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The ‘Shirazi’ Colonization of East Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Neville Chittick
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Extract

The paper puts forward a new interpretation of aspects of the early history of the East African coast, and in particular maintains that the immigration of the ‘Shirazi’ took place some zoo years later than the date in the latter part of the tenth century which has hitherto been accepted.

After a brief summary of the Arabic sources bearing on the history of the coast, and of the received history of Kilwa before the beginning of the fourteenth century, the two versions of the Kilwa Chronicle are examined. The Arabic version is concluded to be more reliable than the Portuguese, though very little reliance should be placed on the regnal years of the sultans as given in either.

The archaeological evidence, based chiefly on recent excavations at Kilwa, is examined, with particular reference to the coins minted on the coast. Certain types of these coins are found to have been hitherto wrongly attributed, notably those of 'Ali bin al-Hasan, which are shown to be the earliest.

An outline of the history of the coast is presented, based on the combined historical and archaeological evidence. No satisfactorily attested relics of the period of trade with the Graeco-Roman world have yet been found. The earliest settlements discovered date from the eighth to ninth century A.O., most or all of which were probably pagan, but already trading with the Muslim world. By about i ioo there were several Muslim towns on the coast. This period is related to the Debuli of the traditions.

The arrival of the ‘Shirazi’ is related to the appearance of coins of 'Au bin al-Hasan, who is identified with the first ruler of the ‘Shirazi’ dynasty at Kilwa (about A.0. I 200); Mafia was of equal importance at this time. A marked cultural break in the latter part of the thirteenth or early fourteenth century is thought to be related to a change in dynasty at Kilwa, a fresh settlement of immigrants, and the gaining of control of Sofala and the gold trade.

It is suggested that the Shirazi settlement consisted not of a migration of people from the Persian Gulf direct to Kilwa and other places, but rather a movement of settlers from the Banadir coast.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , November 1965 , pp. 275 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

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References

1 I have already to thank Messrs Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P., Kirkman, J. S., Trimingham, J. S. and Schacht, J., and MissMitchell, Helen for valuable comments on the substance of this article.Google Scholar

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5 Walker, J., ‘History and Coinage of the Sultans of Kilwa’, Numismatic Chronicle, Ser. V, XVI, 1936,Google Scholar reprinted Tanganyika Notes and Records, No. 45, pp. 33–58; the reprint is referred to below. Also Sir Gray, J. M., ‘A History of Kilwa’: Part I, T.N.R., No. 31, 1951; Part II, T.N.R., No. 32, 1952.Google Scholar

6 Freeman-Grenville suggests this is an error for Mombasa, but this is not proven. Mafia is an island some eighty miles north of Kilwa.Google Scholar

7 Dec. 1, Book VIII. Chapter IV, set out in Freeman-Grenville, op. Cit. 31.Google Scholar

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9 Ibid. 88.

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12 Freeman-Grenville, op. cit. 51; the supposed lacuna is from the ninth to the seventeenth (not sixteenth) sultan. The coins mentioned in the note, loc. cit., will be referred to below.Google Scholar

13 Cf. Gibb, H. A. R., The Travels of Ibn Battuta, II, C.U.P., 1962, 380–2.Google Scholar

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18 The best authenticated find was made near Tanga in 1896 and has rested in the Museum für Völkerkunde ever since. This group of six coins, which it is hoped to publish shortly, includes one each of the Roman Emperors Carus and Constans, but as it comprises also a coin which is probably Fatimid, the hoard can hardly date before the eleventh century.Google Scholar

19 The coin is described in a letter published in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, VIII, lxxxiii, for which reference I am greatly indebted to Sir John Gray.Google Scholar

20 I believe this is the site of Shanga, the inhabitants of which conquered Kilwa shortly after the beginning of the ‘Shirazi’ dynasty: see Ann. Rept. Brit. Inst. Hut. Arch. E. Afr., 1963–1904, pp. 5–6. The only plausible alternative is the Shanga on Pate Island, which seems altogether too distant. The sites on Songo (Songo Mnara) Island are too late in date to be eligible.Google Scholar

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26 Some confusion arises from the fact that some authorities date the Islamic wares a half-century or more earlier than the Chinese wares with which they are found.Google Scholar

27 Indeed this can lead to confusion: re-examination after further cleaning of the four coins found in the small well in Husuni Kubwa (Chittick, loc. Cit. 132–4) has shown that while three are of Sulaiman bin al-Hasan, one is of al-Hasan bin Sulaiman. The Frenchman, Morice, was informed that a building apparently to be identified with Husuni Kubwa was built 963 years before his visit in 1777 (see Gray, J., ‘The French at Kilwa’, T.N.R., No. 4, 1956, p. 29), but such a date is virtually impossible to reconcile with the evidence of pottery and inscriptions found since 1961.Google Scholar

28 I am indebted for this reading to Miss Helen Mitchell, who points Out that the coins are modelled on those of the Mamluk sultan al-Nāsir Nāsir al-Din Muhammad, who ruled (with interruptions) A.D. 1293–1340.Google Scholar The coins are referred to by Walker, op. cit. 58.Google Scholar

29 Except at the Husunis, where these coins are lacking in the file and finds of any sort are few, most of the volume of material excavated has been from these upper levels.Google Scholar

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31 Including Kua, Songo Songo, Songo Mnara and Mtandura, the last a new site, on the mainland about nine miles south of Kilwa.Google Scholar

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33 Though there would certainly seem to have been a ruler of this name—no. 26 in Portuguese version, of which no. 27 is probably a duplication, or vice versa; the Arabic version only makes sense on the basis that a Sultan, named Sulaiman, has been omitted here. In passing, the regnal years of nos. 25 to 27 as given in the two versions further exemplify confusions that have arisen.Google Scholar

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36 In addition, the name of the late fifteenth-century sultan was properly 'Ali bin al-Khatib al-Hasan. The ‘title’ al-Khatib [= preacher] does not appear on the coins, though this is only slight evidence against the ascription, for it might well be omitted.Google Scholar

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