. “The Ajuran established a theocratic Islamic state based on Sharia law with its headquarters at Marka or Merca on the Indian Ocean, and the royal residence at Mungiye, about 75 miles south of Mogadishu. Marka was the home of a number of revered sheikhs, including the Afarta Aw Usman (“the four famous sheikhs named Osman”): Aw Usman Markayale, who is not only venerated in Marka, but also has a mosque named after him with a small underground chamber that, according to popular belief, formed part of a corridor that led directly to the Ka’ba in the holy city of Makkah; Aw Usman Garweyne, whose shrine is on the island of Gendershe, 20 miles north of Marka; Aw Usman Makki of Dhanane; and Aw Usman Bauasan of Jazira. Thus, Marka for the Ajuran is a religious sanctuary, and is called even today “Marka Aw Usman” (Marka, home of Osmans). At the top of the Ajuran hierarchy was the imam, a title used only by Shi‘ite Islamic administrations.”
[1]
[1]: (Mukhtar 2016, Encyclopedia of Empire) Mukhtar, Mohamed H. 2016. ‘Ajuran Sultanate.’ In J. Mackenzie Encyclopedia of Empire. Wiley. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5U3NQRMR/library |
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Quran. “A vistor will not venture too far into the countryside before encountering a small circle of children sitting under a tree reciting verses from the Quran with a bearded Shaykh; […]”
[1]
[1]: (Cassanelli 1982, 119) Cassanelli, Lee. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Lee/titleCreatorYear/items/TKPH7Z89/item-list |
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The Quran. “This traveller found it the most civilized of these states, he wrote: ‘The Galla of Gomma were the first (of these states) to embrace Islam. Both old and young always memorize the Quran which is taught by migrant Muslims who put on the guise of learned men.”
[1]
[1]: (Trimingham 2013, 200) Trimingham, J. Spencer. 2013. Islam in Ethiopia. London: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/RB7C87QZ/collection |
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The Quran. “With a long tradition of trading connections to the Arabian Peninsula, the Somalis were converted to Islam at an early date and remain staunch Muslims (Sunnis, of the Sha’afi School of Law). This is reflected in the traditional practice of tracing descent from illustrious Arab ancestors connected with the family of the Prophet Muhamad.”
[1]
[1]: (Lewis 2008, 1-2) Lewis, Ioan, M. 2008. Understanding Somalia and Somaliland: Culture, History, Society. New York: Columbia University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7J425GTZ/library |
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The Quran. “Secondly, this sultanate is clearly seen actively promoting the expansion of Islam, as in the conversion of the Gbbah in the reign of Sultan Harbair’, as reported by the chronical.”
[1]
[1]: (Tamrat 2008, 107) Tamrat, Taddesse. 2008. ‘Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn’ In the Cambridge History of Africa: c. 1050 – c.1600 vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 98-182. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Tamrat/titleCreatorYear/items/A68FCWWI/item-list |
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The Quran. “A Muslim community was also indicated by the recovery of 2 undated Arabic inscriptions, one part on an inscription from the Quran 48:31-1, which if complete would read ‘In the name of the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful’ and on the second line, ‘We have given you a glorious victory’, the other only bearing the words ‘on God’”.
[1]
[1]: (Insoll 2017, 209) Insoll, Timothy. 2017. ‘First Footsteps in Archaeology of Harar, Ethiopia’. Journal of Islamic Archaeology. Vol 4:2. Pp 189-215. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/VQ38B374/collection |
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The Bible. “In the 1520s, Emperor Lebna Dengel led an expedition to Hadeya and ordered the construction of many churches and monasteries.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 200) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
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The Quran. “With a long tradition of trading connections to the Arabian Peninsula, the Somalis were converted to Islam at an early date and remain staunch Muslims (Sunnis, of the Sha’afi School of Law). This is reflected in the traditional practice of tracing descent from illustrious Arab ancestors connected with the family of the Prophet Muhamad.”
