Analysing the Research Gap in Comparative Studies of Hausa Poetry and Arabic Literary Tradition

Hausa literature's deep historical relationship with the Arabic literary tradition through Islamic learning and scholarship represents one of the most important but underresearched areas of West African comparative literary scholarship. This study analysed the research gap in comparative studies of Hausa poetry and its Arabic literary antecedents and parallels, focusing specifically on the ajami tradition and its relationship to classical Arabic poetic forms. A systematic literature review and gap analysis methodology was employed, searching seven databases for publications from 2015 to 2024 that addressed the relationship between Hausa literary production and Arabic literary tradition. Forty-three eligible publications were identified and coded for topics addressed, methods employed, institutional location of researchers, and theoretical frameworks used. Results showed that 72.1 percent of publications addressed the Islamic content of Hausa ajami texts rather than their literary and formal properties. Comparative formal analysis of Hausa and Arabic poetic structures, metres, and imagery received coverage in only 14 percent of publications. The work of Hausa female poets within the ajami tradition was the subject of fewer than three publications in the review period. The study identifies six critical research gaps including the comparative study of Hausa martial poetry alongside Arabic qasida forms, the feminist literary history of female ajami poets, and the contemporary transformation of ajami forms in print and digital media. These gaps are of particular relevance to scholars at Bayero University Kano and Usmanu Danfodiyo University in the North West zone.

Keywords: Hausa poetry, Arabic literary tradition, ajami, research gap, North West Nigeria