Taken from: Gabriel Ferrand in his LES SULTANS DE KILWA (Mémorial Henri Basset p239-256)

(He adds in the beginning a paragraph from other Portuguese documents. P242-243)

FROM ASIA By Jean de BARROS.

EXPLOITS ACCOMPLISHED BY THE PORTUGUESE IN THE CONQUEST AND DISCOVERY OF THE LANDS AND SEAS OF THE EAST. DECADE I, book VIII, chapter IV, edition of 1778.

…. The first foreign peoples who came to inhabit this country of Zanguebar were a group (huma gente) of Arabs exiled after their Islamization. From what we have learned by a chronicle of the kings of Kilwa (Quiloa) which will be mentioned later, these people were called Emozaydij (1). They were exiled because they had adopted the doctrine of a Muslim (Mouro) called Zayd, grandson of Husayn, son of Ali, the nephew (sobrinho) [of the prophet] Muhammad, who had married his daughter Aisa (2)(Axa, sic). This Zayd had opinions contrary to the Koran and all those who had adopted them, were called by the Muslims Emozaydij, which means: subjects of Zayd (subditos of Zaide); and they are considered heretics...

… According to what a chronicle of the kings of this city [of Kilwa] suggests, a little more than seventy years after the founding of the cities of Magadaxo and Batua which, as we have seen previously, were the first cities founded on this [eastern African] coast; Around the 400s of the Hegira [= 1009-10AD], there reigned in Shiraz, in Persia, a Muslim king called Sultan Husayn. When he died, he left seven sons, one of whom, called Ali, was little esteemed by his brothers because his father had him from an Abyssinian slave and they were the sons of Persian princesses.

(1) Emozaydij: an indication of early Shia Muslims in East Africa.

(2) Not Aisa (that was the Prophet’s youngest wife; but Fatima his daughter.

Taken from: Eastern African History Robert O. Collins 1990

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DE BARROS

According to what we learn from a Chronicle of the Kings of this town, at Shiraz, which is in Persia, a Moorish King named Sultan Hocen.

At his death he left seven sons. One of these, named Ale, was held in little esteem by his brothers, because he was begotten by his father by one of his slaves of Abyssinian race, whereas their mother was descended from the Princes of Persia. But whatever he may have lacked by reason of his origin, he made up for it in character and wisdom. In order to escape the scorn and ill treatment of his brothers he resolved to find a new place to dwell in , where he might live with better fortune than he had amongst his own people. He was already married, and gathered together his wife, sons, family and some other people, who wished to follow him in the enterprise, and embarked in two ships at the island of Ormuz, and, because of the reports of gold to be found on the coast of Zanzibar, came thither.(1)

ARABIC VERSION

Chapter One: The first man to come to Kilwa and found it, and his descent from the land of the Persians. It is said there were seven ships: the first stopped at Mandakha (2); the second at Shaughu (3); the third at a town called Yanba (4); the fourth at Mombasa; the fifth at the Green Island (of Pemba); the sixth at the land of Kilwa; and the seventh at Hanzuan (5). They say all the masters of these six ships were brothers; and that the one who went to the town of Hanzuan was their father. God alone knows all truth.

I understand from a person interested in history, whom I trust, that the reason for their leaving Shiraz in Persia was that their Sultan one day dreamed a dream. He was called Hasan ibn Ali: he was the father of these six men and the seventh of those who left. In his dream he saw a rat with an iron snout gnawing holes in the town wall. He interpreted the

(1) Sultan Hocen of Shiraz: not known to be a historical figure. These events according to the tradition took place:  957-985AD. According to al-Mutahhar b. Tahir al-Maqdisi, the land of the Zendjs provided a lot of gold to the Arab countries from the tenth century on.

(2) Mandakha, either the city of Mogadishu in Somalia, or the town of Manda in the archipelago of Lamu in Kenya. (Pradines 2009)

(3) Shaughu: Shaughu is said to be the site of Shanga in the Lamu archipelago. (ibid)

(4) Yanba would correspond to Malindi-Gedi in Kenya. (ibid)

(5) Hanzuan, or Anjouan in the Comoros. (ibid)

Some of the inscriptions found on Ali ibn al Hassan coins are:

-Obv. ‘Ali son of al-Hasan / May he be happy!

 Rev. Trusts in the Masters of Bounties.

-Obv. ‘Ali son of / al-Hasan / May he be happy! in double circle.

 Rev. Trusts in the Master / of Bounties, in double circle; central star.

-Obv. Illegible.

 Rev. Trusts in the Master of Bounties.

The Ruins of the Shirazi Sultans Castle in Kilwa at least according to an old German 1900 picture. (Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum.)

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Having come to the settlements of Mogadishu and Barawa, as he was of Persian origin and belonged to a sect of Mahamed (=Mohammad) which, as we have previously seen, was different from that of the Arabs (1), and as his intention was to found his own settlement of which he could be lord, and not be the subject of any other person, he sailed down the coast until he came to the port of Kilwa. Seeing from the situation and position of the land, which was surrounded by water, that he could live secure from the insults of the Kafirs, who inhabited it, he bought it from them at the price of some cloth, and, because, of the reasons he gave them, they crossed over to the mainland. After this, when they had abandoned the place, he began to fortify it, not only against them, in case they showed any malice, but also against various Moorish towns in the neighbourhood and against some Moors who inhabited certain islands called Songo and Xanga (2), and who ruled the land up to Mompana (3) about twenty leagues (4) from Kilwa. As he was a wise man and of great courage, in a short time he fortified himself so that the place became a noble settlement, to which he gave the name it now bears. He began to rule over his neighbours, and sent his son, a goodly young man, to rule over the island of Monfia (3) and other islands nearby. His descendants, who succeeded him, called themselves kings, as he did.

ARABIC VERSION

ruin of their country. When he had made certain that his interpretation of the dream was correct, he told his sons. He convinced them that their land would not escape destruction, and asked their advice. They said they left their decision to God and his Prophet (may he be exalted!), and to their father. Their father said he intended to leave the land and go to another. His sons retorted: How can we go? Will the amirs and wazirs and the council agree to your departure, which involves the breaking of the cord that binds the kingdom together? He answered his sons and said: I have a stratagem by which we can escape. Tomorrow I shall summon all of you and the wazirs and amirs and the council. He said to his eldest son: I shall insult you before them all. When you have heard me show anger, strike me as though you were filled with rage. I shall grow angry on that account, and shall make it an excuse to leave the land. In this way, if God wills, we shall be able to depart. Next day he summoned all his sons, and all the wazirs, amirs and the council, and they consulted together about the matters for discussion before them. The father spoke abusively of his eldest son, who thereupon struck him before them all. His father was angry and said: I will not remain in a land where I have been insulted like this. And the rest of his sons and all the people said: We will avenge you on your son and kill him. He answered: I am not satisfied. And they said: What will you? He replied: Only leaving this land will satisfy me. And they all agreed to leave with their sultan. He got ready with his household and some of his amirs, wazirs and subjects . They took the road to the ports, and, embarking in seven ships, set sail. So they travelled under God's guidance to the lands of the Swahili coasts, where the ships dispersed, each going to the place already mentioned. It is strong evidence that they were kings in their own country. After his death he was

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DE BARROS

(no text of de Barros on this page)

ARABIC VERSION

and is a refutation of those who deny it. God alone knows all truth! When they arrived in the ship which went to Kilwa, they found it was an island surrounded by the sea, but that at low water it was joined to the mainland so that one could cross on foot. They disembarked on the island and met a man who was a Muslim, followed by some of his children. It is said his name was Muriri wa Bari. (=Muriri of the country) They found there one mosque said to be the one he is to be buried in, and which is called Kibala (1). They asked the Muslim about the country and he replied: The island is ruled by an infidel from Muli (2), who is king of it; he has gone to Muli to hunt, but will soon return. After a few days the infidel returned from Muli and crossed to the island at low tide. The newcomer and he met together, and Muriri acted as interpreter. The newcomer to Kilwa said: I should like to settle on the island: pray sell it to me that I may do so. The infidel answered: I will sell it on condition that you encircle the island with coloured clothing. The newcomer agreed with the infidel and bought on the condition stipulated. He encircled the island with clothing, some white, some black, and every other colour besides. So the infidel agreed and took away all the clothing, handing over the island and departing to Muli. He concealed his real intention of returning with troops to kill the newcomer and his followers and to take their goods by force. The Muslim warned the purchaser and said: He is very fond of this island and will undoubtedly return to despoil you and yours of all your possessions and kill you. You must find some stratagem to be safe from his evil intention. So they set themselves to the task and dug out the creek across which in former

(1) The term means the niche in a mosque which indicates the direction of Mecca; and in Swahili the north, since Mecca is northwards from the coast.

(2) Muli: the mainland.

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After his death he was succeeded by his son Bumale (1), who reigned 40 years. As he had no sons, his nephew, Ale Busoloquete (2), inherited Kilwa, being the son of his brother who was in Mafia. He did not remain in power for more than four years and a half. He (Ale Busoloquete)(2) was succeeded by Daut, his son, who was driven out of Kilwa in the fourth year of his reign by Matata Mandalima (3), who was king of Xanga (4) and his enemy, and Daut took refuge in Monfia (=Mafia), where he died. Matata left in Kilwa his nephew, named Ale Bonebaquer (5), who after two years was driven out by the Persians of Kilwa. In his place they put Hocen Sulaiman, a nephew of the

ARABIC VERSION

times men passed at low tide between the mainland and the island. The tide filled it and did not recede again. Some days later the infidel came from Muli to the point from which he was wont to cross. He saw the tide was up; and waited in the usual way for it to ebb until he could cross; but the water remained up and did not go down at all. Then he despaired of seizing the island and was sorry at what he had done. He went home full of remorse and sorrow. The first king of the land was Sultan Ali ibn al-Husain ibn Ali surnamed Nguo Nyingi (6). And this was in the middle of the third century after the flight of the Prophet - Peace upon him; This king ruled Kilwa and then went to Mafia, for the island pleased him. He put in charge his son Muhammad ibn Ali, who was known as Mkoma Watu. (7)

Muhammad ibn Ali ruled for two and a half years, and after his death his third brother Bashat ibn Ali (8) succeeded him. He was the first independent king of Mafia after his father died. He ruled four and a half years and then died. The first man to come to Kilwa ruled forty years. After his death Ali ibn Bashat ibn Ali (8) ruled for four and a half years. He took precedence over his paternal uncles Sulaiman ibn Ali, al - Hasan ibn Ali and Daud ibn Ali. When he died his uncle Daud ibn Ali ruled in his stead for two years. Then he went to Mafia to visit his father's grave. He liked Mafia and settled there, and gave his kingdom to his son Ali ibn Daud ibn Ali ibn al - Husain. He was the last of the seed of the first man to come to Kilwa. God knows best.

Chapter Two: The disturbance in the affairs of the kingdom of Kilwa and the Matamandalin (3). These, the people of Shagh (9), fought a great war with the people of Kilwa, and conquered the country. They took over the government and appointed to rule one of themselves named Khalid ibn Bakr (10).

(1) Bumale: bin Ali (J. D. Fage, ‎R. A. Oliver · 1970)

(2) Ale Busoloquete: Ali ibn Bashati and this wrong way of writing indicates oral transmission and transcription for the Portuguese version. If these names had been directly transliterated from the Arabic to the latin alphabet their spelling would have been quite different. (Adrien Delmas; Writing in Africa: The Kilwa Chronicle …2017 p51)

(3) Matata Mandalima: Matamandalin, that is to say "those who wear fabrics on their heads: perhaps turbans? (Pradines 2009) Matata is the normal Swahili word for troubles.

(4) Xanga: see note nr 2 p 57

(5) Ale Bonebaquer: Khalid bin Bakr (Adrien Delmas; Writing in Africa: The Kilwa Chronicle … 2017 p51)

(6) Nguo Nyingi: Swahili for: many clothes. Strong has: Ighawumij.

(7) Mkoma Watu; kukoma watu: destroying or finishing people. (Swahili: The Rise …1969 Wilfred Whiteley).

(8) Ali II ibn Bashat ibn Ali who according to tradition ruled from 1022-1027 AD.

(9) Shagh: see note 2 p57

(10) Khalid bin Bakr: see note 5 of this page.

Sultans

1-(ante 957 CE) Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi – founder of Kilwa

2-(957-996) Muhammad ibn Ali (Ali Bumale, son of previous)

3-(996-1000) Ali ibn Bashat (Ali Busoloquete, nephew or cousin of previous)

4-(1000- 1003) Dawud ibn Ali (son of previous)

5-(1003-1005) Khalid ibn Bakr (Hale Bonebaquer; nephew of Matata Mandalima of Xanga)

6-(1005-1017) al-Hassan ibn Suleiman ibn Ali (Hocen Soleiman, nephew of the late Dawud): Here not the 16 years as given in the de Barros version is taken into account but the 12 years from the Arabic Version.

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deceased Daut. He reigned sixteen years.

(Sc. al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman reigned sixteen years) and was succeeded by Ale Bem Daut (=Ali bin Daut), his nephew, who reigned sixty years, and was succeeded by his grandson of the same name. The inhabitants rose against him.