[1]
[1]: (Lewis 2008, 1-2) Lewis, Ioan, M. 2008. Understanding Somalia and Somaliland: Culture, History, Society. New York: Columbia University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Understanding%20Somalia/titleCreatorYear/items/7J425GTZ/item-list |
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Bible. “By the 14th century, all the Bilen, Tirgrinya, and Tigre-speaking peoples were Orthodox Christians as were many of the Belew in the lowlands. During this period, the Eritrean region was a center for a monastic revival that accompanied the preaching of Ewostatewos and led to the founding of the great monasteries of Debre Bizen, Debre Maryam, and Debre Merqorewos. In the 15th century, these institutions received huge land grants from Ethiopian emperors anxious to appease the regionalist sentiments of the Tigrinya-based Ewostatian movement. But during the 1500s, Islam spread in the region, and by the mid-1800s, Orthodox Christians were confined almost exclusively to the Tigrinya-speaking population of Kebessa.”
[1]
[1]: (Connell and Killion 2011, 40) Connell, Dan and Killion, Tom. 2011. Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Second Edition. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/24ZMGPAA/collection |
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The Quran. “Majerteenia was thus simultaneously part of the dar al-Islam and the dar al’ahd; it was concomitantly Indian Ocean in its observation of Shafi’i Sunnism, and regional in its veneration of the sultan’s status and other lineage saints.”
[1]
[1]: (Smith 2021, 44) Smith, Nicholas W.S. 2021. Colonial Chaos in the Southern Red Sea: A History of Violence from 1830 to the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/K6HVJ7X4/collection |
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Quran. “Their schools (khalwas) taught younger boys the Quran, law, and Muslim theology.”
[1]
[1]: (Lapidus 2002, 431) Lapidus, Ira M. 2002. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QW9XHCIW/collection |
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The Bible and the Quran. “In one of the oldest feast houses in Kafa, at Baha, Cardinal Massaja found a tabot with an inscription dedicated to ‘St. George, Our Lady Mary and God’ and signed by ‘Dengel’ (possibly referring to Sarsa Dengel of the sixteenth century).”
[1]
“During his reign Kafa allowed its first Muslim traders, the Abjedo clan, to open stations. This was also the time of the Galla expansion, and the Kafa tell many tales about the great Oromo leader, Shipenao. There is some debate as to whether Shipenao is Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim, more commonly referred to as Gran.”
[2]
This is coded as present for 1531 CE – 1897 CE as various Muslim and Christian groups start moving into the kingdom under the reign of King Madi Gafo (1530 CE – 1565 CE).
[2]
[1]: (Orent 1970, 272) Orent, Amnon. 1970. ‘Refocusing on the History of Kafa Prior to 1897: A Discussion of Political Processes’. African Historical Studies. Vol. 3:2. Pp 263-293. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2A389XGK/collection [2]: (Orent 1970, 269) Orent, Amnon. 1970. ‘Refocusing on the History of Kafa Prior to 1897: A Discussion of Political Processes’. African Historical Studies. Vol. 3:2. Pp 263-293. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2A389XGK/collection |
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The Bible and the Quran. “In one of the oldest feast houses in Kafa, at Baha, Cardinal Massaja found a tabot with an inscription dedicated to ‘St. George, Our Lady Mary and God’ and signed by ‘Dengel’ (possibly referring to Sarsa Dengel of the sixteenth century).”
[1]
“During his reign Kafa allowed its first Muslim traders, the Abjedo clan, to open stations. This was also the time of the Galla expansion, and the Kafa tell many tales about the great Oromo leader, Shipenao. There is some debate as to whether Shipenao is Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim, more commonly referred to as Gran.”
[2]
This is coded as present for 1531 CE – 1897 CE as various Muslim and Christian groups start moving into the kingdom under the reign of King Madi Gafo (1530 CE – 1565 CE).
