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Shela (on Lamu island)

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The Maokun map mentions 者剌则即哈剌 : Zhe la ze ji ha la which Clifford J Pereira interprets as Shela Jazira (=Island). No other mentions of Shela on Lamu island are known from Middle Ages.

 

Although with Shela Jazira the island called Lamu is meant we will tread here Shela town as Lamu has already been handled.

 

Seventeenth century mosque at Shela (Lamu Island).
Seventeenth century mosque at Shela (Lamu Island).

 

Taken from: Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa; By Mark Chatwin Horton (1996).

 

At Shela, at the entrance to Lamu Harbor, we recovered six sherds of Sasanian-Islamic and two pieces of Islamic white-glazed and one piece of cobalt splashed ceramics, wares characteristic of 800-1000 (Horton 1996:277).