ARABIC VERSION

After two and a half years the people of Kilwa united to depose him and banish him from the country. They expelled him without injuring him in any way, and made him return to his own land. Then al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman ibn Ali (1) the founder of Kilwa ruled for twelve years. The Matamandalin (2) attacked for a second time and conquered the country. And they set up a man named Muhammad ibn al - Husain al – Mandhiri (3), who reigned for twelve years, and the name of the Matamandalin was mentioned in the Friday prayers. All these things happened after the flight of Sultan al - Hasan to the land of Zanzibar. Then the people of Kilwa gathered together to get rid of the Matamandalin. They agreed that the matter of setting up a king was not one for their sons, but that they would depute it to them to do it for them. So they called all the young men together and said: Are you content that your king should have been deposed? They all answered together: No! Then they said to the young men: Make up your minds and swear allegiance to the son of your king. So a thousand young men met, and did as they were asked: they swore allegiance to the sultan's son. Then they went to the house of the Amir (sc. Muhammad ibn al – Husain) and seized him and put him in fetters. Then they sent the young men with their king with a message to his deposed father the sultan who had fled to Zanzibar, so that he might come and receive the land from his son. He returned from Zanzibar in six ships; and, when he arrived at Kilwa, the Amir broke out and went down to the strand to oppose him. Then the young men slew the Amir. Thus he took control of the country and ruled for fourteen years before he died.

(1) al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman ibn Ali; who is called the founder of Kilwa.

Between the death of al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman ibn Ali in about 1042 and the accession of Da'ud ibn Sulaiman I in 1131 there is no information of significance. There is a serious lacuna. But with the accession of Da'ud in de Barros, Kilwa enters what seems to have been the beginning of its prosperity. In this lacune a Sultan reigns for 60 years; another for 40 years. These huge numbers may cover the lacuna. I add one sultan in this lacune (not mentioned in the chronicle) who did exist as his coins prove.

(Taken from: Kilwa Dynastic Historiography: A Critical Study; Elias Saad History in Africa Vol. 6 (1979).)

Let us look at the first sequence of Shirazi kings mentioned in common by both sources. These kings are assigned regnal durations totaling 172 years in Freeman-Grenville's chronology. But, judging from their nomenclature in the Kitab, they belonged to three generations only. On basis of thirty to thirty-five years between generations, they need not have flourished for longer than one hundred years. The text leaves a firm impression that they were based, for the most part, at Mafia rather than Kilwa. It requires some scrutiny to recognize this, but with reference to genealogical detail it can readily be ascertained. The kings in question include the founder along with his sons and grandsons. The first is alleged to have migrated directly to Kilwa from Shiraz but it transpires that he was buried at Mafia. Two of his five known sons did not reign at all, while two reigned only at Mafia. The fifth son, Daud b. Ali, allegedly reigned two years in Kilwa then went to visit his father's tomb at Mafia and decided to reside there because that island pleased him. We are given to understand that his sons and nephews, representing the third generation, remained behind.

(2) see note nr 3 on p59.

(3) Mandhiri: The name is that of an important tribe in Oman.

Sultans of the Arabic version are here taken into account.

---(1017-1029) Muhammad bin al-Husain al-Mandhir. 12 years

---(1029-1042) al-Hasan bin Sulaiman bin 'Ali a further 14 years

Sultans de Barros

7-(1042-1100) Ali ibn Dawud I (son of Dawud, nephew of al-Hassan), ruled 60 years.

8-(1100-1106) Ali ibn Dawud II (grandson of Ali ibn Dawud) 6 years

On the next page we have that al-Hassan ibn Daud ibn Ali the founder of Kilwa at 70 years old starts ruling for another seventy years.

- It might have been that it was in this period without information that Sultan Da'ud ibn al-Hasan reigned. He is dated at late eleventh-early twelfth century. He also minted coins.

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because he was a wicked man, and threw him alive into a well, after he had reigned six years. They put in his place his brother Hasan Ben Daut, who reigned for twenty - four years. After him there reigned Sulaiman for two years. He was of royal descent. The inhabitants cut off his head because he was a very bad king.

ARABIC VERSION

He was succeeded by al-Hassan ibn Daud ibn Ali the founder of Kilwa, and at that time he was seventy years of age. And he reigned over his kingdom seventy years more. (End of Ch. II).

Sultans

9-(1106-1129) al-Hassan ibn Dawud (Hacen ben Daut, brother of Ali ibn Dawud II)

10-(1129-1131) Suleiman (patronym unclear, "of royal lineage")

Taken from: The Medieval History of the Coast of Tanganyika: With Special Reference to Recent Archaeological Discoveries, Numbers 55-57 by Greville Stewart Parker Freeman-Grenville 1962

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In his (sc . Sulaiman's) place they put Da’ud (1), his son, whom they sent for from Sofala, where he had become very rich. This settlement, which the Moors had made in this place called Sofala, was not made by force of arms, nor against the will of the natives of the land, but by their wish and that of the prince who ruled at that time; because, by reason of this intercourse they obtained benefits as well as cloth and other things which they had never had before, and for which they gave gold and ivory, which was of no use to them, and which, until then, had never been exported from Sofala. And, although this barbarous race never left the village in which they were born, and were not given to navigation, nor to travel by land in pursuit of commerce, gold nevertheless has this quality, namely, that wherever it is found on earth, the report of it spreads from one person to another so that they go to find its place of origin. However it happened, we learn from the Chronicle of the Kings of Kilwa (2), which we have already mentioned, that the first people on this coast who came to the land of Sofala in search of gold were inhabitants of the city of Mogadishu (3). How the kings of Kilwa came into possession was in this manner. A man was fishing in a canoe outside the harbour of Kilwa close to an island called Miza (4). He caught a fish on the hook of a line, which he had cast into the sea. Thinking from the struggles of the fish that it was very large and not wishing to lose it, he weighed anchor and left himself at the will of the fish. Sometimes the vessel went where the fish took it and sometimes where the currents, which

(1) This is not the Da’ud b. Sulaiman who minted coins. (see later).

(2) Freeman-Grenville considers that we are dealing with two summaries of the same text: the passage [of Barros’s Asia] includes a brief summary of a Chronicle of the Kings of Kilwa. Another summary, based upon the same source as that of de Barros, is to be found in an apparently unique Arabic manuscript in the British Museum, Or. 2666.’ Freeman-Grenville 1962, p80.

(3) The earliest mentions of Mogadishu are:

- Al Idrisi (1150) Unsure mention as Bedouna.

- Beyhaqi Nishabouri Kidari, Mohammad bin Hossein: Hadayiq al Haqayiq (The facts about the Garden) (1181)

- Umar Ibn Ali Ibn Samura: Tabaqat Fuqaha Al-Yaman (Generations of Jurists of Yemen) (1190)

- Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi (1220) Kitab Mu'jam al-buldan (geographical directory).

- Ibn-al Mujawir (1232) (Tarikh al-Mustabsir) (Guide to Arabia).

We are not told in whose reign the event took place; if Da'ud had resided in Sofala for some time before he was summoned to the throne of Kilwa, he went there presumably before his father's accession, for the latter reigned only two years. It is impossible to date the event more accurately than at some time during the first quarter of the 12th century. (Freeman-Grenville 1962, p89)

Note: It seems to me a time when Mogadishu did not exist yet. Also Chittick, on archaeological grounds, states that there is no evidence for the existence of a town at Mogadishu before the late 12th century.

(4) Miza island: Miza reef north of Songo Songo Island? Ibn Majid calls it Chundju-Chundju, (Sang Sanguguwa): Songo Songo Island is a small island located in Lindi Region in Tanzania.

Anecdote: Mentioned on a map in the: Kitab Ghara'ib al-funun (1050) Kilwalah(?), an island; (This might be the first mention of the town of Kilwa.

Anecdote: In this period Kilwa seems to have turned to Ibadism. Letter of Salma b. Muslim al-Awtabi: The Kilwa Sira: (after 1116AD)

It is an Ibadi polemic addressed to two brothers from Kilwa being Ali b. Ali and al-Hasan b. Ali. Except of the polemic there is only this address to the two brothers: We have heard that you have become tashdid fi’l-din (this maybe means that they were actively propagating Ibadism.)

This is the first part of the Kilwa Sira. The second part is added on a next page.

Sultans

11-(1131-1170) Dawud ibn Suleiman (son of previous). Ruled 40 years.

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are very strong there, so that the fisherman wished so return to the port whence he had come, he could not reach it. At last, more dead than alive from hunger and thirst, he came to the port of Sofala, where he found a ship of Mogadishu, which had come there to trade. In this vessel he returned to Kilwa and related what had occurred and what he had seen of the gold trade. It was part of the agreement between these Gentiles and the Moors of Mogadishu that every year they should send some young Moors (1) so that there should be some of this race there. When the King of Kilwa learnt this part of the contract and its conditions from the fisherman, he sent a ship there to arrange commerce with the Kafirs. With regard to the young Moors for whom they asked, he offered to give so many cloths a head in lieu of those they asked, or, if they wanted them so as to have a race of them there, he said some of the inhabitants of Kilwa would go and settle there in a factory for merchandise, and that they would be glad to take their daughters as wives, by which means the people would multiply. By means of this entry the Moors of Kilwa got possession of the trade. In course of time by means of the trade which the Moors had with these Kafirs, the kings of Kilwa became absolute masters of the trade in gold. From that time onwards the kings of Kilwa sent their governors to Sofala, so that everything might be transacted through their factors.

(1) Sir John Gray has suggested that the young men sent were hostages for the good behaviour of the traders.

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Daut reigned at Kilwa for forty years and was succeeded by his son Sulaiman Hacen, who conquered the greater part of this coast. With his father's support he became master of the trade of Sofala and of the islands of Pemba, Momfia (=Mafia), Zanzibar and a large part of the mainland coast. Besides being a conqueror, he beautified the city of Quiloa, erecting there a fortress of stone and lime, with walls, towers and other houses, whereas up till that time nearly the whole of the dwellings in the city had been made of wood. All these things he accomplished during the eighteen years he reigned.

Anecdote: Muhammad b. Sa'id al-Qalhati: rhymed prose called al-Maqama al-Kilwiyya in: The Kilwa Sira (1200).

The people of Kilwa were Ibadis and had agreed to choose their leader from the descent of (Awlad) Sulayman b. Walid b. Sulayman b. Yarik/ Barik al-Naysaburi. With the dead of Walid b. Sulayman they had chosen his son Yarik/ Barik, to look after their affairs (wasiyya), bypassing in the process Yarik's brother, Mughira. The latter thereupon adopted the rival creed of a man called Abu Aliyan who had come from southern Iraq and had been successfully converting the masses. So Yarik send to the people of (interior) Oman for help. (They send help and reconvert the people to Idadism.)

Sultans

12-(1170-1188) Suleiman ibn al-Hassan ibn Dawud (Soleiman Hacen, son of ninth sultan given above)

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He (Sulaiman Hasan ibn Da'ud) was succeeded by his son Daut, who reigned two years. After him there came his brother Talut, who lived for one year only. After his death another brother Hocem reigned twenty - five years. As he had no children, he was succeeded by another brother who reigned for ten years. This last-named brother, called Hale Bonij (Khalid ibn Sulaiman) was the most fortunate of his race, because anything he undertook he accomplished. He was succeeded by his brother Bone Sulaiman (? ibn Sulaiman) who reigned for forty years. After him Ale Daut (Ali ibn Da'ud) reigned for fourteen years.

DE BARROS

He (sc. Ali ibn Da'ud) was succeeded by his grandson Hacen, who reigned for eighteen years and was a most excellent horseman (1).

ARABIC VERSION

The third chapter concerning the reign of Abu'l – Mawahib (2) and a brief account of his history.

Then the throne departed from those who have been mentioned and the member of the house of Abu'l - Mawahib (the Giver of Gifts)(2) who succeeded was al - Hasan ibn Talut (3) who was celebrated for his intelligence and courage. With the help of his people he seized the kingdom by force, but as they were not strong enough to govern, he made himself independent of them, and seized the kingdom by violence (4). He reigned eighteen years and then died.

(1) The horse cannot survive because of the tsetse fly in East Africa. Reusch is of the opinion that de Barros should be interpreted to mean that al - Hasan ibn Talut was a superb (fighting) knight.

(2) Abu'l - Mawahib (the Giver of Gifts): For the Sultan visited by Ibn Battuta 1331 who was also called the Giver of Gifts see p95.

DE BARROS

After his (sc. al - Hasan ibn Talut) death his son Sulaiman (1) obtained the kingdom. He was killed through treachery when leaving a mosque, having reigned fourteen years.

DE BARROS

After his (sc. Sulaiman ibn al - Hasan II's)(1) death his son Daut reigned for two years. After him his brother Hacen (2) reigned for twenty - four years. As he had no sons, the former king (sc. Daut) returned again. Those two previous years he had reigned were in the absence of Hacen, because, he had gone to

ARABIC VERSION

On his (sc. al-Hasan ibn Talut's) death there succeeded Abu'l - Mawahib (2) al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman al – Mat’un (3) ibn Hasan ibn Ţalut al- Mahdali (4). The following is a brief account of his reign. When he travelled to Mecca when his father al - Mat'un was still alive he himself

(2) Abu'l – Mawahib: this is the second father of gifts we encounter and the one visited by Ibn Battuta. Freeman-Grenville 1962: The statement that the sultan was called Abu'l - Mawahib because of his innumerable acts of generosity need not be taken seriously: it had already been applied to al - Hasan ibn Talut (1277–1294), and was perhaps rather a throne name which had been carried down. Ibn Battuta's comment that gold is rarely given as a present may be concealed bitterness. In other places he received munificent gifts of gold.