[2]
[1]: (Orent 1970, 272) Orent, Amnon. 1970. ‘Refocusing on the History of Kafa Prior to 1897: A Discussion of Political Processes’. African Historical Studies. Vol. 3:2. Pp 263-293. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2A389XGK/collection [2]: (Orent 1970, 269) Orent, Amnon. 1970. ‘Refocusing on the History of Kafa Prior to 1897: A Discussion of Political Processes’. African Historical Studies. Vol. 3:2. Pp 263-293. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2A389XGK/collection |
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Quran. “Fourth, the Muslim resistance in Wallo seems also to have led to the growth of a Jihadic movement in the Gibe region. The Muslim clerics who made Islam the religion of the masses and nurtured Islamic culture in Wallo, brought the spirit of resistance with them to the Gibe region. This spirit of resistance grew into a Jihadic movement mainly in the kingdom of Gumma, which remained a hotbed of rebellion and Muslim resistance from 1887 to 1902.”
[1]
[1]: (Hassen 1992, 96) Hassen, Mohammed. ‘Islam as a Resistance Ideology Among the Oromo of Ethiopia.’ In In The Shadow of Conquest: Islam in Colonial Northeast Africa. Trenton, New Jersey: The Red Sea Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/search/Hassen/titleCreatorYear/items/PJ3UMMX5/item-list |
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Quran. “Harar is Ethiopia’s eleventh largest city and Islam’s fourth holiest town after Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem and, during the 17th and 18th centuries was an important center of Islamic scholarship and at one point had 99 mosques.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 207) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
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The Quran. “Most, if not all, of them are now Moslems, although the neighbouring Itu are generally pagan.”
[1]
[1]: (Thesiger 1935, 2) Thesiger, Wifred. 1935. ‘The Awash River and the Aussa Sultanate.’ The Geographical Journal. Vol. 85:1. Pp 1-19 Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/APBB7BBK/library |
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Quran. “A vistor will not venture too far into the countryside before encountering a small circle of children sitting under a tree reciting verses from the Quran with a bearded Shaykh; […]”
[1]
[1]: (Cassanelli 1982, 119) Cassanelli, Lee. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Lee/titleCreatorYear/items/TKPH7Z89/item-list |
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The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary."
[1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391) |
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The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary."
[1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391) |
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The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary."
[1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391) |
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“In Allada the local people, it was noted in 1670, in the absence of writing used knotted strings to keep records of various matters, including commercial transactions (“the price of goods”).”
[1]
[1]: Austin, Gareth, et al. “Credit, Currencies, and Culture: African Financial Institutions in Historical Perspective.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 34, no. 1, 2001, p. 144: 33. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SPXH2IUW/collection |
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“There can be no doubt that since the reign of Aole towards the end of the eighteenth century, Islamic influence had been penetrating into Yorubaland from the north. For example, in Old Oyo, the capital of the Old Oyo Empire, the trader, one Alajaeta, who appealed to Aole for protection when his goods were stolen was a Muslim. For, a copy of the Koran was one of the things reported stolen.”
[1]
[1]: Atanda, J. A. ‘The Fall of the Old Ọyọ Empire: A Re-Consideration of its Cause’. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria vol.5, no.4 (June 1971): 488–489. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NR9MAEAE/collection |
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No writing system in Allada the year before Whydah became independent, so likely the same in Whydah: “Another question arising from the incidence of credit in both the local economy and the overseas trade is the nature of the indigenous system of recordkeeping. In Allada the local people, it was noted in 1670, in the absence of writing used knotted strings to keep records of various matters, including commercial transactions (“the price of goods”). Several later accounts allude to other mechanical devices for keeping financial (and fiscal) records in Dahomey.”
[1]
[1]: Austin, Gareth, et al. “Credit, Currencies, and Culture: African Financial Institutions in Historical Perspective.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 34, no. 1, 2001, p. 144: 33. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SPXH2IUW/collection |
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The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary."
[1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391) |
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|
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary."
