Koranic writing board (lawh)

weathered wood with Arabic writing in black pigment (ink), old metal repairs, and leather-wrapped handle

49.5 cm (including handle) x 25.5 cm

age unknown, probably 19th-20th century

Agadez, Niger

Tuareg people

acquired by Jack Daulton from the headmaster of a Koranic school in Agadez, Niger

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).