Quotation Record
The large number of quotations embedded in this Swahili poem is surprising in itself: in no other manuscript of a poem do we find more quotations from the Quran, 54 altogether.
We learn how quotations within the body of the text are carriers of several functions. They can authenticate an utterance, and thus it can be considered an external support adopted to validate the quoted text. In some contexts, the Quranic quotations can be a closing summation of what has already been said in the Swahili text; quoting thus implies “echoing”, and it generally occurs at the end of a paragraph or episode. In other cases, quoting figures as the source input used to hint at what is about to be said. In this case, the sacred quoted text is “foreshadowing”, while the Swahili text proceeds to explain what the quotation only hints at.
The symbolic link created through these quotations, which by their very presence affirm the Swahili manuscript poem’s proximity to the holy book, is quite evident. More particularly, the alleged author Muhamadi Kijuma, who navigated between Christian and Muslim traditions, might have made a deliberate effort to emphasize his stance by overtly placing himself within the Muslim tradition.
Let us now return to the opening pages.