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, in some authors Siyu , is a small town 6 miles east-north-east of Pate [ q.v.] on Pate Island. Its date of foundation is unknown. The Swahili History of Pate ascribes it to 903/1497; finds of Sāsānid-Islamic pottery suggest earlier occupation. The inhabitants claim Bajun origin, Bantu settlers from southern Somalia. There is a town wall, ascribed to 1843, but possibly earlier, and some houses believed by Kirkman to the 19th century. The Friday mosque has a minaret, a rarity in East Africa; the minbar has the earliest known inscription on wood in the regio…

b. Aḥmad b. Saʿīd Āl Bū Saʿīdī, ruler of ʿUmān and Zanzibar (b. Muscat 1791, d. at sea on 19 Oct. 1856). He and his brother Sālim succeeded jointly in 1806, but shortly were usurped by their cousin Badr, whom Saʿīd assassinated. Sālim had the title Imām, but was a nonentity; the effective power was in Saʿīd’s hands. When Sālim d. Saʿīd was not elected to the imāmate, he preferred using the title Sayyid, used without distinction by all the princes of the family. Nevertheless, European sources frequently refer to Saʿīd as Imām. He never used the title Sulṭān. The fissiparous ʿUmānī tribal syste…

islands, a group of islands lying in lat. 12° S. off Musambiḳ (Mozambique) ¶ between the mouths of the Ruvuma and Lurio rivers, with administrative headquarters at St João de Ibo on Querimba Is. They were part of the sphere of influence of the mediaeval state of Kilwa, but with an independent ruler. They were islamised at an unknown period, possibly in the 12th century. They were seized by the Portuguese in 1522 because of their important ivory trade: many mosques and large houses were destroyed. João dos Sa…

, in full, Kizimkazi-Dimbani , a small hamlet in south-west Zanzibar situated in lat. 6° 26l S, which possesses the earliest datable mosque in East Africa. Its miḥrāb has a dedicatory Kūfic inscription recording its foundation by S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Abū ʿImrān Mūsā al-Ḥasan Muḥammad in 500/1106-7. This is flanked by Ḳurʾānic verses and two inscriptions in roundels, all of great elegance. The nearest analogy is with a grave cover found at Sīrāf: the ensemble was either imported from there or executed in Zanzibar by a Sīrāfī mason. This Persian connection…

, a town, island and archipelago, in lat. 2° S. off the Kenya coast, together with Pate and Manda islands [ q.vv.] and some smaller islands, probably to be identified with the Pyralaae Islands mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea of ca. A.D. 106 as an established resort of Arab and Egyptian sea traders. Nevertheless, the first archaeological evidence found on Manda does not antedate the 8th or 9th century A.D., nor on Lamu before the 13th century. The first reliable literary evidence is that of Ibn Tag̲h̲rībirdī (later 9th/15th century), but the Swahili traditional history Khabar …

(Ar. pl. Mazārīʿ, Swa. Wamazrui), an Arab tribe found in the Gulf States and in East Africa, where for two centuries they have intermarried with the local population. In the Gulf States they are found in Abu Dhabi, where they are regarded as a section of the Banī Yās. Outside Abu Dhabi, it is uncertain whether they are regarded as a section of the Banī Yās. Some are found in Dubai, in Sharjah, and in various districts and villages of ʿUmān, their centre being the walled town of al-Alāya, where the ¶ s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ recognised as head of the family resides. In East Africa, in Kenya and on the island…

, the nisba of the Sultans of Kilwa [ q.v.], in frequent use by Africans and Europeans to perpetuate a myth of a “S̲h̲īrāzī” period of history and of “migration” into East Africa. The nisba is first recorded in Barros’ translation of a dynastic history of Kilwa of ca. 1506, and in the independent Arabic Kitāb al-Sulwa fī ak̲h̲bār Kulwa ( ca. 1550; B.L. Or. ms. 2666); and on two seals, in a treaty between the Sultan of Kilwa and a French slave-trader, 4 November 1776. Various Swahili histories collected in the 19th century and after, on the coast and as fa…

, the name of various localities and islands of the east coast of Africa, amongst which should be mentioned Kilwa Kivinye , on the mainland (8° 45′ S.) about 140 miles south of Dār al-Salam (Dar es Salam), and in particular, the Quiloa of the Portuguese (Kulwa in Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, ii, 191 ff., tr. Gibb, ii, 379 ff., and in the ms. B.M. Or. 2666, but Kilwa in Yāḳūt s.v.). This last is today called Kilwa Kisawāni , and is situated on an island near to the Tanzanian coast, 150 miles south of Dār al-Salām (8° 58′ S., 39° 34′ E.). It is the site, covering about one km.2, of the capital of a region ¶ which stretched fr…

, a settlement on the East African coast. It lies on the Tanzanian coast north of Dar es Salaam, and has a ruined Friday mosque of 14th or ¶ 15th century date divided into two aisles by three central pillars. There is an extensive cemetery, with tombs, some highly decorated with elaborate carvings, of the past five centuries. It includes a pillar tomb [see manāra. 3. In East Africa] decorated with green celadon plates, of date ante 1350. A small tomb has an inscription commemorating Masʿūd b. Sulṭān S̲h̲afīʿ ʿAlī b. Sulṭān Muḥammad al-Barāwī, who d…

, a town on the Kenya coast inlat 4° N. It is first mentioned in literature by al-Idrīsi ( ca. 1150); the Ma-in mentioned by Ou-yang Hsiu, Hsin T’ang-shu , ca. 1060, is more likely to have been situated in Somalia. Al-Idrīsi says that it was a town of hunters and fishermen, whose inhabitants owned and exploited iron mines. Iron was their greatest source of profit. The iron, however, as A. O. Thompson has shown, was not mined, but recoverable from seashore deposits. Al-Idrīsi also mentions Malindi as a centre of witchcraft, a…

