LEWIS IEUAN MYDDIN B 1930 ANTHROPOLOGY SOMALI MANUSCRIPTS

Transcriptions of Arabic manuscripts from northern Somalia. They include Islamic texts, poetry and history, the originals were largely held in the private libraries of Somali sheikhs. The copies were made by local research assistants for Ieuan Lewis in the Somaliland Protectorate between 1955 and 1957. His intention was to document the literate Islamic tradition which underpins the essentially oral Somali culture. The collection consists of 33 pieces of which 2 are printed pamphlets. A description of the collection by BW Andrzejewski and IM Lewis entitled New Arabic documents from Somalia is shelved with the collection plus an offprint by the same authors from Ethiopia e Oltre, Studi in Onore di Lanfranco Ricci, Naples 1994.

The collection consists of thirty-three bound manuscripts, listed in numerical sequence, and includes:

• MS 1 A group of short "qasida" which are sung at religious meetings, in part with the accompaniment of drumming.
• MS 3 and MS 4 Names of sheikhs venerated as saints and the locations of their activities.
• MS 5 Four prayers sung by women in the Somali poetic genre called "buraanbur"
• MS 12 A sequence of pious invocations which may be such as used in leather pouches worn as phylacteries on arm or neck.
• MS 14 A list of books in MS form written by sheikhs Ali Ibrahim. The books listed are collections of "qasidas" and prose works on religious subjects.
• MS 18. Account of a discussion between sheikh Abd Allah bin Mu'allim Yusuf al-Qutbi and Boqor Uthamn Mahmud about Sayyid Muhammad Abd Allah Hasan. In it the sheikh attacks the Sayyid's fatwa that those Somalis who had joined him in the holy war against the Christians governing Somalia.
• MS 27 Account of the wars conducted against the invasions of Muslim territories in the Horn of Africa by the Portuguese, Italians and Ethiopians.

Ieuan Myrddin Lewis b.1930

Ieuan Lewis was educated at Glasgow High School and obtained a BSc from Glasgow University in 1951. From there he went to Oxford where he gained a Diploma in Anthropology in 1952, a BLitt in 1953 and a DPhil in 1957. During this time he was also an assistant to Lord Hailey at Chatham House and a Colonial SSRC Fellow. In 1957 he left England and became Lecturer in African Studies at University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. He returned to England in 1960 to take up the post of Lecturer in Social Anthropology, moving in 1963 to University College London (UCL) where he was Lecturer and later Reader in Anthropology. In 1969 he moved to become Professor of Anthropology and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Professor Lewis edited the journal Man from 1959 to 1972 and has been honorary director of the International African Institute since 1981.

Thirty-three bound manuscripts, listed in numerical sequence.

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Lewis, Professor Ieuan

Printed handlist available.

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