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Asiatic colonization of the East African coast: the Manda evidence*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Mark Horton
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Extract

The history of early settlement of the East African coast is currently interpreted in widely differing ways. One view takes as its premise the idea that the coast was first colonized from Asia. This hypothesis, which has its roots in the work of XlXth century historians suggests that there was substantial settlement by non-Africans who established trading and religious communities. These colonies formed the basis of what has come to be known as the Swahili Culture. At first defensible peninsulas and offshore islands were chosen as safe refuges from the African tribes of the interior. Eventually contact was established between these new communities and the African coastal peoples, to the benefit of both parties. Raw materials were obtained from the hinterland of these trading outposts, which were traded and taken across the Western Indian Ocean on the seasonal monsoons. The foreign merchants married local African women and an Afro-Arab culture developed, building stone towns, mosques, and tombs, that still remain today along the coastline from Somalia to Mozambique.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 118 , Issue 2 , April 1986 , pp. 201 - 213
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1986

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References

NOTES

1 Chittick, H. N., “Discoveries in the Lamu Archipelago” Azania 2, 1967, pp. 37–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Also “Report on the Excavations at Manda 1979” Nyama Akuma, 14, 1979, pp. 20–23,Google Scholar and “Manda and the immigration of the Shirazi” Seminar Paper 119, 1979, University of Nairobi.Google Scholar

2 Nurse, D., “A Linguistic Reconstruction of Swahili Origins”, Azania 18, 1983, pp. 127–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Allen, J. de V., “Shungwaya, the Mijikenda and the Traditions”, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 16.3, 1983.Google Scholar

4 The discovery of the Mtambwe hoard on Pemba Island in 1984 has shown that the copper issues from Kilwa and Mafia were preceded by a series of locally produced minuscule silver coins, which cannot be adequately compared to known issues of Islamic coins in the Gulf or the Middle East, Horton, M. C. and Clark, C. M., “Archaeological Survey of Zanzibar” Azania, 20, 1985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Wright, H. T., “Early Seafarers of the Comoro Islands” Azania 19, 1984, 13–60;CrossRefGoogle ScholarHorton, M. C. and Clark, C. M. “Zanzibar Archaeological Survey 1984/5”, Ministry of Information Culture and Sports, Zanzibar Government, 1985;Google ScholarHorton, M. C., “The Early Settlement of the Northern Swahili Coast”, Cambridge Ph.D. thesis, 1984.Google Scholar

6 Medley, M., T'ang Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1981, pp. 101–20.Google ScholarXianming, Feng, “Archaeological Research on Chinese Ceramics”, in Catalogue to the Exhibition of Chinese Findings from Ancient Kilns in China, Fung Ping Museum, 1981, p. 15;Google ScholarHughes-Stanton, P. and Kerr, R., Kiln Sites in Ancient China, Oriental Ceramics Society, 1981, pp. 11–13;Google ScholarWhitehouse, D., “Islamic Glazed Pottery in Iraq and the Persian Gulf”, Annali Istituto Orientate di Napoli, 39, (N.S.29), fasc. 1, 1979, pp. 45–61 especially p. 52.Google Scholar

7 I realized how unreliable was the stratigraphy of beach deposits whilst surveying on Pemba Island. Erosion by the sea of archaeological deposits leaves a pot sherd pavement, of all dates, as the much lighter sand was washed away, leaving only the pottery. The smaller and more friable pieces of local pottery are also washed away, leaving a higher proportion of imported glazed sherds on the beach than was found in an adjacent excavation through identical deposits from which the beach finds were derived.