, the largest tribal group in Mozambique [ q.v.], where they occupy the greatest part of the area north of the Zambezi River. A few also are found in Masasi, Kilosa and Tunduru districts in Tanzania. In 1980 they were approximately 30% of the total Mozambique population of some 12m. Almost all of them are Muslims. Their traditions assert that they reached Mozambique from the north during the 16th century, among other Bantuspeaking peoples then entering southern Africa. The Dominican missionary Fr Joâo d…

, in origin the name of a town, is the legal name of the People’s Republic of Moçambique in south-east Africa. It lies south of Tanzania, and borders on Malawi, Zimbabwe, the Republic of South Africa and Swaziland. The state became independent from Portugal in 1975, and is formally Marxist and atheist, but the constitution “guarantees the freedom of citizens to practise or not to practise a religion”. In 1980 the population was ca. 12.5 m., of whom 13.5%, or 1,685,000, were Muslims, 15 to 20% Roman Catholics, 5% Protestants, and the rest pagan. The Muslims are found …

, a name used for coins in a number of Islamic countries, derived from the silver real ( de plata), first issued by Pedro the Cruel of Castile (1350-9), followed by Ferdinand of Portugal (1367-83). In Spain it continued until 1870 and in Portugal until 1910. The relations of the Spanish and Portuguese currencies to those of the Near East belong to the monetary history of the Ottoman Empire and of Persia. From the early 16th century the eastern gold and silver currencies suffered frequent devaluation and debasement. Western merchants needed …

, an islet off Weti, Pemba Island, Tanzania, is in all probability mentioned twice by al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, and is given as one of the two independent cities mentioned on the island by Yāḳūt, s.v. al-D̲j̲azīra al-K̲h̲aḍrāʾ , the ordinary name for Pemba in Arabic. He records the name as M.T.N.BY , and the second city as M.K.NB.LŪ , the Ḳanbalū mentioned by al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, al-Masʿūdī and numerous others. Yāḳūt reports that the sultan was an Arab from al-Kūfa who had emigrated in order to settle there, which might suggest that the settlement w…

, capital of the British administered United Nations Trusteeship Territory of Tanganyika, formerly German East Africa, lies in Lat. 6° 49ʹ S. and Long. 39° 16ʹ E. The settlement of ¶ Mzizima (Swahili: the healthy town) was first made in the 17th century A.D. by Wabarawa, of mixed Arab-Swahili stock from Barawa, south of Mogadishu. The present name, a contraction of Bandar al-Salām (“haven of welfare”) at least dates from 1862, when Sayyid Mad̲j̲īd, Sultan of Zanzibar, built a palace and other buildings there, of which a few survive. So does his main street, “Barra-rasta” (Hind, baŕā rāstā …

, the name given to two Islamic settlements in North-West Madagascar: Old Massalajem, otherwise Langani, is also known as Nossi Manja, and the daughter settlement of New Massalajem, also known as Boeny (Swa. correctly Bweni). The original town is reputed to have been founded from Kilwa [ q.v.], and to have had regular trade relations with it and with Malindi and Pate, until its destruction by the Sakalava at the end of the 18th century. Sherds found there do not antedate the 14th century. New Massalajem served the Sakalava first as their nor…

, the name of a tribe in ʿUmān, whose tribes are divided into independent fak̲h̲ūd̲h̲ (sing. fak̲h̲d̲h̲ ), with leaders generally denominated s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ , each one considering himself independent of the others, and acknowledging no superior. S.B. Miles reported in 1881 that 400 “Beni Nebhán”, a Ḳaḥṭānī (G̲h̲afīrī) tribe, dwelt at Semáil ( sic for Samāʿīl), on the coast in 23′ 18° N., 58′ 58° E. They appear to have been of minor importance. J.R.L. Carter gives a genealogy of Nabāhina s̲h̲ayk̲h̲s of the Banū Riyān, exclusively from traditional oral sources, who used the title malik …

, the name of a group of islands off the Tanzanian coast in approximately 8° S and 40° E. They consist of a main island commonly known as Mafia Island, but by its inhabitants as Chole Shamba (Swa. “Plantation Chole”); a very small island known as Chole or Chole Mjini (Swa. “Town Chole”); Juani; Bwejuu; and Jibondo. The only references in Arabic literature are in Aḥmad b. Mad̲j̲īd al-Nad̲j̲dī’s log books, where it is called Manafiyya, and in the anonymous History of Kilwa , where it occurs once as Manfasiya, four times as Manfiyya, and three times as Manfa…

, headquarters of Kilifi District in the Coast Province of Kenya, in lat. 4° S, is a small port which was an independent sultanate until 1592, including the present Kioni, Kitoka and Mnarani. The large Friday mosque, the wealthy décor of the adjacent tombs, and the walls and gatehouse, show that Mnarani was the chief amongst these settlements in medieval times. The cemetery is noteworthy for eleven inscriptions in 15th century nask̲h̲ī script. Excavations by J. S. Kirkman in 1954 showed that the site was occupied from the end of the 14th centu…

, an island off the coast of Keny a. It lies in approximately 2° 12’ S, 41° E, on the east side of Lamu Island [ q.v.] in the Lamu Archipelago. There is a small modern settlement at Takwa Milinga, near the ruins of the ancient walled town of Takwa in the centre of the island, a small, deserted and allegedly ancient settlement at Kitau at the south-west corner of the island, and, in the extreme north, not far from a small modern settlement, the remains of the ancient walled town of Manda, which gives the island its name. …