(3) The son of al-Hasan ibn Talut, according to the ARABIC VERSION is al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman (R1310-1333) who also minted coins: the legend of his coins often containing the phrase "may his victory be prosperous". Freeman-Grenville’s research showed that the phrase appeared first on the coin of the Mamluk ruler al-Nasir Muhammad in 1317. This date fits with the dates for the al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman described by Ibn Battuta who is now thought to have issued these coins.

The Album Stephen list books his coins under 1315 AD. By J. Perkins, 2014, p. 219-233 he is put chronologically just under Sulaiman ibn al-Hasan of note nr 1. JEFFREY FLEISHER, STEPHANIE WYNNE-JONES (2010) do so and date him: 1320-1334AD.

Some of the inscriptions found on al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman coins are:

(4) al – Mahdali: This is the name of one branch of Hadrami sharifs. Most historians agree that here the Shirazi dynasty (=Persian and in origin Shia) is replaced by the Mahdali dynasty (=Arab and in origin Sunni).

Note: It is also during this period that a splendid Mausoleum appears on the Cemetery of the Sultans, Kilwa. Dated 1305-1345. The marble was imported from Gujarat. The decoration is Hindu; so it might have originally belonged to a temple but the borders are inscribed on 1 side 2 rows of Arabic writing; decorated in the center panel with mosque lamps in niches and palm trees,. Gujarat marble was not only found in Kilwa (but also Mogadishu etc..) this shows the great influence of India.

Anecdote: And also somewhere in the beginning of this period in a marginal note in a copy of the  Kitab Al Akrabazin from Najib al Din al Samarqandi (d1220) is written: Khat is a shrub of Kilwa and of Yemen, popularly known as Kafta. Kilwa seems to have been producing and exporting rice (see further) and khat.

Anecdote: Chu Ssu-Pen (1320) (Kuang Yu T'u) (the Mongol atlas) has an island of the East African coast called 库六 Ku liu ?? (perhaps Kilwa?) in the neighborhood are the islands: 冒西哈必剌 Mao xi ha bi la  ?? According to Nurlan Kenzheakhmet: 昌西哈必剌 Chang xi ha bi la = Zanj I Qanbala (Zanj of Qanbalu) and 哇阿哇 Wa a wa : according to my opinion this is to be Waq Waq.

After Chu Ssu-Pen this information is repeated on the Da Ming Hun Yi Tu (1389) map and Ch'uan Chin and Li Hui (1402) (Yoktae chewang honil kangnido) map.

Anecdote: Ibn Battuta (1331) is the one who writes the most about Kilwa: We stayed one night in the island (Mombassa), and then pursued our journey to Kulwa, which is a large town on the coast. The majority of its inhabitants are Zanj, jet black in color, and with tattoo marks on their faces like the Limiin (1) at Janada (2). I was told by a merchant that the town of Sufala lies two weeks journey from Kulwa and that gold dust is brought to Sufala from Yufi (3) in the country of the Limis (1), which is a month's journey distant from it. The city of Kilwa is amongst the most beautiful of cities and elegantly built.

He also mentions the Holy War (=slave hunting). Their chief qualities are devotion and piety: they follow the Shafi rite. This is a change from Ibn-al Mujawir (1232) who mentioned they were Ibadi.

Ibn Battuta describes in details the daily live of the Sultan nicknamed the father of gifts. After his dead his brother stops giving presents, a sign things were not going well in the country. He left From Kulwa sailing to Dhafari (Dhofar) at the extremity of the Yemen.

Anecdote: Najm al din al Misri: Kitab as-Zij fi'Ilm al-Falak: (Islamic Astronomy Tables)(1350) Cairo gives the coordinates for Kilwa: Kilwa: Longitude 84 deg 0 min latitude 8 deg 0 min. Direction towards Mecca 39 deg 2 min NW. And also for Sofala of the Zanj: Longitude 11 deg 0 min latitude 8 deg 0 min. Direction towards Mecca 20 deg 8 min NE.

Anecdote: al Hasan ibn Ali al-Sharif al-Husayni (1412) in his Mulakhkhas al-Fitan has the following:

This (=Rice weighted in stones) was also tithed in the year 736AH (=1336AD) (in the vessel of Amir) Nasir al-Din Sharif Musa b. Husayn (arriving) from Kilwa in the stewardship of Qadi Badr al-Din Hasan Said b. Hasan, the district overseer.

With the rulers of Kilwa now being Sharifs we do not need to be surprised that an Amir (most probably a family member) was also a Sharif and a business man.

Sultans

20-(1294-1308) Suleiman ibn Hassan (son of previous)

21-(1308-1310) Daud ibn Suleiman (son of previous)

22-(1310-1333) Abu al-Mawahib al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman (brother of previous)

23-(1333-1356) Dawud ibn Suleiman (same as 21st, brother of previous)

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Mecca and when he came back, this Daut handed over the kingdom to him because it belonged to him.

ARABIC VERSION

was fourteen years old. He stayed at Aden for two years in order to study spiritual science. He became most proficient and excelled in all branches of knowledge. He was famous for his generosity and courage. There are many famous stories about him. Then he made the pilgrimage from Aden to Mecca. He was then sixteen years old (1309 or 1310AD). I do not know the circumstances, but will deduce them ... (lacuna). (His mother) hid her son Abu'l - Mawahib behind a screen, so that he could hear what his brother said when he came. She sent for her son Da'ud to come, and, when he arrived, said; What will be your position when you brother returns from the Hijaz? This is the time for him to come. What is to be done when he returns from the Hijaz? Da'ud replied: There will be no quarrel between us when he comes. The land is his land and I shall obey him. I am his deputy until he comes, if that is God's will. She made him confirm this and swear to it. Then, when she had obtained his promises, she swept back the screen and said: Show yourself to your brother! And his brother came out to him, and Da’ud stood up and greeted him in the formal manner one greets royalty. Then he handed over the land to his brother. The latter thanked him for the way he had acted. Then the ruler said: Remain here now as ruler, and I will return to my ship. I shall visit you tomorrow. The following morning he entered in state and his brother willingly handed over his land to him. When he was established he revenged his father on the people of Mafia, and fought and overcame them. He was the first king to rule Mafia independently until our times. God knows all truth! During the reign of al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman the Friday Mosque collapsed (1). There remained nothing save the famous dome in which he was wont to pray. The mosque remained in ruins and the people prayed under shelters

(1) Friday Mosque collapsed: the fact that it did not get repaired is a sign of big problems in the kingdom. As it was still standing during Ibn Battuta’s visit; it must have collapsed in the last couple of years of al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman. Also the new palace of this sultan; the Husuni Kubwa was never finished and soon after abandoned. And during this 14th century many rich people left Kilwa Kisiwani to go to the neighboring island of Songo Mnara where they in the 15th century build a magnificent stonetown.

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ARABIC VERSION

and tents until the time of Sultan Sulaiman ibn al - Malik al - Adil who was surnamed al- Matar al - Jadid (The New Rain), as will be set out, please God. There are many celebrated stories about him, but we have abbreviated them for fear of becoming prolix. He (sc. al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman) reigned fourteen years (1) and then died.

DE BARROS

As he (sc. al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman) had no sons, the former king (sc. Da'ud ibn Sulaiman)(2) returned again. Those previous two years during which he had reigned had been in the absence of Hacen, because he had gone to Mecca, and, when he came back, this Daut handed over the kingdom to him because it belonged to him. The second reign of this Daut lasted twenty - four years.

ARABIC VERSION

He (sc. al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman) reigned fourteen years (1). When he died, he was succeeded by his brother Da'ud (2) previously mentioned. He was a devout king: he was a master of theological argument. His reign was twenty - four days (sic).

(1) DE BARROS on p 95 has 24 years; this figure is more generally accepted.

(2) Ibn Battuta also mentions that Da’ud was his successor. And adds that he was not giving any gifts to anybody. Which might be another symptom of big problems in the country. The Album Stephen list books the coins of Da'ud b. Sulayman as 14^th century. He fits nicely in the chronology given by J. Perkins, 2014, p. 219-233. JEFFREY FLEISHER, STEPHANIE WYNNE-JONES (2010) do so and date him: 1316-1318AD and 1341-1364.

Freeman-Grenville 1962 spends many pages trying to prove that the invasions from Pate (in northern Kenya) concurring the whole of the Swahili coast bringing it under the rule of the Nabhan Sultans of Oman who had immigrated to Pate was an important factor in the deterioration of the Kilwa Sultanate.

However Neville Chittick  argues with as basis the archaeological results that Pate in those days (14th century) was still way to small to conquer a coastal stretch from Mogadishu to Kilwa. (A New Look at the History of Pate by Neville Chittick in The Journal of African History, Vol. 10, No. 3 (1969), pp. 375-391).

One of Freeman-Grenville arguments is that Burton called a mosque in Songo Mnara the Nabahani Mosque; however the Nabahani probably arrived in East Africa from Oman no earlier than the 16^th century – at least 200 years after this mosque was built (Horton, M. 2017. ‘East Africa and Oman c.600-1856', in al-Salimi, A. & Staples, E. (eds.): The Ports of Oman.)

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He (sc. Da'ud ibn Sulaiman) was succeeded by his son Sulaiman who reigned only twenty days (1), since the kingdom was usurped from him by his uncle Hacen (al - Husain ibn Sulaiman I) who reigned six years and a half. As he had no sons, he was succeeded by his nephew Talut, the brother of Sulaiman, who reigned one year.

ARABIC VERSION

He (sc. Da'ud ibn Sulaiman III) was deposed by al - Husain ibn Sulaiman al – Matun (2), who ruled for six and a half years. Then he went to war with the pagans of al – Muli (3). He carried on a holy war and died a martyr (4). There succeeded him Talut ibn al - Husain, whose reign was two years, four months and fourteen days. He journeyed to Mecca and left as his regent his son al - Husain ibn Sulaiman, nicknamed Hasha Hazifiki (5). When he came near to Manfisah he died and was buried in the village of Tuwaka (6) in the tomb of Faqih Da'ud who shares a pillar tomb with Faqih Isa ibn Tamin (7).

(1) Sulaiman who reigned only twenty days: one more reason given for the decline of Kilwa in this period is the unstable government of which this Sultan is an example and another is driven into exile.

(2) Matun: His epithet: al - Matun means: The Pierced, and is taken by Walker as a reference to his death, that it was by stabbing.

(3) Muli: the mainland.

(4) al - Husain ibn Sulaiman al – Matun who died a martyr fighting the idolaters of the mainland: it is generally accepted that he went slave-raiding just like Ibn Battuta mentions about one of his predecessors.

(5) Hasha Hazifiki: Meaning: the one who did not arrive; it is the nickname not of the son but of the father Talut ibn al – Husain.

(6) Sir John Gray noted that there is no Tuwaka on Mafia, but there is one (called Chwaka) close to Mombasa (=Manfisah?) and there is a pillar tomb. But no indication that it dates to the 14^th century. But Chwaka is a common place name that occurs on Mafia, Zanzibar and Pemba.

(7) A tomb of two Faqih on Manfisah: as a Faqih is someone with a university education in Islamic Science this shows the depth of Islamic learning on the Swahili coast in the 14^th century.

Sultans

24-(1356) Suleiman ibn Dawud (son of previous)

25-(1356-1362) Hussein ibn Suleiman al-Mat'un (uncle of previous)

26-(1362-1364) Talut ibn Dawud (nephew of previous, brother of earlier Suleiman). Here the two years of the Arabic version instead of the one year of the de Barros version is used.

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Then another brother, likewise called Sulaiman, reigned for two years and four months, after which he was driven out by his uncle, another Sulaiman (1), who reigned twenty-four years, four months and twenty days.

He was succeeded by his son Hacen, who reigned twenty - four years.

ARABIC VERSION

Then his son (1) and regent al - Husain ibn Sulaiman already mentioned became ruler. After a few days he set out for Mecca and performed the pilgrimage and venerated the tomb of the prophet. He returned home safely. He reigned twenty - three years. Then he died. It is not known who his regent was when he went to Mecca. God knows all truth.

(1) DE BARROS has it more correctly as al - Husain ibn Sulaiman can not be the son of Talut ibn al – Husain. According to Freeman-Grenville 1962 he minted coins but his name is not found on the Album Stephen list. And also not by J. Perkins, 2014, p. 219-233. JEFFREY FLEISHER, STEPHANIE WYNNE-JONES (2010) do not show him either.

Note: the father of Sultan al - Malik al - Adil was called Sulaiman ibn al – Husain and it seems to be he was also a Sultan as he minted coins; JEFFREY FLEISHER, STEPHANIE WYNNE-JONES (2010). They date him 1372-1374AD.

Sultans

27-(1364-1366) Suleiman ibn Dawud (brother of previous, 2nd reign)

28- (1366-1389) Suleiman ibn Hussein (uncle of previous)

29- (1389-1412) Hussein ibn Suleiman (son of previous) - ruled 23 years =Arabic version

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After him (sc. al - Husain ibn Sulaiman II) there came his brother Mahamed Ladil, who reigned nine years.

ARABIC VERSION

Chapter Four. The reign of al - Malik al- Adil surnamed al - Mațar al - Jadid (the New Rain).

The Sultan al - Malik al - Adil Muhammad ibn Sulaiman ibn al – Husain (1). (Lacuna). Then Sabhat was agreed as Amir (1) and the other notables of the government. (Lacuna). Sultan Muhammad ibn Sulaiman reigned twenty - two years (2) and then died in the mercy of God. After his death there remained the Wazir Sulaiman and the Amir Muhammad ibn Sulaiman (3). (Lacuna).

