Ta:rikh Mandinka de Bijini (Guinée-Bissau)

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The Astrolabe

An ancient instrument for solving problems of location and distance, as well as time

Astrolábon órganon is the word used in Ptolemaeus Syntaxis 5.1 to describe a form of armillary sphere consisting of both fixed and rotating rings for determining the ecliptic co-ordinates of stars. Also called astrolabe were two-dimensional representations of the celestial sphere: over fixed disks with a representation of the horizon of the earth (in each case for a specific geographic latitude) and its parallels up to the zenith lies a rotating representation of the heavens (called ‘spider’ or ‘net’) with zodiac and indicators for some of the brightest stars. On the back is an indicator (‘alidade’) with visor plates for calculating the height of the stars. The astrolabe allows its user to determine the hours of day and night, the positions of stars, and the height and depth of objects on earth (mountains, buildings, wells). The oldest extant descriptions of the flat, planispheric astrolabe come from Iohannes Philoponus, 6th century AD, and (in Syrian) from Severus Sebokht, c. 660 AD. Indirect references may date back as early as Theon (4th cent.). Between the 8th and the 9th centuries the Arabs appropriated the knowledge of the astrolabe. At the end of the 10th century and again in the 12th century, they passed it on to Western Europe, where astrolabes were constructed up until the 17th cent. Today, one Byzantine astrolabe (from 1062) is extant, as are some 750 Arabic-Islamic astrolabes and approximately the same number of European astrolabes.

This information is abstracted from Brill's New Pauly, the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. For more information see www.brillsnewpauly.com or visit our website catalog: www.brill.nl/bnp
Brill’s New Pauly and the complete original Der Neue Pauly, the recognized standard reference works for students and scholars of the ancient world are also available online. This dual-language edition offers basic and advanced search facilities and is fully browsable. New English translations are added as they become available. See www.paulyonline.brill.nl for more information and a demo version.

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Publications & Services> Books> Book Series> Ta:rikh Mandinka de Bijini (Guinée-Bissau)

Ta:rikh Mandinka de Bijini (Guinée-Bissau)

La mémoire des Mandinka et des Sòoninkee du Kaabu

Traduction, notes et commentaires par Cornelia Giesing and Valentin Vydrine

Books

Available
Publication year: 2007


Series:	African Sources for African History, 9
ISBN-13 (i)The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) has been changed from 10 to 13 digits on 1 January 2007:	978 90 04 14724 9
ISBN-10:	90 04 14724 1

Cover:	Paperback
Number of pages:	xxiv, 400 pp.

List price:	€ 75.00 / US$ 111.00

Table of contents

TABLE DES MATIÈRES

Editors’ introduction
Remerciements
L’orthographe des noms et notions en langues étrangères
Liste des abréviations
Introduction

Chapitre 1 : Les versions du texte et leur transmission écrite et orale
Chapitre 2 : Les versions écrites et orales du Ta:rikh Mandinka
présentées en colonnes
Chapitre 3 : Sujets mythiques et historiques du Ta:rikh Mandinka
(interprétations et commentaires comparés)
Chapitre 4 : Contextes de production et de transmission des livres
de Bijini : historiographie et discours social dans un village
musulman au pays des Sòoninkee du Kaabu et du Badoora

Tableaux
Images
Cartes

Ta:rikh Mandinka : La reproduction de deux manuscrits arabes en
possession de al-Hajj Ibrahiima « Koobaa » Kasama – MS A (18 pp),
MS B (35 pp)

Glossaire des anthroponymes et toponymes et des termes en
mandinka et autres langues
Bibliographie
Index des auteurs cités

Readership

All those interested in African History, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Islam Studies, Arabic Philology, Mande Language.

About the author(s)

Cornelia Giesing, Ph.D. (1983) in Philosophy, University of Tübingen, is Consultant at the Gorée Institute (Sénégal). As a Lecturer and Research Assistant at the Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisa (INEP) in Bissau (1992-2000), she has done extensive fieldwork and published on oral traditions and identities in Casamance and Guinea-Bissau. Valentin F. Vydrine, Habilitated Doctor (St. Petersburg State University, 2001) in Philology, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, St. Petersburg (Russian Academy of Sciences). Numerous publications on Mande languages including Mande-English Dictionary, vol. 1 (1999); Esquisse contrastive du Kagoro (Manding) (2001).

Ce tome présente le Ta:rikh Mandinka, un manuscrit rédigé en Arabe et
en Mandinka, originaire du village de Bijini en Guinée-Bissau.
Inédit jusqu’à présent, le manuscrit consiste en une compilation structurée
et très originale sur le Kaabu, réunissant divers récits et chroniques focalisant
les débuts mythiques et la chute de cet « empire » païen au milieu du
19ième siècle.
Deux versions du manuscrit et plusieurs interprétations (lectures) du Ta:rikh
sont reproduites, transcrites, traduites et analysées en tenant compte de
questions philologiques, historiques et anthropologiques.
L'analyse regarde la communauté cléricale de Bijini en tant que lieu de
transmission de savoirs dans un contexte local et régional.
Le point focal du livre est l’importance de la diaspora cléricale des Mandinka
et Jaakanka (Jakhanké) dans le processus de la construction de l’histoire de
l’ « empire » sòoninkee du Kaabu en Sénégambie.
Le tome contient un glossaire des noms et des termes mentionnés par les
sources, des illustrations, des tableaux, des cartes et des photographies. This volume presents a hitherto unpublished manuscript written in Arabic and Mandinka from the muslim village of Bijini in Guinea-Bissau, the Ta:rikh Mandinka, a unique and structured compilation unfolding the pagan 'empire' of Kaabu from it's mythical beginnings to it's downfall in the nineteenth-century. Two existing manuscript versions and several oral interpretations of the Ta:rikh are reproduced, transcribed, translated, compared and analysed considering philological, historical and social-anthropological issues (chaps. 1-3). The fourth chapter deals with the clerical community of Bijini as a place of knowledge-transfer in it's local setting and within regional networks.
The focus of the book is on the importance of the Mandinka and Jakhanka clerical diaspora in the making of the history of the Sooninkee 'empire' of Kaabu in Senegambia.
The volume contains a glossary of names and terms mentioned in the sources and is illustrated with maps, photographs and drawings.

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