The history of the literature of the African Islamic peoples - 13 -Issue 24 September 2024 (Nigeria includes a number of major languages: Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo. The heritage of these languages remained oral until writing in the Yoruba language began in the nineteenth century AD. After the Islamic conquest of North Africa, the Arabic language was one of the factors that preserved Nigerian heritage, after the translation of Hausa literature written in it. Today, the official language in the country is English.

The Hausa language is a Chadic language belonging to the Afro-Asiatic language family. It is spoken by the people of Niger, northern Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Mali, Chad, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso, most of whom are Muslims. It is an official language in northern Nigeria. Hausa is the second most spoken language in Africa after Arabic. It was written in Arabic script before European colonialism converted it to Latin script.

C. The Arabic Language: As for the Arabic language, it entered the countries of West Africa south of the Sahara with the North African traders who frequented the markets in Africa, starting from the seventh century AD, corresponding to the first century AH. As for East Africa, Abyssinia, and the countries of the Horn of Africa, the Arabic language appeared in this region several centuries before Islam, due to the connection of these Africans with the Arabian Peninsula, especially the land of Yemen.

After Islam, Arabic became the language of religion and administration, and most of the famous African languages were written in Arabic script, such as Hausa and Fula in the West and Swahili in the East. Islam and the language of the Quran were credited with the civilizational progress of these countries.

As for the rest of the African languages, they were unwritten. During the Western occupation, the European colonizer encouraged the use of local dialects with the aim of dividing tribes and combating the unification of their language, just as he also fought the Arabic language and worked to impose his language and culture in