Dissertation Title

Mathematics in the Desert: Computing Texts and Intellectual Authority in 19th century Sahara

Biography

My project is the first study of West African history to consider its Arabic tradition of arithmetic texts. It presents an intellectual history of 19th century Saharan West Africa focusing on manuscripts on arithmetical calculations (ḥisāb) and their applications to the elaborated system of rules of Muslim inheritance shares (farāʾiḍ).