handwritten copies

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The manuscripts were produced manually by professional copyists in specialized workshops. Scribes would sit on mats and perform calligraphy with 'extraordinary patience' (p. 286). Training involved children practicing on 'writing boards' (p. 286). The workshop Kër Sëriñ Bi specialized in three specific categories: bind al-quran (Qur'an copies), bind al xasa’id (copies of poetry), and bind ay ñaan (prayer books) (p. 278).

Evidence

"In the 1930s, the first caliph of the Muridiyya and Bamba’s eldest son, Sëriñ Mamadu Mustafa Mbàkke, established a workshop for professional copyists in Dakar. Named Kër Sëriñ Bi, the workshop produced three kinds of texts: 1) bind al-quran (copies of the Qur'an), 2) bind al xasa’id (copies of xasida), and 3) bind ay ñaan (prayers)."

Remarks

The text details the persistence of manual manuscript production in Senegal even after the arrival of the printing press. Handwritten copies (bind loxo) were highly valued and maintained a distinct market, influencing the aesthetics of later printed versions (p. 278, 286). Disciples learned poetry by heart to become 'living editions' of these works (p. 273).