(1) Sultan al - Malik al - Adil Muhammad ibn Sulaiman ibn al – Husain: al-Adil; meaning ‘The Just’.

He minted coins; J. Walker (1939):

-Obv. Al-’Adil Muhammad al-Sulian

 Rev. al Zafir bi ta'yid al’Rahman (Conqueror by the help of the Merciful). I did not find a picture yet.

The Album Stephen list has Muhammad b. Sulayman 14^th century. He is not found in J. Perkins, 2014, p. 219-233. JEFFREY FLEISHER, STEPHANIE WYNNE-JONES (2010). They date him: 1421-1430AD.

Of his coins 515 have been found in Somalia. Few in all other places. His coins are also mentioned by: Freeman-Grenville 1960: East African Coin Finds …. (and dated 1412-1421). Freeman-Grenville 1962 does not mention him; maybe because mainly found in Somalia. He is the last sultan to mint coins in his own name. The next and last coin from Kilwa is an imitation of a Rasulid coin. A clear sign things are going wrong in the Sultanate.

(2) r1412-1421AD

(3) Here for the first time the offices of Amir and Wazir are mentioned. From now on they will become more and more powerful.

Elias Saad in Kilwa Dynastic Historiography 1979 gives a different translation and interpretation for this paragraph:

He is al-Sultan al-Malik al-Adil Muhammad b. Sulaiman b. al-Husain. Then Sabhati; When he took charge of the emirate (tawalla al-imara), the world (al-dunya) came to him and the great men of the state followed him (inqadat lahu). Al-Sultan Muhammad al-Adil remained on the throne (fi’l-mulk) twenty-two years then passed to God's mercy. Al-Wazir Sulaiman and al-Amir Muhammad b. Sulaiman remained together [in the vizierate and the emirate respectively] after him.

Sultans

30-(1412-1421) Muhammad ibn Suleiman al-Adil (al-Malik al-Adil, Mahamed Ladil, brother of previous)

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Sulaiman, his son, who succeeded him, reigned for twenty - two years.

ARABIC VERSION

In the time of Sultan Sulaiman ibn al - Malik al - Adil historians say that the Friday Mosque, which collapsed in the reign of Abu'l – Mawahib (1), was restored. The prime mover was Sayyid Hajj Rush ibn Sultan Husain who was nicknamed Hasha Hazifiki (2). He asked Sultan Sulaiman permission to rebuild it at his own expense. Permission was not given, but the sovereign gave him a thousand mithkals (3) of gold and said: Rebuild the mosque with this money (4)

(1) Abu'l – Mawahib: the one visited by Ibn Battuta. It must have been shortly after Ibn Battuta’s visit that it collapsed.

(2) Hasha Hazifiki: (the one who did not arrive) this is the second person to bear this nick-name.

His father was: Husain b. Sulaiman (d1389) known as Husain Hazifiki; who had three sons: of which the non-reigning brother was Sayyid Hajj Rush b. Husain Hazifiki. And he had fulfilled the Hajj to Mecca.

Anecdote: in the Ann. Rasulid Chronicle (of 1439) is mentioned what might have been the arrival at Mecca of this Sayyid Hajj Rush b. Husain Hazifiki: During Higga 836AH (1433)AD the nakoda (=shipowner) of a ship from Kilwa with merchants from Mecca was welcomed. (Higga: Dhu al-Hijjah also spelled Zu al-Hijjah, is the twelfth and final month in the Islamic calendar.)

(3) mithkal: about 5gr of gold. Or a total of 5kg of gold which would be today (2023): 325.000 US dollar. What this meant for Kilwa who had at its highest peak 6000 inhabitants we can not say as we do not know the value of gold at that moment.

Ibn Battuta when visiting mentions: The city of Kilwa is amongst the most beautiful of cities and elegantly built. All of it is of wood. Freeman-Grenville 1962 suggests to replace: min al-khashb (of wood) by min al-hasb (with elegance); two words that look very similar in Arabic. 

(4) As both men had the money readily available it seems impossible that repairs did not happen earlier.

Floorplan of the Great Mosque of Kilwa.

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ARABIC VERSION

And Sayyid Hajj Rush meditated the matter and said to himself: Unless I take this money permission to rebuild the mosque will be refused. Thus it is best to accept the money, but I shall rebuild it at my own expense. So he took the money, and rebuilt it at his own expense until it was complete. When Sultan Sulaiman died, Hajj Rush returned the money to his heirs. It was done thus under God's guidance. When the mosque was being restored, they lacked wood to rebuild the pillars. For the original pillars were of cut stone, and there were now no masons who could reassemble them as they were previously. (1) This had perplexed them and had prevented the restoration. But by Divine Providence a great tree was cast up on shore, of exactly the right length. The people recognised the hand of Divine Providence, for the tree was complete with its root and branches. They made pillars for the front part of the mosque from the root, and there were seven pillars in all. From the branches they made rafters and crossbeams for the front part and the two wings. At the back they built domes in imitation of the dome of Abu'l - Mawahib as aforesaid. The author himself has seen the man who saw the tree as mentioned, and he is Sultan Muhammad ibn Sultan al - Husain ibn Sultan Sulaiman. The latter (sc. Sulaiman) gave the order for the rebuilding of the mosque, while the first - named ordered the writing of this history (2). God knows all truth.

Tentative chronology without excavation from Freeman-Grenville 1962.

I. A simple mosque, with a flat roof or perhaps unroofed: Da’ud ibn Sulaiman I (1131-1170).

II. An elaboration and extension of this mosque, with cut stone pillars, domes and barrel vaults, the pillars being constructed with a special technique: the building of the small mosque near the palace and that of Sanje Magoma: al-Hasan ibn Ţalut (1277–1294).

III. Collapse of the whole roof and the pillars of the front part: after Ibn Battuta's visit in 1331, but during the reign of al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman III (1310–1333).

IV. Restoration with wooden pillars in the front part and new domes, less decorated than in period II, throughout: Muhammad ibn Sulaiman ibn al – Husain (1412-1421) and Sulaiman ibn Muhammad (1421-1442)

(2) The Arabic version now begins to bear the mark of personal recollection by the author, and the Muhammad ibn al - Husain of this passage is the Sultan of Kilwa, the witness to the finding of the tree which served to make pillars for the Friday Mosque and the sultan who ordered the writing of the history.

But earlier has been mentioned: The writer of this book was born on the 2nd Shawwal, 904 A. H., which began on a Monday, in the time of Sultan Fudail and the Amir Ibrahim.

Here now we have (according to Adrien Delmas in his: Writing in Africa: The Kilwa Chronicle ….):

This remark certainly seems to indicate the existence of an earlier text. Indeed, the reconstruction of the Great Mosque of Kilwa, which is confirmed archaeologically, dates from the reign of Sulayman b. Muhammad (1421–1442). We could then be dealing with a chronicle that was written and rewritten on different occasions, by scribes whose function was not only to reproduce an identical manuscript, but also to complete it.  However, given Ibrahim’s age when he reascended the throne in 1512, i.e. no less than eighty years old, it is quite plausible that he is both the son of the Sultan who had the Mosque rebuilt and, at the same time, the person sponsoring this genealogical work after the departure of the Portuguese, certainly with a view to ensuring that no future intruder would be able to modify his genealogy at will.

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ARABIC VERSION

When Sulaiman ibn al - Malik al - Adil died, the government passed to two rival claimants of equal birth. The Amir Muhammad already mentioned wished to exclude the sons of Sultan Muhammad and his agnates from the sultanate. These were the father of Sultan Muhammad ibn al - Husain and his paternal uncles. The amir, wazir and the whole people preponderated in favour of rejecting them and setting up Sultan Isma'il ibn Sultan al- Husain ibn Sultan Sulaiman. His Wazir was Sulaiman and his Amir the aforementioned Muhammad. (1)

DE BARROS

As he (sc. Sulaiman ibn Muhammad) had no sons (2), his uncle Ismael ben Hacen reigned for fourteen years.

DE BARROS

After his (sc. Isma’il ibn al - Husain's) death, the governor of the kingdom set himself up as king, but stayed in power for no more than one year, because the people made the governor of the kingdom king, and he was in power for only one year.

(1) In the last half of the fifteenth century:

-the reigns of the sultans have an average of four and a half year each.

-there was one full civil war and one attempt at it.

-the important dependency of Sofala made itself independent.

(2) Freeman-Grenville 1962: De Barros is wrong in his statement that Sulaiman ibn Muhammad had no sons. Two of them reached the throne, Ahmad ibn Sulaiman (1455–1456) and al - Fuḍail (1495 – following). In addition, another son, Sayyid Hasan, is mentioned in the fourth chapter of the Arabic version, as well as al - Husain in the passage immediately above.

Sultans

32-(1442-1454) Ismail ibn Hussein (uncle of previous)

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ARABIC VERSION

When Sultan Isma'il died, Maulana (1) Sa'id ibn Sultan al - Hasan arose and disputed the throne. He had no supporters within the kingdom, and so bethought to go and seek the support of the Sultan of Zanzibar. Arrived there, he greeted Sultan al - Hasan ibn Sultan Abu Bakr and desired him to join him in his dispute of the throne with the people of Kilwa. And he agreed to do so. Then Sayyid Sa'id married the mother of Sultan al - Hasan aforesaid. Now in the land of Zanzibar there was an amir named Zubair. And they set off to Kilwa to dispute Sayyid (2) Sa'id's claim, and the news came to the people of Kilwa. The Amir Muhammad, who has already been mentioned, sent a messenger to the Amir Zubair with a hundred mithkals (3) of gold, saying: This money is sent by Sultan Isma'il to help you not to make war upon him. He was dishonest, and let the preparations for war diminish. So Sayyid Sa'id disembarked at Kilwa with four ships, and Sultan Isma'il declared him an outlaw, and promised a reward for whomever would bring him his head. When Sayyid Sa'id arrived at Kilwa, he went to the house of the Qaḍi Muhammad to gain his support. He went in disguise. He heard the Qaḍi say to his son Sulaiman: Sulaiman, take care not to miss his head; that is, the head of Sa'id. When Sayyid Sa'id heard this, he went and hid himself at the tomb of the Muedhin Lughajuu (4) and took refuge there. And the country was upset by him. Then the Sultan ordered that he should be deprived of all his possessions and they determined to kill him. When the people learnt this, they were concerned about him. And Sayyid Hasan ibn Sultan Sulaiman, who was the uncle of Sultan Muhammad ibn al - Husain aforementioned, went out to him and took him under his protection and then conducted him to Sultan Isma'il. And Sultan Isma'il forgave Sayyid Sa'id. He remained in hiding in his own house for four years until Sultan Isma'il died. After him there ruled the Sultan Muhammad who will now be mentioned. When Isma'il died, the Wazir Sulaiman and the Amir Muhammad discussed which of them should be given the kingdom. And the Wazir Sulaiman said: Today there is no one fit for the throne but one of our two selves, either you or I. The Wazir Sulaiman realized that the people favoured the Amir Muhammad ibn Sulaiman: so he supported him and swore fealty to him as Sultan, since he was more influential and wealthy. The Amir Muhammad was elected Sultan. It is not the custom for Amirs to rule the kingdom, but this man was an exception on account of the weakness of the kings and the scarcity of wealth. And he planned to oppose the children of the Sultan, as we have recounted. The Amir Muhammad ruled for one year. The Wazir Sulaiman predeceased him by a few days and Muhammad gave the wazirate to the Sayyid Sa'id already spoken of. Then the aforesaid Sultan Muhammad died. God knows all truth. (End of Chapter Four.)

(1) Maulana means ‘our lord’ and refers to a religious leader.

(2) Sayyed: is an honorific title denoting people accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

(3) mithkal: about 5gr of gold.

(4) Muedhin Lughajuu (= a nickname). Muadhin: The Muslim official of a mosque who summons the faithful to prayer from a minaret five times a day. Lughajuu = talk without due thought. Judging by the other nicknames which occur, this explanation would seem not unlikely. It would seem that his tomb was a place of sanctuary, and presumably it had a small oratory attached and for Sa'id to be able to hide himself some sort of covered building seems indicated. (Freeman-Grenville 1962).

Sultans

33- (1454) vizier Suleiman (vizier of previous)

34- (1454-1455) Muhammad ibn al-Hussein ibn Muhammad ibn Suleiman al-Mazlum ('Emir Muhammad', noble co-conspirator with previous)

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(The Governor was in power for only one year) because they chose as king a poor man named Mamude (=Mahmud), since he was of royal lineage, but his reign only lasted one year because of his poverty. Then they set up as king Hacen, the son of the former king Ismail, who reigned ten years. His son Çayde (1) reigned another ten years.