[1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391) |
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As an Islamic state, the Qu’ran was the Holy Book. “In the Sokoto Caliphate, palace Koranic schools were attended by slaves, women, and children. The Koranic schools were the first type of formal education in Nigeria.”
[1]
[1]: Falola, Toyin, and Ann Genova. Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2009: 199. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SJAIVKDW/collection |
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No references found in the consulted literature to a written form of Nri that doesn’t use the Latin alphabet. “If these are the problems to be faced in languages that have written form hundreds of years ago one cannot imagine what problems there are in dealing with languages whose written forms are yet to be established.”
[1]
[1]: Onwuejeogwu, M. A. (1975). Some Fundamental Problems in the Application of Lexicostatistics in the Study of African Languages. Paideuma, 21, 6–17: 10. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/IISK3KCM/collection |
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“PLATE 16.4 Decorated pages of a miniature Hausa Qoran, late seventeenth- to early eighteenth century. Height: c. 7.5 cm”
[1]
[1]: Ogot, B. (Ed.). (1998). Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth century. Heinemann; University of California Press: 488. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/M4FMXZZW/collection |
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The Qur’an and the Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad were present as an integral part of the practice of Islam in Kanem-Bornu. “Over all the centuries, writing on Islamic legal matters especially in fatwas (formal legal opinions) took place in Timbuktu, in Hausaland and in Bornu; and some writing was done, on interpretation of the Qur’an and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.”
[1]
[1]: HUNWICK, JOHN O. “WEST AFRICA AND THE ARABIC LANGUAGE.” Sudanic Africa, vol. 15, 2004, pp. 133–44: 138. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/26533KM8/collection |
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“The question as to the manner in which a record of the age of these children was kept by a people who had no writing, poses itself here.”
[1]
[1]: HERSKOVITS, M. J. (1932). POPULATION STATISTICS IN THE KINGDOM OF DAHOMEY. Human Biology, 4(2), 252–261: 258. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/8T74FM7D/collection |
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“Since the end of the 15th century, a great deal of material about Benin has been supplied by sailors, traders, etc., returning to Europe. However, information on the Edo people before this date is very difficult to obtain, as there was no written record and the oral record is at best rather fragmentary.”
[1]
“The theme of this study presses the sources for the reconstruction of Benin military history to its limits because written documents scarcely exist, except for the reports and accounts of European visitors.”
[2]
[1]: Bondarenko, Dmitri M., and Peter M. Roese. ‘Benin Prehistory: The Origin and Settling down of the Edo’. Anthropos 94, no. 4/6 (1999): 542–52: 542. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Y4V3D623/collection [2]: Osadolor, O. B. (2001). The Military System of Benin Kingdom, c.1440–1897. University of Hamburg, Germany: 27–28. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/N4RZF5H5/collection |
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Quran. “Two conditions are indispensably necessary to procure admission into the class of marabouts, an irreproachable character, and an acquaintance with Arabic language. The candidate ought to know several chapters of the Koran by heart, and to combine with these acquirements a knowledge of certain Arabic books, which treat of the history of the world and of arithmetic.”
[1]
[1]: (Mollien 1820, 61) Mollien, Gaspard Theodore. 1820, Travels in the Interior of Africa to the Sources of the Senegal and Gambia Performed by Command of the French Government in 1818. Edited by T.E. Bowdich. London: Henry Colburn and Company. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/W3PWMURF/collection |
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Quran. “In their heyday as royal capitals [Kahone (Saloum), Diakhao (Sine), and Lambaye (Baol)] these towns were not predominantly Muslim. Muslims at court would have lived, and built their mosque, in a peripheral neighbourhood, not on the central square.”
[1]
[1]: (Bigon and Ross 2020, 42) Bigon, Liora and Ross, Eric. 2020. Grid Planning in the Urban Design Practices of Senegal. London: Springer. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/MM67I638/collection |
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Quran. “In their heyday as royal capitals [Kahone (Saloum), Diakhao (Sine), and Lambaye (Baol)] these towns were not predominantly Muslim. Muslims at court would have lived, and built their mosque, in a peripheral neighbourhood, not on the central square.”
