(Part one)
By Hassan Kasim, Aishatu Suleiman, Aliyu M. Yerima & Shuaibu Haruna (Education and Museum Departments National Museum Gombe & Eco-Museum Hong, Adamawa states, Nigeria)
What is a manuscript? The word “Manuscript” (traditionally abbreviated as Ms for singular and Mss for plural) is derived from the Latin Manu scriptus literally means “written by hand” as opposed to printed. It may also refer to “information that is hand–recorded in ways other than by writing, e.g. inscription on hard materials. Nigeria’s Arabic/Ajami Manuscript resources are largely found in public institutions and individual collections.
Among the most important of the public collections are the Kaduna National Archives, Arewa House Kaduna, Jos Museum, Waziri Junaidu History Bureau Birnin Kebbi, Centre for Islamic Studies Specialist Library UDUS, Centre for Arabic Documentation of the Institute of African Studies Unibadan, University of Ibadan Library, Northern History Research Scheme ABU, Postgraduate Research Unit BUK, Centre for Tran Saharan Studies Unimaid and Fombina Palace Museum Yola. Private collections are also found all over the country e.g. in Sokoto Darul-Buhuth of Waziri Junaidu, Nizamiyya Collections of Late Marafa Dan-Baba, Modibbo Fufore Collections etc.
The study of artifacts and the writing of books acts, was a sort of social science that introduces us to all levels of culture, and not just its masterpiece in this sense, it is a sort of archaeology of a type of document, comparable to archaeology. Nigeria Islamic Manuscript books were imported from the Middle East and North Africa since the 10-11th centuries. They were also written and copied in the region.
Many were also primary texts of Islam- Qur’an and Hadith as well as devotional texts canonical works by the Maliki School of Islamic law and Islamic science, including astronomy, mathematics and grammar.
There were also numerous original works; poetry, historical chronicles, family genealogies, letters, Contracts, commentaries and marginal notes.
The manuscript books are not bound. They are loose folios usually stored in leather wrappers and saddlebags. Unlike printed books, each manuscript is unique.
These manuscripts are about people, embodying many different aspect of human activity, intellectual, spiritual, literary, ideological, artistic, historic, political, economic etc.
They are windows to fast lives, facilitating vital understanding between past, present and future. Whenever one survives time’s scythe, it embodies a vacuole testament of mute eloquence that can only be given voice by using multidisciplinary tools for a holistic study of the book as an object considering materials, techniques and practices.
We need to acknowledge the potentially complex history of the book as an artifact in the period of its formation. Nott only is the manuscript book a portable self-containing site for reading but as an object, is a reflection of contemporary concern and realities.
The simple question, ‘What is the object made from?’, can open vistas of knowledge because the simple identification of material may have important ramifications. Initiating the examination, preservation and conservation of any object is to understand their composition and technology needed to produce the artifact.
Understanding ‘How does the society structure the making of things?’ can lead us to knowledge of the calligrapher, the tanner, the weaver, the satchel maker as repositories of technological expertise and tradition.
The ink used in Northern Nigerian manuscripts has been described as rubrication, black vegetable or ferro-tannic. Ink is based described as a colored solution, prepared from dyes or from finely grinded pigments with strong coloring power. A dye is a water soluble substance, mostly of organic origin.
A pigment is a non-soluble colored compound. Pigments are often in- organic in origin, such as earth pigments or ochres. Dyes used as ink and pigments can be bound together onto the surface of the of paper fibers by means of binding medium such as gum.
Throughout the world carbon inks were probably the first writing inks using finely ground charcoal, soot, lamp black from burning oil or resin, in spit or water. Examination of over twelve thousand Northern Nigerian folios revealed a very wide range of ink colors, from glossy dense black to very pale light brown, orange red to pale pink, some opaque whilst others faint and transparent, some stained the paper whilst others had rough particulates.
Five main types of inks are found to be used which includes; carbon blacks, soot brown, dyes, ferro-tannic and colloidal suspensions (pigments). While conservation is very important, the manuscripts are the most important items in the whole exercise.
Important activities to consider in manuscript conservation exercises include use of shelving materials, formation of boxes, taking notes, enveloping the manuscripts, removing boll pints where necessary, mending works on the manuscripts while taking security as a real and major issue.
A number of damages are usually recorded while trying to safeguard these priceless documents.
