Tambacounda, February 15th of 2029.

The House of Wisdom has finally been completed, with minor delays. The scheduled release was for Dec. 11th of 2028, but some minor delays occurred as an accident unfortunately occurred on site; one of the men, a worker named Ibrahim Boubacar unfortunately fell from one of the ladders and died; today, the Grand Mufti and the staff of the House of Wisdom will honor him and his family.

“Islam has such a rich history, centuries of development, of key thoughts and philosophies, and now, we are truly bringing it back. The House of Wisdom of Tambacounda is a testament to Islamic history and to the Islamic faith; and I have to thank all of the contributors for it. I have to thank the people of Jolof for contributing and building it, for the young men and women of our nation that want to study in it, for the donors that have given money to it and, above all, to Allah, to our supreme God above, which allows us to build this monument and to bring Islamic science to the world. I hereby invite every Muslim leader, every Muslim citizen, every person interested in the history of Islam, to join us today in this Jihad for knowledge, come visit Tambacounda and wash yourself with knowledge.

The Grand Mufti finished his speech and greeted the men and women present there, before going inside and being the first person to teach a Qur’anic lesson with over five thousand people. While the insides were not big enough for a single class, five thousand Qur’ans, beautifully written in Arabic, were distributed to the populace during an open-air class.

A Gaze Inside

In front of the is a stone path, with flag poles on either side showing the flags of the nations that donated to the project; the first two flags, on either side, are the flags of the OIC and the flag of the Islamic Emirate of Jolof; after a few meters, the stone path turns into a circle, with the middle bestowing the viewer with a large bronze plaque; fully written in Arabic, on the top is written “In Honor of Ibrahim Boubacar”, below is the Shahada, which was designed perfectly in accord with the Grand Mufti’s wishes. Below these two, is gracefully written Arabic with the names of every nation that donated, and there are even the names of Islamic groups located in Iraq that have donated.

After passing the plaque, you finally see the humongous House of Wisdom, with Islamic architecture reminiscing of ancient structures, with grandeur and tasteful architecture; there are even details in gold and tiny, expensive details in the columns and walls. The colorful glass reflects itself upon the endless rows of Islamic books, with sections of the library for researchers, and even rooms for studying the Qur’an; those are notable for their incredible silence, with modern walls that cancel outside noise and Qur’anic Arabic being written on the doors.

On the upper floors, there are research departments and other areas reserved for the studious and the interested in learning further about Islam, passing through countless rows of classrooms, you can hear small, respectful chatter in several languages, including Arabic, Wolof, French and English, although at times you can hear the angry bark of a teacher, demanding the use of Arabic.

Moving further upwards, there are sections for Fiqh learners and for Hafiz as well; debates on the nature of the Qur’an and whispers about Sharia. Gambians and Jolof are seen together, with foreigners also intermingling about; there are small lines all over the library for classes on literacy and hygiene, and many of the extremely impoverished are seen receiving alms and support, with library staff directing them towards the mosques.

Behind the scenes, in one of the many administrative rooms, there are large servers for the library, and admissions are reviewed and approved a dozen at a time by the staff; hundreds of files are approved and archived and there is a frequent flow of knowledgeable professionals, talking with the poor, providing books, answering questions and providing as many people as possible with help.

Announcing New Research

The Grand Mufti, pleased with the grand opening and with the library functioning with maximum effectiveness, has announced that he will start putting the researchers and the staff of Jolof into new capable research programs that will enlighten the history of Jolof and bring about a new compendium of research that will bring light to much of the history of Jolof.

These will be three programs, the first one is called the “History of Islam in Jolof”, and it will be a collaboration between top scientists in both Jolof and The Gambia; the research will be based on obtaining manuscripts and historical artifacts about the presence of Muslims in the Senegambia region, interviewing key experts and excavating new works. There will be in-depth research on how Islamic expansion occurred in the region and the leading works that have been produced in the region.

All of this will be added to new sections of the House of Wisdom, including showing new artifacts and adding the manuscripts to the House of Wisdom website, a digitalized database that will provide the population with knowledge on Islam and their history. There will be translation teams and other leading scientists capable of providing answers to these manuscripts and enriching the history of Jolof.

The second program is the “Languages of Jolof: A History of Mankind”, and will be a major research project where the Jolof will research, standardize and create dictionaries for all the existing languages in Jolof, including Wolof, Mandinka, Serer, along with Arabic, French and English. For these languages, the main research will be on how the native languages have affected and added new words to these languages.

The third program is the “The Legacy of the Ummah in Jolof” and is a genealogical program. The point will be to use DNA collection and genealogical data to trace how the people of Jolof came to be, where they came from, their tribes, the periods when Islam was adopted and how French colonization has affected the population distribution.

All of these projects will be added to government databases and will be free for all to see; while the genealogy will be present in rough data, participants of the program will be able to access their data and requisition the House of Wisdom for a genealogical report at any time after the program has been concluded. Those that have not participated in the program are free to apply, and they will receive the genealogical report and they will be able to contribute to the history of Jolof in ways never seen before.

Furthermore, to conclude, the government of Jolof will be investing a total of US$58.5 mn into these projects, with further increases if necessary.