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- Permanent Link:
- http://digital.soas.ac.uk/LSMD000016/00001
Notes
- Abstract:
- MS 450 contains three poems, some of which incomplete. First, there are 37 pages of the long Utendi wa Aisha that narrates the story of the marriaga between the Prophet Mohammed and his second wife Aisha. This same poem has been analysed in Other manuscripts [see Notes for further details]. This is followed by another famous religious poem, the Kishamia, also already catalogued in various Mss listed in the Notes. And finally, we find the Hadithi ya Ndiwa na Kozi [the dove and the goshawk] already catalogues as well in various Mss listed in the Notes. ( en )
- General Note:
- Biographical information: SOAS manuscript MS 380739a gives the date of birth of Sayyid Mansab bin Abdirrahman (Mwenye Mansab) as 1223 AH (1808 AD), and that of his death as 1340 (1921); Knappert (1999) gives 1828-1922 AD. -- Mwenye Mansab was born in Lamu. He was well-known as a man of intense religious devotion who spent his days in Lamu’s Rawdha mosque, where he wrote religious poems and translated Arabic religious texts into Swahili poems. He was a respected source of information on questions of religion, known for his ability to respond instantly to queries. Many of his exchanges with questioners are recounted in stories. One concerns his assertion that through good acts people earned themselves houses in heaven (‘umejengewa nyumba,’ he would tell someone who had acted well). When asked once whether heaven must not be growing terribly crowded with houses, Mwenye Mansab responded that not only did good acts build them, but bad ones tore them down, and in heaven as many houses were being demolished as were being constructed. -- Knappert (1971) reports that the author in Arabic, Muhammad al-Azabi, described his own work as a poetic rendering of the prose maulid of Imam as-Sayyid Ja’far al-Barzanj
- General Note:
- Date of Composition is unknown
- General Note:
- Languages: Swahili (Arabic script)
- General Note:
- Dialects: KiAmu
- General Note:
- Poetic Form: Utenzi
- General Note:
- Donated to SOAS in 1982
- General Note:
- Extent: 30 pages
- General Note:
- Incipit: Neteyani zinjifuri na wino mwema khiyari na kalamu ya sufuri ilo njema kwandikiya
- General Note:
- Sayyid Mansab bin Abdirrahman is also sometimes spelled "Masab bin Abdirrahman" and "Sayyid Mansab bin Abdulrahman" or "Sayyid Abubakar bin Abdulrahman bin Abubakar" as well as "Mwenye Mansab".
- General Note:
- For Utendi wa Aisha see also SOAS University of London manuscripts MS 279888-316 vol. 4, MS 432 vol.10, MS 404 vol. 9 (Allen collection), and, for Kishamia see also MS 380739 (Yahya collection), MS 380067 (Knappert collection), MS 279888-393 vol.9 (Allen collection); and, for Hadithi ya Ndiwa na Kozi see also MS 380066d (Knappert), MS 45022c (Taylor), and MS 53497e (Hichens)
- General Note:
- Africa -- Eastern Africa -- Swahili Coast
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- SOAS University of London
- Holding Location:
- Archives and Special Collections
- Rights Management:
- This item may be in the public domain. Its status has yet to be assessed.
- Resource Identifier:
- MS 279888-Vol.11 ( SOAS manuscript number )
MS 450 ( SOAS manuscript number )
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