TYPES OF DAMAGES ON MANUSCRIPTS
STRUCTURAL DAMAGE; these includes brittleness, folds, split (usually cause by folds), loss is a lacuna (a Greek word for loss)
PLANAR DAMAGE;
these include Fold; a turning over of the support so that the front or back surface is in contact with itself; the line of flexing may or may not be creased. Do-ear; a local damage at the corners, with multiple of folds and creases.Creases; a line of crushed or broken substrate fibers, the result of a fold.Cockling; a soft concave/ convex distortion cauterized by parallel, repeated ripples, usually either horizontal or vertical.Buckling; a soft concave/ convex random distortion. Warp: one over-all concave/ convex curve.Wrinkling: an angular, crushed distortion.Accordion Pleat: a regular series of folds from jamming.Draw: a local distortion at a corner, marked by diagonal cockling from the corner towards the center of the support to the secondary support or mat.
Dimpling: a local distortion, usually at a corner, marked by a distinct concave area of the support surrounded by a raised crease or soft convex curve of the support, usually caused by a local adhesion of the support to the secondary support. Bulge: a convex concentric expansion caused by humidity. Dent: on concave impression caused by force.
SURFACE DAMAGED elimination: a separation between layers of the substrate and its support. Skin: an area where the substrate surface has been removed in a uniform thin layer which may be the result of tape removal or sticking of the substrate to some surface. Abrasion: an area where media or substrate fibers are not lost due to rubbing or repeated friction.Scratch: a scrapped line which results in the loss of fibers.Scar: a compressed scratch from which fibers are not lost but an impression is left.Shine: a glossy area caused by by accidental burnishing.Dull Spot: a matte area which may be caused by water, dry-cleaning, etc.
DISCOLORATION LIGHT DEGRADATION: general darkening or yellowing resulting from deterioration products in the substrate which are light-activated and often acidic. Oxidation Stains: yellowing along the edges of the substrate from marginal exposure to air, as seen on book pages or the edges of framed items. Mat Burn: darkened line paralleling the level of a window mat resulting from volatile acids emanating from an acidic inner core of the mat. Wood Burn: darkened areas resembling wood grain or knot holes resulting from acids and resins present in wooden slats used as frame backs.
It also appear as one or two brownish lines across the substrate indicating where the slats met. Water Stain: a broad stain caused by movement and deposition of discoloration products carried in an aqueous solution and distinguished by a dark curvilinear tide-line along the point of evaporation. Oleaginous Stain: a stain caused by oily or resinous substance.Stain: any color change perceived as lying within the substrate fibers rather than on top of them.Leather Burn Toning: yellowing of edges of paper substrate.
SURFACE SOILING Dust: accumulation of fibers on the surface soot: greasy, blackish grime resting on the surface and resulting from atmospheric pollutants.Embedded Dirt: mud or rubbed-in dirt which does not respond to drycleaning. Smoke Damage: heavy particulate film of soot.Finger Prints: greasy or dirty marks absorbed into the substrate fibers. Accretion: an opaque substance overlaying rather than impregnating the substrate fibers.
MEDIA Flaking: continuing loss of media, presaged by curling or “cupping” of sections of the media, resulting from a weak initial binding or delamination between media and support. Cracking: a series of cleavages resulting from either the different rates or degrees of expansion and contraction of components within the medium and the substrate usually induced by fluctuating relative humidity. Abrasion: loss of intensity of media tone due to repeated rubbing. Fading: loss of intensity of media tone due to the bleaching action of exposure to light. Bleeding/Feathering: running of the colorants within the media.Binder Migration: capillary seepage of the binder within the media. Strike-through: sinkage of the colorants and/or binder of the media to the opposite side of the paper. Items needed for conservation of Arabic manuscripts will include among many; Opt visors, Caustic Spatulas, Dust Bunny, Erasing shields, Acid Detecting Ink, Respirators, Brushes, Dusting brushes, Sprayers, Hand gloves, Rubber Erasers, Acid-Free papers, Lab Coats, Polypropylene Plastic Bags, Needles, Measuring Beakers, Measuring Caps and Spoons, Healing Mats, Pens and Pencils, Methyl Cellulose, Isopropanol Alcohol or Methylated Spirit, KLucel-G, Scalpels, Swan Water, Rulers, Torch Lights, etc.Other forms of strategies required for preservation and conservation of Arabic Manuscripts include:Prioritizing Preservation needs: this involves criteria e.g. a. knowing the Impact, Feasibility and Urgency. Influential factors such as Use, Storage, Condition, Value, and Preservation Format – Preservation
Responsibilities – Integrated Pest Management – Handling Paper Artifacts Do’s and Don’ts