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Zanzibar has lured traders, adventurers, plunderers and explorers to its shores
for centuries...
The
Assyrians, Sumerians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Indians, Chinese, Persians,
Portuguese, Omani Arabs, Dutch and English have all been here at one time or
another. Some, particularly the Shirazi Persians and Omani Arabs, stayed to
settle and rule. With this influence, Zanzibar has become predominantly Islamic
(97%) - the remaining 3% is made up of Christians, Hindus and Sikhs. The
earliest visitors to Zanzibar were Arab traders who are said to have arrived in
the 8th century. The earliest building that remains on Zanzibar is the mosque at
Kizimkazi which dates from 1107, and is a present-day tourist attraction.
For
centuries the Arabs sailed with the Monsoon winds from Oman to trade primarily
in ivory, slaves and spices. The two main islands, Unguja (normally known as
Zanzibar Island) and Pemba, provided an ideal base for the Omani Arabs, being
relatively small, and therefore fairly easy to defend. From here it was possible
for them to control 1,000 miles of the mainland coast from present day
Mozambique to Somalia. Indeed, in 1832, Sultan Seyyid Said, of the Busaid
Dynasty that had emerged in Oman, moved his Sultanate from Muscat, which was
perhaps more difficult to protect, to Zanzibar where he and his descendants
ruled for over 130 years. Most of the wealth lay in the hands of the Arab
community, who were the main landowners, kept themselves to themselves, and
generally did not intermarry with the Africans
This
was not true of the Shirazi Persians who came from the Middle East to settle on
the East African coast. The story goes that in AD 975, Abi Ben Sultan Hasan of
Shiraz in Persia (now Iran) had a terrible nightmare in which a rat devoured the
foundations of his house. He took this as an omen that his community was to be
devastated. Others in the Shiraz Court ridiculed the notion, but Sultan Hasan,
his family and some followers obviously took it very seriously because they
decided to migrate. They set out in seven dhows into the Indian Ocean but were
caught in a huge storm and separated. Thus, landfalls were made at seven
different places along the East African coast, one of which was Zanzibar, and
settlements began.
Widespread
intermarriage between Shirazis and Africans gave rise to a coastal community
with distinctive features, and a language derived in part from Arabic, which
became known as Swahili. The name Swahili comes from the Arab word sawahil which
means 'coast'. The Zanzibar descendants of this group were not greatly involved
in the lucrative slave, spice and ivory trades. Instead, they immersed
themselves mainly in agriculture and fishing. Those Shirazis that did not
intermarry retained their identity as a separate group.
Two
smaller communities were also established. Indian traders arrived in connection
with the spice and ivory trade, and quickly settled as shopkeepers, traders,
skilled artisans, and professionals. The British became involved in missionary
and trading activities in East Africa, and attempting to suppress the slave
trade centred in Zanzibar.
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