West african and somali islamic elites in the 1800s

[Midas]

Has anybody looked into this. I assumed that muslim west africa had high wr arabic literacy and more in the 1800s then somalia did. Becuase you hear about the sokoto caliphate and the past stuff like the mali empire, etc. But I think might have been very wrong in this assumption the full islamization seems much more recent . While it seems there were more total people who knew arabic. If you were a somali elite at the time you could read and write arabic. This doesn't seem to be true in muslim west africa. I'm beginning to think if we were talking in terms of literacy per capita among the elite It seems much higher among somalis. It also seems like somalis were more active/aware of the intellectual world/currents of the muslim world.

 

[Internet Nomad]

Has anybody looked into this. I assumed that muslim west africa had high wr arabic literacy and more in the 1800s then somalia did. Becuase you hear about the sokoto caliphate and the past stuff like the mali empire, etc. But I think might have been very wrong in this assumption the full islamization seems much more recent . While it seems there were more total people who knew arabic. If you were a somali elite at the time you could read and write arabic. This doesn't seem to be true in muslim west africa. I'm beginning to think if we were talking in terms of literacy per capita among the elite It seems much higher among somalis. It also seems like somalis were more active/aware of the intellectual world/currents of the muslim world.

For a large part of WA history the elite were muslim but the commoners were a mix between traditional beliefs and Islam.

On the other hand Islam spread more in a egalitarian way.

So most likely somalis had higher arabic literacy.

Also Far-wadad is old

 

[mah14]

For a large part of WA history the elite were muslim but the commoners were a mix between traditional beliefs and Islam.

On the other hand Islam spread more in a egalitarian way.

So most likely somalis had higher arabic literacy.

Also Far-wadad is old

Isn't that not impressive? What is the point if only the elite are literate and the rest of the people are illiterate? I think one of the things that is important to me for civilization is the literacy rate among people

 

[Som]

Has anybody looked into this. I assumed that muslim west africa had high wr arabic literacy and more in the 1800s then somalia did. Becuase you hear about the sokoto caliphate and the past stuff like the mali empire, etc. But I think might have been very wrong in this assumption the full islamization seems much more recent . While it seems there were more total people who knew arabic. If you were a somali elite at the time you could read and write arabic. This doesn't seem to be true in muslim west africa. I'm beginning to think if we were talking in terms of literacy per capita among the elite It seems much higher among somalis. It also seems like somalis were more active/aware of the intellectual world/currents of the muslim world.

West Africans elites were literate in Arabic and had Islamic scholars, some though wrote in their local languages using an Arab modified script kinda like wadaad script. West Africa especially in Mali was fairly developed, Timbuktu under the Songhai was one of the most important learning centers in the Muslim world and they even had a university. Unfortunately it all slowly went down after the Moroccan conquest in the 16th century

 

[Som]

Isn't that not impressive? What is the point if only the elite are literate and the rest of the people are illiterate? I think one of the things that is important to me for civilization is the literacy rate among people

You have to realize high literacy wasn't very common even in Europe untill recently. In countries like Italy, Spain, Portugal etc less than 20% could read or write as recently as the late 1800s