ARABIC VERSION

Chapter Five: the return of the throne to the house of Abu'l - Mawahib. When Sultan Muhammad died, Sultan Ahmad ibn Sulaiman succeeded; he appointed Sa'id as Wazir (2) and as Amir (2) Sulaiman ibn Sultan Muhammad al – Madlum (3), who had been Amir under his father. On his death Sultan Hasan ibn Isma'il succeeded, with Sa'id as Wazir and Sulaiman as Amir, for a period of ten years. (Lacuna) During the reign of Sultan Sa'id there arrived King Mas'ud, the son of King al - Mu'ayyad al – Ghassany (4), the deposed Sultan of Aden (5) al – Mahrus (6). He had been forcibly deposed by Sultan Ali ibn Tahir (7), who rose against him from the country of Jabin al - Mahrus (8). The reason was that he had suffered from the tyrannical and brutal conduct of king Mu'ayyad the father of Sultan al - Mas'ud.  Ali ibn Tahir was Shaikh of a tribe in his land of Jabin; and, having suffered from oppression and baseness, he left and went to Mecca the renowned. He performed the pilgrimage. He moved completely from his own land and was accompanied by Sharif Ali ibn Sufian of the people of Taibat (?), who had suffered base treatment of a similar nature. When they reached Mecca the renowned, they performed both the greater and the lesser pilgrimage. This done, they set out for the holy city of Medina to venerate the tomb of the Apostle of God (on whom be peace) together with those there. And they wished to be made servants of the tomb of the Prophet together with the servants there. The servants of the tomb of the Prophet agreed and accepted them among their number, and for a time they served at the sacred tomb. Then, when Almighty God will it for Ali ibn Tahir, he saw in his sleep the Apostle of God. And he said: Arise, Ali, and go, take Yemen. And Ali awoke from his sleep and told his companion of the vision, and asked him: Tell me, did you see what I saw? And his companion answered: No.

(1) Çayde: in the translation of Gabriel Ferrand (1928) is given: Sa'id (çayde) [bin Husayn].

(2) Wazir: in English vizier meaning: minister; Amir: prince or here governor.

(3) Amir Sulaiman usurped the throne: his father had held it a year, and no doubt he took this as a precedent. De Barros calls him a tyrant, while later the Arabic version refers to him as al - Maḍlum, an expression difficult to interpret, since properly it means ' oppressed '. (Freeman-Grenville 1962).

(4) al Malik al-Mu'ayyad al-Husayn b. Tahir was the last Raasulid Sultan. (r1451-1454).  al – Ghassany was the name of the first Rasulid Sultan.

(5) About the deposed king of Aden: al - Mas'ud, to Kilwa. The text explains that he came because he had made friends with Sultan Sa'id ibn al - Hasan (1466-76) when, as a lad, he had gone on the pilgrimage in company with his father Sultan al - Hasan (1456-1466). "They had been friends since that time and understand each other." (Freeman-Grenville 1962).

These events are also found in: Abu Makhrama : Kiladat al-nahr (Chronicle-biographical dictionary) (1521-2) from Yemen.

(6) Aden al – Mahrus: Aden; protected by God.

(7) Sultan Ali ibn Tahir: second Tahir Sultan of Yemen (r1460–1479).

(8) Jabin al – Mahrus: Jubin district in central Yemen.

Sultans

35-(1455-1456) Ahmad ibn Suleiman (son of the late vizier?)

36-(1456-1466) al-Hassan ibn Ismail (son of 32nd sultan Ismail)

37-(1466-1476) Sa'id ibn al-Hassan/Hussein (son of previous, according to Barros; same old pretender (cf. 32nd) according to Zanzibar chronicle)

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On the second night, and again the third night, he saw the vision. So he spoke and said to Sharif Ali ibn Sufian: This sign is for you, for you are kin to the Apostle of God, peace be on him. Ali ibn Sufian replied: It is you who are intended by this sign. And they did not cease arguing until they had reached a formal agreement, and promised and swore on oath before the tomb of the Apostle of God, may he be exalted, to go together to Yemen: and whichever should gain the kingdom would appoint the other his Wazir until the end of his reign. Then they set off for Yemen, where they learnt of the death of al - Mu'ayyad and that his son, King al - Mas'ud, as previously mentioned, reigned in his stead. His rule had already become weak and most districts were in revolt. He was at that time in the land of Aden Al - Mahrus. When Ali ibn Tahir and Abu Sufian arrived, the people gathered together and swore fealty to Ali ibn Tahir as the lawful successor, having deposed Mas'ud from power over the kingdom. And Ali ibn Tahir sent his brother Amir ibn Tahir (1) with a great army to Aden al- Mahrus. When Mas'ud saw this, he shut the gates of the town on himself, and fortified it to fight Amir ibn Tahir. Then Amir ibn Ţahir went to the defenders of the citadel and they swore fealty. Then the commander of the fortress of al – Taffakar (2), which overlooks the iron gate which leads inland, let down a rope of clothes; and Amir tied himself to it and they pulled him up into the fort of al - Tafakkar. So the commander of the Tafakkar fort successfully helped Ali ibn Tahir and his brother. When the defenders of the wall learned that Ali ibn Tahir and Amir ibn Ţahir had succeeded, they supported them. Sultan Mas'ud learned of it and realised that he was disgraced before the people of his country. So he left the town and fled to Zeila and thence to al – Mahzat (3). And when he learnt that Sultan Sa'id ruled in Kilwa he determined to visit him because he had been his friend ever since he had been in Aden when Sultan Sa'id made the pilgrimage with his father Sultan Hasan ibn Sultan Sulaiman. (4) They had been friends since that time and understood each other. When he heard the kingdom had devolved on him, he resolved to renew their friendship and affection. For it is a custom of sovereigns in such circumstances to resort to other kingdoms to seek help and support. So when he arrived at Kilwa, he met Sultan Sa'id who had now succeeded to the throne. He received him with every honour, treated him generously and gave him many rich presents. Then Mas'ud returned to the land of al - Mahzat, but returned again (to Kilwa) in the reign of Sultan Sulaiman ibn Sultan Muhammad al - Madlum. He was not received with the generosity of his first visit. The great men of Kilwa told him: Do not return again, for the country has changed and the people are exhausted. Do not come to us lest we and your own self be disgraced. So he made up his mind to go to India and settled there and became father of a family. And Ali ibn Tahir ruled as King of Yemen and all its lands and people as rightful monarch, reigning over the people of the land of the Apostle of God, on whom be God's grace and peace. He kept his promise to Ali ibn Sufian when he obtained power. And their children intermarried and we ourselves are witnesses to it.

(1) Amir ibn Tahir: First Tahir Sultan of Yemen (r. 1454–1460).

(2) fortress of al – Taffakar: Tafakur means contemplation. It is unknown which fort is meant. The translation by Strong has Ta'akkur which means slowness, backwardness.

(3) al – Mahzat: unknown must be close to Zeila.

(4) Sultan Sa’id ibn Hasan ibn Sulaiman: The pilgrimage of his father is also mentioned by (see my webpage) Muhammad al Fasi, Maliki in Shifa'al Gharam bi-akhbar al-Bilad al Haram. (Good tidings of the Holy Place). He was Qadi at Mecca (d1429-30). His text reads:

In the year 813AH (1410-11) al Malik al Mansur Hassan ibn (al Malik) al-Mu’ayyad Sulayman ibn (al Malik al-Malik...) al Husayn (1), the Lord of Kilwa (Sahib Kilwa) made the pilgrimage. And gave gifts to the prominent men of the Haram (al-Sharif)(4) and lingered for a time after the pilgrimage, and then went by sea in the course of the journey to the land of Yaman, so as to go from there to his own country via Aden.

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DE BARROS

(Sc. On Sa'id's death) the governor (=Amir) of the place wished to set himself up as king, and remained in power for one year. During this time he made his brother Mamude governor. This man had three sons. Since the tyrant was afraid of his nephews, because they were very good men, he sent them from Kilwa to govern the lands subject to it, and Sofala was allotted to one of them named Yçuf (1), whom we shall mention at length later, because he was lord of that land when Pero d'Anhaya went there to build a fort, as we shall see later.

ARABIC VERSION

Then Sultan Sa'id of Kilwa died and there was much confusion about the succession. The Amir Sulaiman prevailed, and made his brother Muhammad Amir. He ruled for one year and a half.

(1) the translation of Gabriel Ferrand (1928) has Yusuf (Içuf). On my webpage on Sofala Yusuf is also mentioned. And there might be a chance his tomb is still visible. (The Archaeology of the Sofala Coast by R. W. Dickinson in: The South African Archaeological Bulletin, 1975)

Sultans

38-(1476-1477) Suleiman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn ('Vizier Suleiman')

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DE BARROS

In place of this tyrant, the people set up as king Habedala (1), brother of the former king Çaide (sc. Sa'id ibn al - Hasan), who remained on the throne a year and a half. And after him his brother Ale (Ali bin Hasan)(2) reigned for the same length of time.

ARABIC VERSION

After him (sc. Amir Sulaiman ibn Muhammad) there ruled Sultan Abdullah ibn al- Khatib Hasan (2). His Wazir was al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman and his Amir Muhammad Kiwab (3). His reign lasted a year and a half. He was succeeded by his brother Ali ibn al - Khatib al – Hasan (2), with al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman as his Wazir and as his Amir the previously mentioned (sc. Muhammad Kiwab). He reigned for a year and a half.

(1) Habedala: Abdallah [bin Hasan]

(2) al-Hasan ibn Isma'il (1456-1466), had held office as the Friday Preacher: the fact is mentioned incidentally in naming his sons who also reigned, Abdullah ibn al - Khatib al - Hasan (1477–78), and Ali ibn al - Khatib al - Hasan (1478-79). He is not the Sultan who minted the coins as Freeman-Grenville 1962 wrongly mentions. It seems to be a Sultan Ali ibn al Hasan from the 10^th-11^th century. The Album Stephen list mentions the coins of Ali b.  Al-Hasan as being from the 13th century. Also J. Perkins, 2014, p. 219-233 mentions this name also as the oldest Sultan of the chronology. JEFFREY FLEISHER, STEPHANIE WYNNE-JONES (2010). They date him: late 11th century.

(3) Kiwabi: the powerfull.

Sultans

39-(1477-1478) Abdullah ibn al-Hassan (brother of 37th sultan Sa'id)

40- (1478-1479) Ali ibn Hassan (brother of previous)

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DE BARROS

On his death (sc. Ali ibn al - Hasan) the governor of the kingdom forcibly set up as king one Hacem (=Husayn), the son of the former governor, who was made king with the object that the said governor might be more absolute than the man who was in his hands.

Nevertheless the people did not agree to this and set up as king as soon as possible a member of the royal family called Xumbo (or Sumbo) (1), who held the position for only one year.

Then the former ruler rebelled, but after five years he was deposed. In his place they set up Habraemo (=Ibrahim), the son of the deceased

ARABIC VERSION

Chapter Six: The reign of al - Hasan son of the Wazir Sulaiman ibn al - Malik al - Adil ibn Wazir Yarik and the story of the Wazir Muhammad Kiwab, the son aforementioned of Sultan al – Madlum (2). Thereafter the royal line was carried on by clan of the Wazirs. The Wazir al - Hasan ibn al - Wazir Sulaiman ibn al - Wazir Yarik became ruler. The aforesaid Amir Muhammad Kiwab put him in power because he was opposed to the royal line. Al - Hasan ruled six years and was then overthrown by the Amir Muhammad Kiwab. During his reign the Wazirate was suspended. He stopped his reign and set up after him Sultan Sabhat ibn al - Malik al- Adil (1). He reigned for one year and then died. Power thus returned to al - Hasan, who was restored by the Amir Muhammad Kiwab, for the reason already given. He ruled for five years. During his reign there was confusion among the people of the land. The Khatib (3) Sabhat and the commander Sulaiman and his brother and son and the Muhtasib (4) and Sayyid Zubair ibn Sayyid Rush set out together and travelled to the Holy City of Mecca and arrived there. They made the pilgrimage and the little pilgrimage, and venerated the tomb of the Prophet, may God exalt him! When they had completed the prescribed prayers, they besought Almighty God that they might return to their own land, and said: O God, if it is to our good, make it easy for us, and, if it is not so, thou knows what is best for us. And Almighty God heard their prayer. The commander Sulaiman died there in Mecca and his brother in Kamaran (5). The Muhtasib died in another town, and the Khatib in Aden. Not one of them returned to Kilwa except Sayyid Rush and the son of the commander Sulaiman (6). Then Sultan Hasan was deposed by the Amir Muhammad Kiwab a second time, and he put in power Sultan Ibrahim ibn al - Malik

(1) Xumbo (or Sumbo) of De Barros = Sultan Sabhat ibn al - Malik al- Adil of the Arabic version.

(2) about al-Madlum: see note 3 p130

(3) Khatib: the office as the Friday Preacher

(4) Muhtasib : Also called 'amil al-suq or sahib al-suq, the muhtasib was a supervisor of bazaars and trade, the inspector of public places and behavior in towns in the medieval Islamic countries, appointed by the sultan, imam, or other political authority.

(5) Kamaran: Island of Yemen in the Red Sea.

(6) We have here an often-observed phenomenon: all kinds of epidemics decimating the pilgrims on their way home. 

Sultans

41-(1479-1485) al-Hassan ibn Suleiman (son of vizier Suleiman)

42-(1485-1486) Sabhat ibn Muhammad ibn Suleiman ('Xumbo', a scion of royal lineage, son of 31st sultan, al-Adil)

43-(1486-1490) al-Hassan ibn Suleiman (second time)

44-(1490-1495) Ibrahim ibn Muhammad (brother of Sabhat, another son of al-Adil) 5 year rule taken from Arabic version; de Barros has 2 year.

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DE BARROS

Sultan Mamude (sc. Ahmad ibn Sulaiman). But he was deposed after two years.

ARABIC VERSION

al - Adil who ruled for five years. During his reign the deposed al – Hasan (1) wished to return to the throne, but the Amir Muhammad would not agree to his restoration, because Hasan was of the house of the Wazirs only, whereas the ruler in power was of royal descent. When Hasan realised that the Amir Muhammad and the people of the land would not agree to his restoration, he stirred up dissension in the country. War and fighting took place between the two factions, and many were slain. And when the deposed al - Hasan had been beaten, he fled from the war to the country of Kiliyah (2). There he dwelt for three years. After this the Amir Muhammad deposed Sultan Ibrahim and made himself ruler and mounted in a palanquin whilst the people stood before him. He was mentioned as ruler three times in the Friday prayers. He is not known to have had an Amir. Then he abdicated and there ruled Sultan Fudail ibn Sultan Sulaiman, whose history, if God will, we shall now relate. (End of Chapter Six).

