Pedigrees and paradigms: Scholarly credentials among the Dyula of the northern Ivory coast

The Hijaz in particular and the Arabic-speaking Middle East in general have always constituted points of reference for Dyula Muslims.1 At the most basic level, Arabic is the obligatory language of prayer and the hajj an obligation for those who have the means to peform it. Not only the Qur'an but the vast majority of commentaries, legal texts of reference, and personal prayers are written in classical Arabic - an entirely foreign, quintessential^ written language, totally unrelated to the Manding language spoken by the Dyula. The ability to read and to write Arabic were necessary conditions for accession to the status of karamogo, or "scholar". Travel for the purposes of study was a common means of acquiring knowledge of Arabic as a language and of written texts.