[1]
[1]: (Bigon and Ross 2020, 42) Bigon, Liora and Ross, Eric. 2020. Grid Planning in the Urban Design Practices of Senegal. London: Springer. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/MM67I638/collection |
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Quran. “In their heyday as royal capitals Kahone (Saloum), Diakhao (Sine), and Lambaye (Baol) these towns were not predominantly Muslim. Muslims at court would have lived, and built their mosque, in a peripheral neighbourhood, not on the central square.”
[1]
[1]: (Bigon and Ross 2020, 42) Bigon, Liora and Ross, Eric. 2020. Grid Planning in the Urban Design Practices of Senegal. London: Springer. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/MM67I638/collection |
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Quran. The following quote was made by Le Maire in 1682 regarding the Waalo monarchy and Islam. “’The nobles are more attached to it because they are usually close to one of the Moorish marabouts and thus these scoundrels take full credit for their spirit. They make their Sala, the minor people do not do anything or do it only more of less in a mosque. The king and the nobles have them, they are covered with straw like the other houses.’”
[1]
[1]: (Barry 2012, 39) Barry, Boubacar. 2012. The Kingdom of Waalo: Senegal Before the Conquest. New York: Diasporic Africa Press. Seshat URL:https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/9KV5MEKN/collection |
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Despite the debate on the influence of Islam within the Jolof Empire the following quotes do indicate that the Quran was present in the Jolof Empire. “The Wolof developed a class hierarchy, with a nobility which was at least nominally Islamic and, together with Mande and Tukolor elements, began to exert a dominating influence on trade and government of their Serer neighbours.”
[1]
“Although exposed to Islamic influences through Muslim clerics, traders and court advisers, the Djolof Empire, unlike Tekrur resisted Islamization and most leaders and people remained firmly attached to their traditional religious practices.
[2]
[1]: (Fage 2008, 486) Fage, J.D. 2008. ‘Upper and Lower Guinea’ In The Cambridge History of Africa c. 1050 – c. 1600. Edited by Roland Oliver. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/search/Fage/titleCreatorYear/items/9V3CTHZ9/item-list [2]: (Gellar, 2020) Gellar, Sheldon. 2020. Senegal: An African Nation Between Islam and the West. Second Edition. London: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/ZCQVA3UX/collection |
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Quran. “In Mauritania and Senegambia, there was a network of rural schools, at which the Koran and certain important works of technology and law were studied. The more learned marabouts studied at different schools. Some of these schools seem to have played an important revolutionary role. Thus, according to Futa Toro traditions, all the major leaders of the 1776 torodbe revolt studied at Pir Saniokhor in Cayor.”
[1]
[1]: (Klein 1972, 428) Klein, Martin A. 1972. ‘Social and Economic Factors in the Muslim Revolution in Senegambia.’ The Journal of Africa History. Vol. 13:3. Pp 419-441. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/ZJRN8UJ8/collection |
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Quran. “In Mauritania and Senegambia, there was a network of rural schools, at which the Koran and certain important works of technology and law were studied. The more learned marabouts studied at different schools. Some of these schools seem to have played an important revolutionary role. Thus, according to Futa Toro traditions, all the major leaders of the 1776 torodbe revolt studied at Pir Saniokhor in Cayor.”
[1]
[1]: (Klein 1972, 428) Klein, Martin A. 1972. ‘Social and Economic Factors in the Muslim Revolution in Senegambia.’ The Journal of Africa History. Vol. 13:3. Pp 419-441. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/ZJRN8UJ8/collection |
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Quran. "Marabouts taught the precepts of Islam and the Arabic language; the level of their teaching ranged from that of simple village clergy to scholars who attracted pupils from the whole Senegambian area."