8 Whitehouse, op. cit., p. 59.Google Scholar

9 Allen, T., “Review of Siraf III, The Congregational Mosque”, Ars Orientals, 13, 1982, pp. 188–9.Google Scholar

10 Medley, op. cit., p. 82.Google Scholar

11 Hughes-Stanton, and Kerr, , op. cit., p. 57.Google ScholarWhitehouse, D. and Williamson, A., “Sasanian Maritime Trade”, Iran 11, 1973, pp. 48–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarShirong, Zhou, “Study on the Porcelain from the Tang Tombs in Changsha”, Kaogu XuebaoGoogle Scholar 1982.4, argues that the mature painting style in Changsha stoneware dates to after 841 A.D. in conflict with the earlier dates suggested from the Gulf. Less is known on the chronology of Dusun jars, but for the most recent review see Adhyatman, S., “Notes on Early Olive Green wares found in Indonesia”,First Asian Oriental Ceramic Conference,Feb. 1983.Google Scholar

12 Horton, op. cit., p. 192.Google Scholar There were two very similar dates from comparable levels in phase 3, trench 1; 1175 B.P. ± 30 (Q 3061) and 1160 B.P. ± 30 (Q 3064), both uncalibrated. They were sealed by a layer, with a later date of 1120 B.P. ± 30 (Q 3066), which calibrates to 890–980 A.D. All dates were undertaken at the Godwin Laboratory, University of Cambridge.

13 Wilson, T. H., “Spatial Analysis and Settlement Patterns on the East African Coast”, Paideuma 28, 1982, pp. 201–20,Google Scholar especially p. 214. I am grateful to Dr. Wilson for letting me view his material.

14 Horton, , op. cit., p. 400.Google Scholar

15 The Kiosk (p. 49)Google Scholar is an interesting structure given an inappropriate name. A similar structure exists at Ras Mkumbuu, on Pemba Island, see Horton, and Clark, , op. cit., p. 49,Google Scholar also Pearce, F. B., Zanzibar, The Island Metropolis of Eastern Africa, London, 1967, p. 373,Google Scholar where it is called the hidden ruin. Dr. G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville has pointed out to me a similar structure referred to in Portuguese descriptions of Kilwa, “I did see a few caracenas with some arches where they are said to weigh the gold that came from Sofala in ingots” in Baxter, and Regio, de Silva, Documentos sobre os Portugueses em Moçambique, Vol. VIII, pp. 344–5.Google Scholar

16 Horton, , op. cit.Google Scholar

17 Dr. Chittick makes the suggestion that the daub at Manda must have derived from burnt flat roofing. This may be the case, but at Shanga collapsed walls have been excavated with equally well fired daub. It is a wrong assumption to believe that some form of stone building would be necessarily associated with permanent Asiatic settlement. Medieval Sonar was built mainly in timber and daub, as there was little available building stone. But at Manda this is not the case, with many outcrops of coral rock.

18 Oman, G., “The Islamic Necropolis of Dahlak Kabir, in the Red Sea”, East and West, 24 (N.S.), 1974, pp. 249–95;Google ScholarCrowfoot, J. W., “Some Red Sea Ports in the Anglo Egyptian Sudan”, Geographical Journal, 37, 1911, pp. 523–50;CrossRefGoogle ScholarHibbert, H. E., “El Rih—A Red Sea Island” Sudan Notes and Records, 18, 1935, pp. 308–13;Google ScholarGreenlaw, J. P., The Coral Buildings of Suakin, Stocksfield, 1976, pp. 22, 87.Google Scholar

19 Khan, F. A., Banbhore: a Preliminary Report on Recent Archaeological Excavations, Karachi, Department of Archaeology, 1963, p. 24.Google ScholarChittick, H. N., “A Cistern from Suakin”, Azania, 15, 1981, p. 181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 I am grateful to Dr. Wandibba for information, which was discussed at Historical Association of Kenya,Annual Conference, in August 1984.Google Scholar

21 Whitehouse, D., “Excavations at Siraf. Third Interim Report”, Iran 8, 1970, p. 9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 For example, Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P., Captain Buzurg ibn Shahriyar of Ramhormuz: The Book of the Wonders of India, London, East West Publications, 1981, p. 31.Google Scholar

23 Carswell, J., “China and Islam”, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramics Society, 42, 1978, pp. 37–42,Google Scholar describes one such hoard on a beach in Northern Sri Lanka.

