The Sankore’ Institute of Islamic-African Studies International was first conceived December 15, 1985, in the Republic of Sudan as the result of conversations between the present Sultan of Maiurno al-Hajj Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Bello Maiurno ibn Attahiru ibn Ahmad Zuruku ibn Abu Bakr Attiku ibn Shehu Uthman Dan Fodio, our shaykh, Imam Muhammad al-Amin ibn Adam Karagh, Ahmad Abideen Hassan and the founding director Muhammad Shareef. The sultan gave written authorization and commissioned S.I.I.A.S.I. to collect the Arabic and Ajami manuscripts of the Sokoto Caliphate from northern Nigeria and convey them to the town of Maiurno in order to be edited and republished to provide capital for the public amenities and the general welfare of the people. As a result trips were made to Chad, Northern Nigeria, Mali to collect and copy old manuscripts relevent to the Islamic heritage of the Bilad ‘s-Sudan. Later the Sultan al-Hajj Abu Bakr and the Imam Muhammad al-Amin gave written authorization for S.I.I.A.S.I. to translate these works into English and disseminate these works among the Muslims of the United States.
To date S.I.I.A.S.I. has collected 3000 Arabic manuscripts and 123 Ajami manuscripts (Fulbe’, Hausa, Wolof and Mande’). Of these, more than 89 have been translated and published by the institute. Classes utilizing the works published by the institute have been established in the cities of Houston, Atlanta, Compton, Los Angeles and Oakland. Presently in two correctional institutions in California the S.I.I.A.S.I. curriculum is being taught to some 400 Muslim inmates. In 1992 the S.I.I.A.S.I. was officially made a research organization of IHRAAM (the International Human Rights Association for American Minorities), the only non-governmental organization that represents American national minorities in the United Nations.
Our teacher, the late Waziri of Sokoto, Junayd ibn Muhammad al-Bukhari once said, “Knowledge is universal and eternal but it has a social and cultural stamp. It also has a purpose and a commitment to a particular world view. It therefore cannot be neutral.”  History has shown that African Muslims around the world have been branded and stamped with a social and cultural stamp which is not their own. The world view that they now share is completely alien to them. This page is dedicated to the work of the SANKORE' Institue's digital preservation of Arabic and Ajami manuscripts in Africa, its methodology, projects, accomplishments and future goals. It is here that you will find announcements about the development of the Sankore' Encyclopedia of Rare Arabic and Ajami Manuscripts, I have already developed the software for this, and it might end up being a seperate project in the sense that it might require another website. This will be a long term project which will be added to as members of the jama`at collect more work.

Shaykh Muhammad Shareef with archivist Shaykh Muhammad al-Amin digitizing the library of the Waziri Junayd History Bureau