(1) al - Hasan ibn Sulaiman IV: he had been Sultan two times previous.

(2) Kiliyah: not identified but all authors put it not far from Kilwa.

Sultans

45-(1495) Muhammad ibn Kiwab ('Emir Muhammad Kiwabi', the powerful emir)

46-(1495-1499) al-Fudail ibn Suleiman ('Alfudail', nephew of Ibrahim, thus of royal blood)

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DE BARROS

And they set up in his (sc. Ibrahim ibn Muhammad's) place his nephew Alfudail, who did not reign long. His governor did not want to make a king and held the kingdom in his power with the intention of keeping it for a son of the deceased king Sulaiman (sc. Sulaiman ibn Muhammad), who was a kinsman of the said Alfudail, who left no children save a son by a slave woman. We shall mention this son later, as it chanced he became king of the town when it had become ours (=Portuguese). Although this Habraemo (= Ibrahim) was absolute lord of the city, the people did not call him king, but only Mir Habraemo (= Amir Ibrahim). (End of de Barros version).

Note: Gabriel Ferrand in his LES SULTANS DE KILWA (Mémorial Henri Basset p239-256) still adds a paragraph from other Portuguese documents.

If anything came to this tyrant's aid (= Amir Ibrahim), it was the way he behaved in his dealings with Pedralvares Cabral, Joao da Nova and Admiral Vasco da Gama. And this made his usurpation accepted by the people. Although D. Francisco de Almeida did not have detailed knowledge of the genealogical list of these kings of Kilwa, as we report it, he nevertheless knew from Muhammad Rokn ad-din (Mahamed Anconij)(1) that the people were not very satisfied with this [Amir] Ibrahim and how they all desired to have a king who was closer related to their true royal family; this is why they suffered [from being governed by this tyrant]

ARABIC VERSION

Chapter Seven: The reign of Sultan Fudail ibn Sultan Sulaiman ibn al - Malik al- Adil, who was the uncle of Sultan Muhammad ibn al - Husain aforementioned, and the rest of the history of the Amir Kiwab, and the celebrated Amir Ibrahim, and the rest of the story of the Amir Hasan, and how the Franks came to Kilwa. When Amir Muhammad Kiwab abdicated, Sultan Fudail ibn Sulaiman took power and his reign was one year (sic), and began in the Friday year (2), being 901 years (3) after the flight of the Prophet - Peace and blessings be on him! And when the deposed al- Hasan heard of al - Fudail's accession, he made preparations at Kiliyah to make war on Kilwa. When he arrived at Maghamghub (4), there came Kimama (5) Ali a son of the Sultan of Zanzibar, on behalf of his brother the lord of Zanzibar. He went as ambassador to Fudail and to the Amir Muhammad Kiwab as a peacemaker between them and the deposed al - Hasan who desired to regain power. The ambassador arrived at Kilwa and presented himself before Fudail and the Amir Muhammad and communicated his brother's message, requesting peace and that the throne be returned to the deposed al- Hasan. And the Amir Muhammad Kiwab and all the people of Kilwa replied that the ruler of Kilwa was of the royal line, while the pretender was of the house of the Wazirs. Why should he be deposed in favour of the other? This was quite impossible. We only set al - Hasan on the throne when we had need of him, but that need exists no longer. But we agree to your offer of peace, and to allow him entry into the town as a subject of the sultan. Other than this we do not agree. Then they told the ambassador: Go and tell him this decision. If he agrees, let him come; if not, let him never return. The ambassador went away to take him these news, and stayed a few days. And while he was there, before he got back to Kilwa bringing the reply, the Amir Muhammad Kiwab died, and his death took place in the year which began on a Saturday (A. H. 902)(6). Fudail continued to rule from the beginning of the quarrel with the deposed al - Hasan, which began in the time of Sultan Ibrahim and the Amir Muhammad Kiwab, and continued under Sultan Fudail and the Amir Muhammad, and ended under Sultan Fudail and the Amir Ibrahim. The Amir Muhammad Kiwab was Amir for fifteen years. When he died, there succeeded as Amir his brother's son the Amir Ibrahim ibn Sultan Sulaiman ibn Muhammad al - Madlum. Upon him and upon al - Fudail fell the troubles caused by the godless Franks, may God forsake them! When the news of the death of the Amir Muhammad Kiwab reached the Zanzibar ambassador, he returned to Zanzibar to inform his brother. When the deposed al- Hasan learnt of the death of the Amir Muhammad Kiwab

(1) Mahamed Anconij: Very rich man from Kilwa who collaborated with the Portuguese from the moment they arrived. He was crowned by Don Francisco d'Almeida in 1505 as Sultan of Kilwa. He was murdered by a local king of Mafia at the instigation of Ibrahim.

(2) Friday year: the seventh year of the Somali seven-year cycle; Saturday being the first year.

This is a mention of the Somali year cycle in use alongside the Muslim year in the coastal centers. See also my webpage on Ibn-al Mujawir (1232) where a Saturday year is mentioned.

(3) 901 AH: 1496 AD.

(4) Maghamghub: Strong (A History of Kilwa p401) says this might be Kilwa Kivinje because Burton called Kivinje: Mgongeni which resembles Maghamghub when written.

(5) kimama means little mother in Swahili. What did they mean with this?

(6) in the year which began on a Saturday (902AH=1496-1497AD); this should be: in the Saturday year. The first year of the Somali seven-year cycle.

Sultans

47-(1499-1505) Ibrahim ibn Suleiman ('Emir Ibrahim', 'Mir Habraemo' in Portuguese)

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he got a great army ready, both of Muslims and pagans, against Kilwa, for he thought that after the death of the Amir Muhammad Kiwab none could oppose him. He set out from the country of Maghamghub, and arrived at a place called Kisibi (?). When the people of Kilwa saw that al - Hasan and his armies had arrived, there, Sultan Fudail and Amir Ibrahim sent out an embassy to them chosen from the religious leaders, the faqirs, the shaikhs and the great men of the town, to ask him the reason why he had come since he had left the country in a state of war. And they came to him and asked and he replied: The reason that brings me here is the throne, for there is no one entitled to it but I. No one has a right to supersede me during my lifetime. The man who deposed me was the Amir Muhammad Kiwab and that only on account of a disagreement between us. Go, all of you, to the Amir Ibrahim and to the people of Kilwa, that they may restore the kingdom to me and agree that we may enter the town. And the people of Kilwa answered with one voice as the Amir Muhammad Kiwab had answered. When al - Hasan heard their reply, he desired no further discussion. He put his son Sa'id ibn al - Hasan in charge of the boats, and his son set out with a great army of Muslims and pagans and arrived at Kilwa after the afternoon prayer. And they all disembarked and entered their house which was well known in Kilwa. When they had established themselves in their house, the Sultan and the Amir sent many people to bring them before the Amir. They seized Sa'id by force, and those with him, and brought them before the Amir. The Amir enquired why they had come to Kilwa and why they had left the country to go to war. Moreover we sent you, (he said), many messengers telling you to come peaceably, and you have not done so. Today you have come with this great army, what is your intention? And the son of al - Hasan answered: My father sent me to make his house ready. Tomorrow morning he will come himself in peace. They did not believe what he said and replied: You would not come here with all these men except to make trouble in the town. He denied it, so they said: If your words are true, swear by Almighty God and the Holy Koran that you have spoken the truth and that your father intends no strife in the town. And he swore it. When he had sworn, they said to him: Send a message to your father and tell him you have sworn there will be no trouble. Tell him not to bring any more men into the town tonight, let him wait until the morning. We will go out to him and bring him into the town in peace, as you have said. And they sent to his father some of his companions and some men from Kilwa to give him the message. When they arrived, they gave him the news they had brought. When he had learnt their message, al - Hasan killed the messengers from Kilwa and set out that very night. When the people of Kilwa heard, they all stood to arms until dawn. They did not realise what had happened until they saw the ships come with a mighty army of soldiers. As soon as they arrived in the town, there was a battle. It was an extremely fierce battle, with many killed, many taken prisoner and many set free. al - Hasan's armies were scattered by both land and sea. When he heard of it, his sole concern was to flee from there, and he went back to Maghamghub in fear and shame. From this time they governed Maghamghub even to our day. The present ruler is his grandson

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Al Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al - Hasan (1), the aforementioned son of the Wazir Sulaiman ibn al - Wazir Yarik, who was contemporary with Sultan Muhammad ibn Sultan Husain ibn Sultan Sulaiman ibn al - Malik al - Adil. His mother was the noble and illustrious lady Mana, daughter of Sultan Sulaiman ibn Sulțan Muhammad al - Madlum. The reign of al - Fudail began in the year 901 A. H., a year which began on a Friday (2), and in the year 902 A. H., a year which began on a Saturday (3), the Amir Muhammad Kiwab died. Amir Ibrahim succeeded him, and in his time and that of al - Fuḍail the strife caused by al - Hasan was brought to an end. When the pretender died, he was succeeded as ruler over his kingdom by his son Muhammad.

(1) Freeman-Grenville 1962: The text has al - Husain, which cannot make sense.

(2) year which began on a Friday; this should be: in the Friday year. The last year of the Somali seven-year cycle. (901AH=1495-1496AD)

(3) year which began on a Saturday; this should be: in the Saturday year. The first year of the Somali seven-year cycle. (902AH=1496-1497AD)

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ARABIC VERSION

During the reign of al - Fuḍail there came news from the land of Musambih (=Mozambique) that men had come from the land of the Franks. They had three ships, and the name of their Captain was al - Mirati (=Admiral)(Don Vasco da Gama). After a few days there came word that the ships had passed Kilwa and had gone on to Mafia.

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The lord of Mafia rejoiced, for they thought they [the Franks] were good and honest men. But those who knew the truth confirmed that they were corrupt and dishonest persons who had only come to spy out the land in order to seize it. And they determined to cut the anchors of their ships so that they should drift ashore and be wrecked by the Muslims. They learnt of this and went on to Malindi. When the people of Malindi saw them, they knew they were bringers of war and corruption, and were troubled with very great fear. They gave them all they asked, water, food, firewood and everything else. And the Franks asked for a pilot to guide them to India, and after that back to their own land - God curse it! All this took place in the year which began on a Tuesday (905 A.H.)(1). Some say it was 904 A.H., which began on a Monday (2); but the writer of this book was born on the 2nd Shawwal (3), 904 A. H., which began on a Monday (2), in the time of Sultan Fuḍail and the Amir Ibrahim. The writer was called by the name of the writer we have already mentioned. Then in the year 906 A.H., which began on a Wednesday (3), there came al - Kapitan Bithararis (Don Pedro Alvarez) with a fleet of ships. He asked the people of Kilwa to send water and firewood and desired that the Sultan or his son should go on board to converse with him. The Amir and the people of the land decided it was best to send him an important citizen. So they sent Sayyid Luqman ibn al - Malik al - Adil. They dressed him in royal robes and sent him over. Then they wanted water, and, the Kilwa people drew it in a number of waterskins, and the porters carried it to the. Then they called out to the Portuguese to come ashore and take it. As they were coming, one of the principal slaves of the Amir Hajj Ibrahim, who was surnamed Hajj Kiteta (4), ordered the water carriers to take the water away. So they did so. When the Christians disembarked on shore to fetch water, they saw neither much nor little water, but none at all. So they went back to their ships in anger. They set off again - God curse them! - to Malindi, and received everything they wanted in the way of water, firewood and food. When the Franks went to their own land, they left seven convert Christians at Malindi. They told the people that two should remain there, and four were to be sent to Gujarat to Sultan Mahmud and one to Kilwa. Then the Portuguese left, and the four men went to India and were circumcised and became Muslims; two stopped at Malindi, and one came to Kilwa. When he reached Kilwa, they discussed what to do with him and said: He is left here in our trust and there is no doubt that his people will return and ask for him back. It is best to take good care of him. They considered their best course was to send him to Hajj Muhammad Rukn al- Din al – Dabuli (5). He and his younger brother Faqih Ayub were the joint keepers of the treasury in the time of Amir Muhammad Kiwab and of the Amir Ibrahim. These brothers were men of business and were very rich. They ruled over their property with kindness and generosity to Muslims. The Christian came to spy out the state of the land and to pry into every possible matter. Hajj Muhammad told him everything both great and small, since he was nourishing old resentments and feuds. Then in the year 907 A.H., a year which began on a Thursday (6), there arrived the captain Kandnuf (Don Joao da Nova) in a single vessel. Outwardly he made it plain that he was a business man, but in fact he was a spy.

(1) year which began on a Tuesday; this should be: in the Tuesday year. The fourth year of the Somali seven-year cycle. (905AH=1499-1500AD)

(2) 904 A.H., which began on a Monday; this should be: in the Monday year. The third year of the Somali seven-year cycle. (1498-1499AD).

(3) 906 A.H., which began on a Wednesday; this should be: in the Wednesday year. The fifth year of the Somali seven-year cycle. (1500-1501AD).

(4) Hajj Kiteta in older Swahili means a quarrelsome, vindictive, litigious person.