24 The calculations presented on p. 227 include later pottery in the total figure. I have recalculated on the basis of the table on p. 225, to include only imports dated to c. 800 A.D. to 1050 A.D. Significantly, of the total of 654 vessels, nearly half were storage vessels of some kind.

25 Horton, and Clark, , op. cit., p. 12.Google ScholarHorton, , op. cit., p. 457;Google ScholarChittick, H. N., Kilwa, volume II, Nairobi, B.I.E.A. Memoir 5, 1974, p. 333.Google Scholar

26 This included Sasanian Islamic and whiteglazed pottery. Manda (p. 60)Google Scholar suggests that some limited excavation took place in the later town, on the beach with some clearance of the town wall. Apparently the early pottery was not looked for during this work.

27 Horton and Clark (ibid) pp. 11, 25.

28 Dr. Freeman-Grenville has told me of the seawalls at Shihr. Whitehouse notes the absence of harbour works at Siraf, but for “loading bays” see Whitehouse, D., “Kish” Iran, 14, 1976, p. 146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Such works are commoner in the Mediterranean, for example the harbour and seawalls built by the Fatimid Caliph ‘Ubayd Allah (910–934 A.D.) at Mahdiyya, on the Tunisian coast.

29 Compare Hughes-Stanton, and Kerr, , op. cit., p. 72,Google Scholar no. 325.

30 Horton, , op. cit., pp. 137, 138, 383, 387, and 398.Google Scholar

31 Ricks, T. M., “Persian Gulf Seafaring and East Africa: Nine to Twelfth Centuries”, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 3.2, 1970, pp. 339–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarWhitehouse, D., “Maritime Trade in the Arabian Sea” South Asian Archaeology, 1977.Google Scholar

32 Trimingham, J. S., “The Arab Geographers and the East African Coast”, in Chittick, H. N. and Rotberg, R., (ed.) East Africa and the Orient New York, Africana, 1975, p. 117.Google Scholar

33 Trimingham, , (op. cit.).Google ScholarFreeman-Grenville, G. S. P., The East African Coast: Select Documents, London, 1962, pp. 14–17.Google Scholar Idrisi noted a place called M.L.N.D. which Chittick believes may be Manda. The description of the place makes it clear that Malindi was actually meant.

34 For rock crystal and ivory see Wilson, R. Pinder, “Rock Crystal and Jade” and “Ivory” in; Arts of Islam, Arts Council of Great Britain Exhibition Catalogue 1976, pp. 119–24, 147–50.Google ScholarWilson, R. Pinder and Brooke, C. N. L., “The Reliquary of St Petroc and Ivories of Norman Sicily”, Archaeologia 104, 1973, pp. 231–305.Google Scholar Iron may also have been an imported export of the Coast. Furnaces were found at Manda, and analysis of the slag showed that the ore was not the locally available ilmenite iron sand, because of the absence of titanium. Haematite (which was also found in the early deposits) is a possible candidate, but the nearest source is over 100 miles inland.

35 Goitein, S. D., Studies in Islamic History and Institutions, Leiden, 1966, p. 339.Google Scholar For crystal and cowrie shells in Cairo, Goitein, S. D., A Mediterranean Society; Economic Foundations, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1967, pp. 99, 154.Google ScholarMediterranean coral was an important export, and this was found at Manda (p. 184)Google Scholar.

36 The group of five Fatimid coins from Manda are particularly significant, as they were scattered across a number of deposits, but were associated with the porites coral buildings. Very similar, but as yet unidentified coins were found at Shanga in comparable levels. Eleven Fatimid gold coins have been recently found at Mtambwe Mkuu, on Pemba Island, associated with the hoard of silver ranging in date from 359/969 to 447/1056. Rhyming couplets, the characteristic feature of the local East African issues can be compared to similar features on Fatimid silver coins. I am grateful to Mrs. H. W. Brown (Ashmolean Museum) for identifications of the Mtambwe coins, and discussions on these points.