[1]
[1]: (Charles 1977: 19) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/SU25S5BX/items/NRGZDV3Z/collection |
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Quran. "Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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Quran. "Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words."
[1]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. |
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Quran. "Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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The following quote characterises the people of Tanganyika (the broader region of which Karagwe formed part) as "pre-literate" in the early 19th century. "We do not know what inland Tanganyikans believed in the early nineteenth century. They were pre-literate, and the religions of pre-literate peoples not only leave little historical evidence but are characteristically eclectic, mutable, and unsystematic."
[1]
[1]: (Iliffe 1979: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB2AJMVC/collection. |
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Languages spoken in this polity were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[1]
[1]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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"Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
We are inferring presence for the kingdom of Nkore due to likely spread of literacy from the Buganda polity.
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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Languages spoken in Rwanda were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[1]
[1]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words."
[1]
Languages spoken in this polity were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[2]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. [2]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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Languages spoken in Rwanda were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[1]
[1]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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Languages spoken in Rwanda were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[1]
[1]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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The following quote characterises the people of Tanganyika (the broader region of which the Fipa formed part) as "pre-literate" in the early 19th century. "We do not know what inland Tanganyikans believed in the early nineteenth century. They were pre-literate, and the religions of pre-literate peoples not only leave little historical evidence but are characteristically eclectic, mutable, and unsystematic."
[1]
[1]: (Iliffe 1979: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB2AJMVC/collection. |
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Languages spoken in Rwanda were turned into "written artefacts" only in the colonial period: "Before the arrival of the Europeans, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi were already employed in both kingdoms – Ikinyanduga in southern Rwanda and Ikiruundi in central Burundi – yet with a lot less linguistic unity in the two kingdoms than in (post)colonial times. The missionary and colonial interventions, therefore, rather focused on lexicon, resulting in status planning initiatives and contributing to the compilation of dictionaries, favouring a specific dialect over others. [...] The most salient and visible adaptations were a part of the primarily orthographic alignments of textualisation processes (turning languages into written artefacts)."
[1]
[1]: (Nassenstein 2019: 16-17) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/QUT3P5UT/collection. |
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"Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
Based on the literature consulted, it remains unclear whether literacy spread from Buganda to Nkore at this time.
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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"Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
Based on the literature consulted, it remains unclear whether literacy spread from Buganda to Nkore at this time.
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
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The following quote characterises the people of Tanganyika (the broader region of which Buhaya formed part) as "pre-literate" in the early 19th century. "We do not know what inland Tanganyikans believed in the early nineteenth century. They were pre-literate, and the religions of pre-literate peoples not only leave little historical evidence but are characteristically eclectic, mutable, and unsystematic."
[1]
[1]: (Iliffe 1979: 26) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB2AJMVC/collection. |
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Shaivist Hindu sacred texts. “The Pandya kings followed the tenets and traditions of Vedic Dharma; they were worshippers of Shiva and Vishnu. They respected all Devas. Many inscriptions begin with prayers and invocations to Shiva and Vishnu. Many rulers of Pandya dynasty performed Vedic Yajnas such as Rajasuya and Asavamedha.
[1]
[1]: (Kamlesh 2010, 600) Kamlesh, Kapur. 2010. ‘Pandya Dynasty’ In Portraits of a Nation: History of Ancient India. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/3TS5DCT6/collection |
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Hindu sacred texts.“It is no exaggeration to say that the temple gathered round itself all that was best in the arts of civilized existence and regulated with the humanness bom of the spirit of Dharma. The rulers of Thanjavur were orthodox Hindus and continued a tradition of liberality towards temples and mathas.”
[1]
[1]: (Appasamy 1980, 9) Appasamy, Jaya. 1980. Thanjavur Painting of the Maratha Period. Vol. 1. New Delhi. Abhinav Publications. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/35BU75NG/collection |
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Shaivist Hindu sacred texts. “The Sangam religion was originally ancient Shaivism, which remained predominant, especially the cults of Shiva and Murugan (or Skanda), Shiva’s son.”
