Kaʾana Umar’s ‘CCI Quran’: The Making of a Bornuan Manuscript in the Twenty-First Century

This note describes the tools and the techniques used by Kaʾana Umar, a contemporary calligrapher based in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State (Nigeria), to produce a Quranic manuscript that is now preserved at the Centre for Contemporary Islam (CCI), University of Cape Town. The Quranic calligraphic tradition of Borno has been known for centuries as the most ancient and prestigious one in sub-Saharan Africa. Notwithstanding the many challenges it currently faces (from modernization to insecurity and the displacement of scribes), this tradition is still a living one, as the skills of Kaʾana Umar and of many of his peers in Borno amply demonstrate.