The Monsoon Coast: a study pack

Part two: the handout

IV. The Monsoon Coast

On the east coast of Africa, Islam came by sea. Towns of coral stone grew up along the shore, traded across the Indian Ocean, and built mosques that still stand.

The story in brief

1. Swahili, the language of the East African coast, takes its name from an Arabic word for shores. The towns of this coast lived by trade across the Indian Ocean.
2. At Shanga in Kenya, the archaeologist Mark Horton found a sequence of mosques, each rebuilt over the last, nine times between 780 and 1000. On Zanzibar, a mosque at Kizimkazi bears inscriptions dated 1107.
3. Kilwa’s chronicle tells of a prince from Shiraz who bought the island for enough cloth to surround it. It is a founding story: people had lived on Kilwa long before.
4. Kilwa was richest in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Its wealth was gold, it minted its own coins, and its Great Mosque is the oldest standing mosque on the coast.
5. Ibn Battuta came in 1331 or 1332 and praised the sultan, Abu’l-Muzaffar Hasan, for his gifts and generosity.
6. In 1498 Vasco da Gama’s ships came up the coast. In 1505 the Portuguese took Kilwa and sacked Mombasa.
7. In 1840 Seyyid Said moved his court to Zanzibar, which became one of the main slave-trading ports of East Africa. A treaty of 1873 closed its public slave markets.
8. In 1889 Habib Swaleh founded the Riyadha Mosque in Lamu, and it soon became a center of learning.

Dates

• About 780The first of the mosques at Shanga on the Kenya coast, rebuilt nine times by 1000, as dated by its excavator, Mark Horton.
• 1107The inscription at Kizimkazi on Zanzibar, dated 500 after the Hijrah.
• About 1330Ibn Battuta sails the east coast and praises Kilwa.
• 1498Vasco da Gama’s ships anchor off Mombasa and Malindi, and the king of Malindi gives them a pilot for India.
• 1505A Portuguese fleet under Francisco de Almeida takes Kilwa by force and sacks Mombasa.
• 1840Seyyid Said moves his court from Muscat to Zanzibar, which becomes one of the main slave-trading ports of East Africa.
• 1873Sultan Barghash of Zanzibar signs a treaty with Britain to end the export of slaves from the mainland coast and close the public slave markets.
• 1889Habib Swaleh founds the Riyadha Mosque in Lamu, which soon becomes a center of learning.

People

• Abu’l-Muzaffar Hasan sultan in 1331 or 1332Sultan of Kilwa when Ibn Battuta came in 1331 or 1332. Ibn Battuta wrote that he was noted for his gifts and generosity, and that he gave the clothes off his back to a poor man who asked for them. He was also called Abu al-Mawahib, the father of gifts.
• Habib Swaleh about 1853 to 1936Scholar of Hadrami descent, born in the Comoro Islands, who came to Lamu and in 1889 founded the Riyadha Mosque, which soon became a center of learning. He gave the Lamu Maulid, the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday, its present form. In 2012 his descendants still organized it.

Words to know

Swahili

The language of the East African coast. Its name comes from an Arabic word for shores.

Monsoon

Winds over the Indian Ocean that reverse twice a year, so a ship could sail to Africa and home inside twelve months.

Wattle and daub

Walls of woven sticks plastered with mud. The first mosques at Shanga were built this way.

Mihrab

The niche in a mosque’s wall that marks the direction of prayer. At Shanga one appears by 850.

Kufic

An angular style of Arabic script, used in the inscriptions at Kizimkazi.

Dhow

A sailing boat of the Indian Ocean. Kilwa Kisiwani can still be reached by dhow from the mainland.

Maulid

The celebration of the Prophet’s birthday, peace be upon him. Lamu’s took its present form from Habib Swaleh.

Read together

Talk about it

1. The mosque at Shanga was rebuilt nine times, each over the last. What does a community show when it keeps rebuilding its mosque in the same place?See: The first mosques
2. Kilwa’s founding story says the island was bought with cloth, but people lived there long before. Why do towns tell founding stories, and how should we read them?See: An island bought with cloth
3. Ibn Battuta praised the sultan’s generosity, and the French translation adds that his gifts came from raids on people who were not Muslims. How do we weigh both things about one man?See: A sultan of gifts
4. A British writer called Zanzibar’s ruler the greatest slave-trader in the world, and a church now stands on the site of the last market. Why does it matter to tell this part of the story honestly?See: Zanzibar and the trade in people
5. The Riyadha in Lamu has been teaching since 1889. What makes a place of learning last?See: Lamu

Try this

1. Follow the coast. On the atlas, choose The Swahili coast and find Lamu, Shanga, Malindi, Mombasa, Zanzibar and Kilwa, from north to south. Use the chapter to write one line about each.
2. Read a picture from 1572. Look at the engraving of Mombasa, Kilwa and Sofala in the chapter. What did the engraver choose to show? What does it suggest about how Europeans saw these towns?
3. Trace a coin. Five Kilwa coins were found on an island off northern Australia. On a world map, draw a line from Kilwa to Marchinbar Island. The chapter does not say how they got there, so write your ideas down as guesses.

On the atlas: Lamu Shanga Malindi Mombasa Zanzibar Kilwa

Check yourself

1. Where does the word Swahili come from?
2. Between which years was the mosque at Shanga rebuilt nine times?
3. Which sultan of Kilwa did Ibn Battuta meet, and what was he known for?
4. What did the Portuguese do at Kilwa and Mombasa in 1505?
5. What did the treaty of 1873 close?
6. Who founded the Riyadha Mosque in Lamu, and when?

From The First Refuge, ferrand.africa/teach/the-monsoon-coast/. Free to print and copy for teaching.