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This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder.
Research for this book was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) at the University of Bayreuth as part of the project Poetry as Aesthetic Practice (VI 622/3-1) and the Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP cohort 3 0058) hosted by the University of Leiden and the Lamu Museum.
This publication is also part of the project Forging Transoceanic Muslim Histories: Swahili Literary Networks in the 20th century Indian Ocean (VI.Veni.211C.027) of the NWO Talent Programme 2021, financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Cover illustration: Ustadh Mahmoud Mau in front of his books
Back cover illustration: The madrasa al-Najah where he studied
Photos from Ustadh Mau’s private archive
The recordings referred to in this book are freely available online at
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at
LC record available at
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download:
ISSN 1570-3754
ISBN 978-90-04-52571-9 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-52572-6 (e-book)
Copyright 2023 by Ustadh Mau, Annachiara Raia and Clarissa Vierke. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau, V&R unipress and Wageningen Academic.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.