(5) al – Dabuli: meaning coming from Daybul Pakistan. See for this my webpage: Note on Daibal or Debal or Daibul or Daybul which maybe the archeological site of Banbhore (710AD).

(6) the year 907 A.H., a year which began on a Thursday; this should be: in the Thursday year. The sixth year of the Somali seven-year cycle. (1501-1502AD)

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Kilwa Chronicle Swahili

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Taken from: Prosa und Poesie der Suaheli; Prof. Dr. C. Velten 1907

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History of Kilwa Kisiwani

The elders of the island have said these words:

The native people, who built Kisiwani (1): the first tribe clan the Mtakata (2), the second is the Jasi (3) people, clan of Mranga (4). Then Mrimba (5) and his people came. And that Mrimba his Mmatshinga (6) tribe settled in Kisiwani, he became the head of Kisiwani.

Then came sultan Ali bin Selimani Elshirazi (7), that is a Persian. He came with his vessel, loaded with property and his children. One child named Fatima bint sultani Ali, and the other children, we do not know their names. They have come with Musa bin Amrani Elbedui (8). They arrived on the island, and they went to the elder of the country, the elder Mrimba, they wanted a place to stay on the island, and they found it. And they gave gifts to Mrimba such as goods or beads.

The sultan Ali married the daughter of Mrimba. And sultan Ali in the city is sitting in good relations with the people. And he gave

(1) Kisiwani means island. Kilwa Kisiwani meaning Kilwa on the Island. It was the capital of the most powerful southern Swahili state during the Middle Ages. Later a different Kilwa developed on the mainland: Kilwa Kiwindje.

(2) Mtakata means trash; it is also a place in the southern part of Pemba.

(3) Jasi is the chalk-like powder used as a facepowder.

(4) Mranga is a personal name the most famous of whom was Mranga (about 1545-1575) ruler of the North Pare mountains.

(5) Mrimba is a rather common name in Tanzania.

(6) Mtshinga lies south of Kilwa, behind it the Matshinga mountains.

(7) Sultan Ali bin Selimani the Shirazi: The Arab version of the Kilwa Chronicle gives the first Shirazi as Ali b. Husain and the local people as the Muli. Here Ali sailed down the coast with his father and six brothers in seven ships (=refugees from Persia), each stopping to found a different town along the way. Ali stopped at Kilwa, gave gifts to the Muli, and persuaded them to move to the mainland, whereupon he dug out the channel between them so that when the Muli sought to return they were unable to cross back onto the island: in Freeman-Grenville, East African Coast pp. 89-90.

(8) Musa bin Amrani Elbedui: the nisba Elbedui means the Baduy tribe (=Bajuni) living on the Islands in front of the Kenyan coast. This record also associates the Shirazis with Abu ‘Amran Musa whose name occurs on an inscription at the Kizimkazi mosque in Zanzibar dated 500 A.H. (c. 1107 A.D.). Although we cannot place excessive weight on this evidence, a close relationship between the early Shirazis and Zanzibar is certainly indicated for, one of two occasions when Kilwa (and Mafia, it seems) was conquered by the Mutamandalin of Shagh (in the Persian Gulf), the reigning Shirazi fled for twelve years to Zanzibar before regaining his throne.

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them presents, each one according to his own rate. And it were things like clothes and jewelry.

And Sultan Ali asks the daughter of Mrimba: tell your father, the elder Mrimba, he should leave here the island, that he goes to the mainland, because to stay in the same place, me and him, it is not appropriate, it is not respect, because I am his son-in-law; and here on the island I will stay, I will be enough to solve our problems. And, if he comes to the Island to see me, he can come, and I can also go to see him where he is.

And the daughter of Mrimba let her father know, as Sultan Ali said. And the elder Mrimba agreed, as Sultan Ali wanted. But Mrimba said, as he sent his child: tell sultan Ali, I am ready to go to the mainland, but put clothes on the way, I pass over the clothes even across (the water), to pass on the ground I don't want and the child gave the answer to Sultan Ali, like Mrimba wanted. Sultan Ali agreed with what Mrimba wanted.

It became hanging clothes from the island till the main land. Then Mrimba passed on the clothes from the island till the main land. And those people, who took those clothes, the tribe theirs was then called Mtandika (=the hanging up). And those people took

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those sheets, their tribe was called the clan of Mtandura (1). And those who followed them, namely the servants and leaders and porters and slavegirls of their tribe were seated in Wanamba (2). This happened when the Elder Mrimba moved his place of living to the main land.

Sultan Ali ruled on the Island again. Mrimba started the war and came to the island, to beat Sultan Ali. And Sultan Ali held a Quran reading and sacrificed against evil, and then it happened that every dry place became filled with water like the sea, that made Mrimba fail in his war plan to find a way to pass through. This made Mrimba to emigrate, he went to the land of Rovuma and settled there.

And sultan Ali ruled the island alone, he did not complain, he got two islands; the first is Kisiwani, the second Sanje ya Katti (3). Kisiwani sought peace and the best for the people, and Sanje of Katti he got it by conquest.

And the work people were doing was fishing and farming, and the benefits they were getting from the work, we don't know them. As the citizens they did not pay taxes in these islands. And Sultan Ali didn't build a wall or a fortress, he just stayed in its old boma (4) in Shangani (5) Street. And we don't know the man who built that old boma.

Sultan Ali had a child with the daughter of Mrimba, a male child, his name is Sultan Mohamed bin Sultan Ali. He stayed till being adult, then he traveled to Rovuma (6), to see his grandfather, the Elder Mrimba. When he died,

p246

his grandfather gave all power and his rule over to his grandson. (1) Sultan Mohamed ruled. Also, he received the weapons and tools of war, he gave him permission also for war in the interior of Tungi (2) even Pemba Mnazi (3). And Sultan Mohamed fought south of Tungi and even Pemba Nazi. Then he returned to Sultan Mohamed, he came to the island. The day he arrived was the day his father Sultan Ali died.

So ruled Sultan Mohamed, because people have seen him as the most powerful in the land. His brothers, who arrived from Shirazi, they did not receive any power. And the people of the city followed Sultan Mohamed for his actions.

Then came the Malindi (4) people from Malindi. They went to sultan Mohamed to bring official greetings to the sultan. He told the Malindis: Stay here on the island. The Malindis answered: What will we get if we stay here? The sultan told them: Stay here with me, and you will receive the office of amir (=prince, governor) and the office of qadi (=judge). The Malindi people agreed and stayed on the island.

And Sultan Mohamed Kisiwani did not fight. The citizens paid a tax on grain and other things.

And their work was doing business and farming and fishing. And we do not know if the work they were doing was very profitable. And the Sultan Mohamed did not build a wall or a fortress, that is, and he was staying in the palace of Shangani, where his father the Sultan Ali had been staying. And also Sultan Mohamed had a son, his name was Sultan Ibrahim bin Sultan Mohamed, and then Sultan Mohamed died.

(1) The story told on p244-245 is an important one in Swahili Legal Thinking.

Taken from: The Shirazi in Swahili Traditions, Culture, and History by Thomas Spear History in Africa, Vol. 11 (1984), pp. 291-305 (15 pages)

There are other versions of this story. From the Arab version of the Kilwa Chronicle.

The first inhabitant of Kilwa was an infidel and a hunter named Muli. One day a Shirazi, Ali ibn al-Husan, one of six brothers who had left Shiraz together with their father in seven ships in the early llth century to found settlements all along the coast, arrived in Kilwa while Muli was hunting on the mainland. When Muli returned, Ali asked if he could settle on the island. Muli agreed, providing Ali would encircle the island in colored cloth. Ali did so; Muli took the cloth and went to the mainland. To prevent Muli's return, Ali dug out the channel between Kilwa and the mainland so that Muli could not recross it at low tide. When Muli did return, he waited for low tide, dispaired of being able to return to his home, and left.

This story can be interpreted structurally. The single hunter Muli stands for the indigenous hunting peoples who inhabited the area initially, and who were thus the ‘owners of the land.’ When the Shirazi arrived, they arranged to pay tribute to the Muli for the right to settle on their land, but such tribute was misinterpreted. The Shirazi felt they had bought the land and thus sought to prevent the Muli's return, while the Muli felt they had merely allowed the Shirazi to rent, thereby retaining their own rights to return. Here is the Swahili version the original inhabitant of Kilwa is called Mrimba.

Here we see more clearly that the initial agreement to settle involved the Shirazi paying tribute to the Warimba in trade goods and beads, incidentally identifying the Shirazi as traders. Ali arranged a marriage alliance with Mrimba, and then sought to divide political and economic power between the island domain of trade and the agricultural mainland between them, citing rules of in-law avoidance and paying further tribute. But the Warimba refused to give up their sovereignty over the land, and so the Shirazi asserted their superior Qur'anic and local magic to defeat them. The conflict was eventually resolved in Mohamed, the child of both the Warimba and the Shirazi, who re-united his maternal grandfather's power over the mainland and his father's over the island. The relationship between the Shirazi and the Warimba thus proceeded from a tributary relationship through a final and hostile one to the union of the two lineages in a joint line, Mohamed and his successors becoming both "owners of the land" and rulers of the island and mainland.

The structure of Kilwa society is revealed in the tradition. The original inhabitants of Kilwa were hunters (and probably farmers) who were eventually supplanted by traders from the northern coast using their wealth and prestigious claims to Persian origins and knowledge of the Qur'an, but who in the end intermarried and merged with the local people to form a single indigenous ruling group. This synthesis can still be seen in nearby Mafia where the waungwana (=the Swahili city people), the Mbwera, claim to be both the "owners of the land" and Shirazi as a result of intermarriage between the two.

One more version of this story: From the Portuguese version, (de Barros 1777: 224–31) of the Kilwa Chronicle.

The Shirazi prince Ale (Ali) fled from his country after the death of his father, the king, because his mother was an Abyssinian slave (abexijs). During his journey toward the coast of Africa (Zanguebar) he arrived at Kilwa. He wished to settle there because Kilwa, being an island, could provide him safety from the infidels. So with cloth, he bought the island from its inhabitants who then moved to the mainland. After that the Shirazi prince fortified the place to prevent attacks from infidels.

(2) Tungi Sultanate; just south of the Rovuma River, in Northern Mozambique.

(3) Pemba Nazi; on the Tanzanian site of the Rovuma River.

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Ruled Sultan Fatima binti Sultan Ali (1), because Sultan Ibrahimu is a to young man, he had not reached puberty. But Sultan Fatima she did not rule long time. When Sultan Ibrahim came of age the time arrived that Sultana Fatima made her nephew Sultan Ibrahim the ruler. And the affairs of Sultan Fatima, and the kingdom we do not know much about it, we only heard this.

Again Sultan Ibrahimu bin Sultan Mohamed did not make war with the people, that is, the people followed him because of his strength; the kingdom and the citizens giving tribute to the sultan, the tribute of taxes for grains like millet or rice and the likes. And the people's work was farming and fishing and trade. And if the work, was very profitable, we do not know. And Sultan Ibrahim gave birth to two children: the first Sultan Hassan, and the second Sultan Isufu. Sultan Ibrahim died.

Sultan Isufu bin Sultan Ibrahim ruled. There occurred suffering in the land with seven years of famine and locusts. The Sultan and the citizens held a meeting, they ruled to give power to Sultan Hassan bin Sultan Ibrahim. And the matters of the kingdom of Sultan Isufu or of the people we do not know, because he did not rule on the road for trouble. Again the king ruled: Sultan Hassan bin Sultan Ibrahimu. It didn't take many days for the country to become prosperous. (2)

Then the Frenchman (3) came to do business. And this sultan and all the people were happy with it. Because there was no food at all (at that moment), because the country was starving when these Frenchman came, the people got a lot better together with the king. People taking things like a mat

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made of palm leaves for the money of six-tenths selling it to the French for one rial (1). Then came the warship (2) of the French paying the fees to the Sultan, and also paid the other fees and this sultan did not build a wall or a castle, of course staying in the old building in Shangani. And this Sultan Hassan has given birth to several children: the first Sultan Isufu, the second Sultan Mohamed, the third Sultan Selimani, then Sultan Hassan died.

Sultan Isufa bin Sultan Hassan ruled. The people accepted his royal power, they gave him tribute of the taxes on grain. And their work was farming and fishing and trade. And if the work was very profitable, we do not know, except for the slave trade. And with the French this is how it became in the words we said before. And this Sultan lived in the old boma in Shangani to which he added, he did not build his own.

Then came to the island Seyyidi Ali bin Sefu Elbusaidi (3), he came from Masikati (=Muskat). He went to the king. Then the king gave him the prison building near the present market, where he then stayed. And Seyyidi Ali bin Sefu had come with his plans, and his ships and his men and his possessions. And also it was the start of Said bin Sultani (4). He came in big friendship with Sultan Isufu. It happened that Said bin Sultani brought

(1) currency of Yemen and Oman and many other Arab and Persian countries.

(2) the word used here for warship is manowari =man-of-war; was a powerful warship or frigate of the 16th to the 19th. Again a new Swahili word in this chronicle.

(3) This is the only name in the royal family of Oman that comes close to this name: Sayyid Ali bin Azzan bin Saif bin Ali Al-Busaidi. b. 1832.

(4) This is the beginning of the influence of the Sultan of Oman and Zanzibar Said bin Sultan (b1791-d1856) over the affairs of Kilwa.

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his man in Kisiwani named Marhuni bin Ali (1), an Arab, coming to stay on the Island. When he arrived, Sultan Isufu gave him a place, he stayed in the prison building given to Seyyidi Ali bin Sefu. And we do not know who built this building.

