Koranic writing board (lawh)

weathered wood with Arabic writing in black pigment (ink)

age unknown, likely 20th century

probably Tuareg people

length (including handle): 37 cm

acquired by Jack Daulton in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

References:

For the type, see Thomas K. Seligman and Kristyne Loughran, eds., Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World (Los Angeles: Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University and UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2006), pp. 70, 72, 146.  See also:  Paul Salopek, “Lost in the Sahel,” National Geographic, April 2008, 34-67, at 50-51 (photograph of a child holding such a board at a Koranic school in Niger).