Islamic Literature in Tanzania and Kenya

Abstract

In January 2000, a trip was made to Tanzania to make an inventory of the locally produced Islamic literature. Through the financial support of ISIM, 500 titles were collected for the ISIM library. In October 2000, a 6-month fieldwork period was embarked upon, which allowed for the gathering of another 700 books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines and ephemera in Tanzania and Kenya. In both countries some 30 bookshops (excluding the street vendors) were visited in 10 urban centres. The items in the collection are written in Swahili (approximately 50%), Arabic (30%) and English (20%). Apart from Gujarati and Urdu, which are sparsely used in East African Islamic publications, other languages seem to be of no importance at all.