[1]
[1]: (Danielou, 2003) Danielou, Alain. 2003. A Brief History of India. New York: Simon and Schuster. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/WFMTGQJ8/collection |
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Quran. “The most significant aspect of South Indian Islam, however, is that it was predominantly influenced by Sufi mysticism. The Sufis were not as bound by doctrinal formalism as the Sunnis or the Shi’ites but were concerned with an individual, mystic devotionalism which made it easy to adapt to the existing religious environment of South India. Sufi mysticism was characterized on the one hand by centres of learning, poetry, science, and on the other hand by the centrality of the pir or saint. The saint’s devotees assembled at his shrine to partake in the sacred power which abounded in the area, thus falling into the existing tradition of sacred places and the importance of pilgrimage.”
[1]
[1]: (Bugge, 2020) Bugge, Henriette. 2020. Mission and Tamil Society: Social and Religious Change in South India (1840-1900). London: Routledge Curzon. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/9SKWNUF4/collection |
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Tirumurai; Vedas. “Shaivites in Tamil Nadu consider Tirumurai as their most sacred text. Marai in Tamil is equivalent to Veda in Sanskrit.”
[1]
“The Vedas are the most sacred books of Hinduism, and perhaps, the most controversial, there is no agreement on the nature and purpose of the texts, their date, or the origin of the people who composed them […] There are four Vedas or Vedic Samhitas: Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharava Veda.”
[2]
[1]: (Ramachandran 2018, 204) Ramachandran, R. 2018. A History of Hinduism: The Past, Present and Future. New Delhi: Sage. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/XBIURS7C/collection [2]: (Dalal, 2014) Dalal, Roshen. 2014. The Vedas: An Introduction to Hinduism’s Sacred Texts. London: Penguin Books. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/9QEGMD3W/collection |
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“The name commonly used by Theravadins and other Buddhists for their canon is tipitaka (Skt. tripitaka) ‘three baskets’. The origin of and the idea behind this designation are not known. It is however certain that this is not the oldest name used for a collection of Buddhist texts. In the canon itself the buddhavacana ‘Buddha word’ is usually divided into dhamma ‘teaching’ and vinaya ‘discipline’, to which matika ‘the Patimokkhasutta (§ 14)’ is added.”
[1]
[1]: (von Hinüber 1996, 7) von Hinüber, Oskar. 1996. A Handbook of Pali Literature. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/H6ZW8JXP/collection |
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The following quote, attests to the fact that the rulers of this polity were Hindu, religiously tolerant, and interested in patronising literature, suggests that sacred texts were in circulation. “The rule of the nayaka in Thanjavur came to an end in the second half of the seventeenth century. Vijayaraghava Nayak (1634-73), son of Raghunatha Nayak, was the last ruler of the nayaka dynasty. On the whole, this period shaped the country both economically and culturally since most of these Hindu (Vaishnava) rulers had cultural, literary, and scientific interests and were comparatively tolerant and open in religious matters.”
[1]
[1]: (Lieban 2018, 54) Lieban, Heike. 2018. Cultural Encounters in India: The Local Co-workers of Tranquebar Mission, 18th to 19th Centuries. London: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/32CRNR7U/collection |
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Hindu sacred texts. “The Pudu Mandapa is an example of a mandapa specifically built for the use during a festival when a deity comes out on procession from the temple’s main shrine and stays in the mandapa for a period of a few hours or many days. The expansion in number, size and grandeur of these festival mandapas is a notable feature of Nayaka-period temple architecture. These structures are for the deity both to rest in and to receive worshippers in and their form reflects these purposes.”
[1]
[1]: (Branfoot 2001, 192) Branfoot, Crispin. 2001. ‘Tirumala Nayaka’s ‘New Hall’ and the European Study of the South Indian Temple. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Vol 11:2. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/FE5VZ76M/collection |
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The Bible.
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The Bible.
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