West African Cairo: Knowledge, Pilgrimage, and the History of Egyptian-West African Relations

From the era of the Mamluk Sultanate to the age of jet travel, Cairo has long served as an important hub of West African migration. Whether as a stop on the hajj to Mecca or as a final destination, multiple West African communities have made Cairo home. This talk will explore the significance of nearly a millennium of connections that have shaped the history of both Cairo and the Islamic world as a whole.

Jeremy Dell is a scholar of African global history with a specialisation in the history of Islam in the Western Sahel and interests in the intersecting histories of Sufism, Islamic law, and the global history of the book. His current book project, Saving Tradition: Archiving Islam in the Western Sahel, explores the history of collecting and preserving Arabic manuscripts amidst social and political upheaval in the West African countries of Senegal and Mali. He holds a doctorate in History from the University of Pennsylvania and has had significant research and language-training stints in Senegal, Mali, and Egypt.