It happened that Said bin Sultani listened a lot to the people of the city and the king. Said bin Sultani had the habit that every year he brought two doti (doti=eight arm lengths of cloth) to give to the king and to the WaMalindi in every year and one in unsafe years. And the reason Said bin Sultani gave this wealth was that the land was in violence, and caravans did not pass. When these gifts were divided, even the people of the coast did not riot anymore and all the caravans came down beautifully, from the main-land. And if the caravans come down safely, then much wealth will be made on the coast, they will descend the land to the Barbarians and to the people of the coast, those on the land, and those who do business. And wares many will be available for export to other countries like Unguja (2), that is, he will get a lot of taxes. And that Unguja is the land of Said bin Sultani.

Then came the Msakalafa (3) to Kisiwani to beat the Kisiwani, they capture people; and the people of the Island fought with him; they struggled and they failed. They (the island people) were happy. Again came the second time Wasakalafa, they went to Tschole (2) in the city of Kuwa (2), they took many people. When the people of Kisiwani heard this, they followed them even in the country of Msimbati (4), they met, and fought for the second time and they defeated the Wasakalafa again. And the people, who were taken from

(1) In 1892 Carl Gotthilf published Swahili letters translated in German which he had collected decades earlier. They show us that several people called Marhuni were trading on the Tanzanian coast in Ivory shipment, goods order, estate purchase, slaves, mats.

(3) Unguja: old local name for Zanzibar.

(3) Msakalafa: Sakalafa; The Madagascar-born Sakalava people arrived with small canoes called 'laka' and captured many people in the 18th century AD, raiding local treasuries of these small cities on Mafia Island. Despite the eventual release of the prisoners, Kua was never again resettled, and as a result of the attack, the sultan's capital was transferred to Chole Island. This story indicates that Mafia Island was a dependency of Kilwa at the time.

(4) Msimbati; a peninsula just north of the Rovuma River.

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Tschole, all of them were found, and they were brought home to Kuwa. Then Sultan Isafu died.

Sultan Mohamed bin Sultan Hassan ruled. They made a conspiracy against sultan Selemani bin Sultan Hassan. They even went to Masikati (1) for the affairs of the king, and about the sultan Selemani. When they reached Masikati; Said bin Sultani made it happen that Sultan Mohamed was imprisoned and to Sultan Selemani to rule them.

When he arrived at Kisiwani, the people of the town went back to Masikati and told him: if he want to rule, he should release his brother Sultan Mohamed, bring him here, then you will rule.

Sultan Selemani returned to Masikati, released his brother Sultan Mohamed, they all returned to Unguja. When Sultan Selemani died; remained Sultan Mohamed.

Finally, the people of Kiswani sent a letter to Sultan Mohamed; that: when you come to Kiswani, don't pass Kilwa Kiwindje (2). And the people of the village they sent a letter to sultan Mohamed; that: At the time to come pass Kilwa Kiwindje. He came and followed the letter of the people of the village, he passed through Kilwa Kiwindje and the islanders chose another person as Sultan to put him in Kisiwani, his name was Sultan Hasani bin Sultan Selemani. That's because they had informed Sultan Mohamed, not to go through Kiwindje. They waited for the people of the village and then informed them, that Kisiwani had installed another Sultan.

(1) Masikati: Muskat

(2) Kisiwani means island. Kilwa Kisiwani meaning Kilwa on the Island. It was the capital of the most powerful southern Swahili state during the Middle Ages. Later a different Kilwa developed on the mainland: Kilwa Kiwindje.

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And the people informed the messenger, he should go to Kilwa Kiwindje, and give them this news. Because Sultan Mohamed had passed through Kiwindje, this was the nature of their intrigue. So it happened that the people of Kisiwani stood by Sultan Hasan and the people of the village stood by the sultan Mohammed. They made war. The people of Kisiwani came and fought for many days.

Then Sultan Mohamed lived in Mkondaji (1), and Sultan Hasan's lived on the island. Then Sultan Mohamed died; and they had had the rule of the Sultan Mohamed and Sultan Hasani did not become king of the road (on the mainland). We did not hear about their affairs and customs. After the death of Sultan Mohamed the power came to Said bin Sultani himself, and Sultan Hassan has no power, only respect for him. And two doti (of cloth) even at that time Said bin Sultani brought them.

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And Kisiwani Sultan Said bin Sultani did not build a fort, but he added to the prison, where Marhuni bin Ali, his man, stayed. Then Said bin Sultan died.

Then ruled Seyyid Madjidi bin Said bin Sultani (1) and followed the rules of his father Said bin Sultani. And people stayed with him beautifully; and he continued giving the two dots (of cloth), and taking the grain tax. Then Seyyid Madjidi died.

Ruled Seyyid Baraghashi bin Said bin Sultani (2). In all things he followed his father Said bin Sultani, except that the Malindi and the Shirazi had to pay the grain tax and the other taxes. And he stopped with the two dots. People followed him by the power of the sultanate. And the grain tax they gave, but he increased in the rules of his father, as on one bag of corn; there was first taken out, one half of a pishi, (pishi= 6 pounds) that is a kisaga (kisaga; literaly meaning ‘for the milling’ is also a half pishi). He made it one bag one pishi. And a castle and a boma; he did not build or add to the island. Then Seyyidi Baraghashi died.

Ruled Seyyidi Khalifa bin Said bin Sultani (3). We did not benefit from his affairs, that is, we do not know the state of the kingdom, nor the state of his affairs, the reason why there has come to us our Sultan Mdeutschi (=Germans), who brings peace in these countries and the people live well. And Seyyidi Khalifa did not dare to send his officers, or his officers did not reach us.

(1) Seyyid Madjidi bin Said bin Sultani: Sultan Majid became Sultan of Zanzibar while his brother became Sultan of Oman. He ruled Zanzibar from 19 October 1856 to 7 October 1870.

(2) Sayyid Barghash bin Said al-Busaidi (1836 – 26 March 1888). He ruled Zanzibar from 7 October 1870 to 26 March 1888.

(3) Sayyid Khalifa I bin Said al-Busaidi, (c. 1852 – 13 February 1890) was the third Sultan of Zanzibar.

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A history of the ancient Swahili town with a guide to the monuments of Kilwa Kisiwani and adjacent islands 1998; Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 33:1, 113-169 by John E. G. Sutton.

By 1300 Kilwa’s strategic position in handling and developing the trade with the south - and especially the gold from Zimbabwe, as world demands soared to unprecedented levels -was becoming widely recognised. About this date the sultanate was taken over by the Mahdali house by means of some sort of coup d’etat- as told in the Kilwa Chronicle - through which a new leader emerged victorious, by name al-Hasan bin Talut. This event was followed in the next thirty years by lavish expenditure and magnificent architectural feats. These include the domed extension to the Great Mosque - indicating not only the new wealth and pride of the town and its ruler, but equally a marked increase in the population or at least in the number of worshippers each Friday - as well as Husuni Kubwa palace, the latter being an enormous and sumptuous building project along the shore to the east of the town. That would have been constructed, from the available dating clues, about the years 1315 to 1325.

This Mahdali family which wrested control of Kilwa about 1300 (or slightly before) may have been already established at Tumbatu, off the north end of Zanzibar Island. It also maintained connections with the Red Sea, being perhaps related to the Rasulid rulers of Yemen; and members of the Kilwa house visited Yemen, performed the haij to Mecca and studied in those lands.

This particularly rich age at Kilwa reached its apogee in the 1320s during the reign of al-Hasan bin Sulaiman, remembered as Abu al-Mawahib, ‘the Father of Gifts’, a praise-name he assumed during his lifetime. About 1310-15 he had succeeded his grandfather, al-Hasan bin Talut, who had earlier seized the sultanate for the Mahdali line. Al-Hasan bin Sulaiman is the only ruler of Kilwa who is known to have minted gold dinars - these being inscribed ‘struck at Kilwa’ and dated in Islamic years (720s =1320s AD) - as if trying to put himself and his southerly sultanate on the map of the great powers of the Islamic world. At the same time the production of copper coins was vastly intensified, presumably because of the demands of the local market serving a swollen population in a boom-town situation. This sultan further bestowed on himself grandiloquent titles - including ‘Commander of the Faithful’ and ‘the Victorious King’ - as read on these dinars and on an inscription in Husuni Kubwa palace.

Together with the yard and store-rooms at the back of the palace and the adjacent enclosure called Husuni Ndogo, this complex may have combined a royal trading emporium and warehouse system with the palace itself. Most likely the royal mint was contained in the same complex, both for the rare gold coins and for the vast production of new copper coins required in this reign by the local market and the town. (Crucibles for copper smelting are frequent in the rubbish deposits and rubble of Husuni Kubwa.) Nevertheless, Husuni Kubwa was certainly intended as a palace to be lived in, not just a closely controlled commercial and financial centre. However, that purpose was fulfilled for a brief period only, for soon after al-Hasan’s death, probably no later than 1335, his successors seem to have abandoned the palace. In fact, certain parts appear not to have been properly completed.

So, the young traveller of Moroccan origin, Ibn Battuta, who was at Kilwa in (or about) 1331 and spoke warmly of al-Hasan’s hospitality and other virtues, may – or perhaps may not - have been offered quarters in Husuni Kubwa. In his short and anecdotal account of Kilwa there is no obvious allusion to this palace. But it is clear from Ibn Battuta’s testimony - and from his decision to voyage here - that Kilwa had in this reign a widespread reputation as a place which welcomed Muslim visitors, and he mentioned other, more senior, scholars sojourning that year. Likewise, in the 

Kilwa Chronicle, -this reign is remembered as the age of Kilwa’s greatest power. With the world’s demand for gold soaring relentlessly, the merchant-prince of the Mahdali house was clearly exploiting to the full the opportunity for profit by controlling the Sofala-Kilwa-Tumbatu-Yemen route which fed the onward transmission through the Red Sea to Egypt and the Mediterranean.

The Mahdali house, with its international connections and concern that Kilwa be seen as a full member of the Islamic world, ensured moreover once for all conformity with the mainstream Sunni persuasion of Islam following the Shaf ’i school, such as has persisted along the Swahili coast since that period. Ibn Battuta noted this adherence, and one of the aspirations behind the building of the Great Mosque extension with its arches and domes - as well as the purpose of welcoming sheikhs of international standing at the same time - may have been to under the conformity with cosmopolitan Islam, and to erase-any older image of the Swahili as peripheral and of their Islamic practice and their mosques as provincial. In preceding centuries, both at Kilwa at the time of the early ‘Shirazi’ rulers and at other Swahili settlements to the north, there are strong indications of adherence, by influential families if not by whole communities and their rulers on occasions, to Shi’a and Ibadhi sects, these resulting presumably from connections with Oman and the shores of the Persian Gulf. But since the fourteenth century Swahili Islam appears to have been virtually exclusively Sunni.

Kilwa’s wealth was thus dependent on trade and special commodities, notably the gold of Zimbabwe and its price on the world market. But the fluctuating demands and prices were of course entirely beyond Kilwa’s control, and when they slumped for some reason, Kilwa’s economy slumped too. This seems to have happened quite markedly in the middle of the fourteenth century, only shortly after the reign of the magnificent sultan al-Hasan bin Sulaiman, the Father of Gifts. There are several signs of this slump: the palace of Husuni Kubwa was abandoned and left to decay, being presumably too costly to maintain; the domed extension to the Great Mosque collapsed and was not repaired for some decades, a situation indicating a reduced town population; the minting of coins ceased or was heavily curtailed, suggesting a less vibrant local market; and for the next fifty years or more (that is till 1400 or so) the wider world seems to have forgotten about Kilwa. Fewer ships had reason to sail there, and the place could not maintain its reputation for hospitality to wandering scholars and students - as it did when Ibn Battuta had visited on the crest of the boom.

For a period following the collapse - if we are to accept the explanation offered in the Kilwa Chronicle - competent masons could not be found to effect the necessary repairs, so that ‘the people were obliged to pray under shelters and tents’. That may not be the whole story; as noted in the historical survey above, Kilwa’s wealth, and population too, having soared in the time of al-Hasan bin Sulaiman, the ‘father of gifts’, slumped during the following half-century. There may have been neither the resources nor the need to repair and maintain so large a mosque.

Then between 1346 and 1349 so much of the Old World, and especially its trade routes and harbours, were afflicted by the international plague, commonly remembered in Europe as the ‘Black Death’.

It was not until 1400 or a little later that Kilwa shows signs of revival, just as the world economy and the demand for gold were began to pick up. This period was remembered appropriately as the ‘new rain’ - and this title or nickname was given to an energetic sultan ruling Kilwa at the time. It reasserted its control over Sofala, the gold-trade harbour to the south, and the Mahdali ruling house renewed its Red Sea connections, with visits to Yemen and performance of the Haij to Mecca.

Note about the collapse of Kilwa’s economy:

-De Great Mosque’s roof collapses and is not repaired.

-The building of the Husuni Kubwa palace is stopped and abandoned.

-The new Sultan can not afford giving gifts to visitors.

-Important rich people from Kilwa are building a new splendid city on the island of Songo Mnara island close by with six mosques; hereby greatly diminishing the role of Kilwa Kisiwani. They however do not bring the international trade to Songo Mnara; that remains at Kilwa.

-A split in the country: The Mahdali dynasty took over Kilwa but not Mafia that remained in the hands of the Shyrazi dynasty till Hasan ibn Sulaiman (The Sultan who Ibn Battuta met) went to war and concurred it.