Swahili World

<p><em>The Swahili World</em> presents the fascinating story of a major world civilization, exploring the archaeology, history, linguistics, and anthropology of the Indian Ocean coast of Africa. It covers a 1,500-year sweep of history, from the first settlement of the coast to the complex urban tradition found there today. Swahili towns contain monumental palaces, tombs, and mosques, set among more humble houses; they were home to fishers, farmers, traders, and specialists of many kinds. The towns have been Muslim since perhaps the eighth century CE, participating in international networks connecting people around the Indian Ocean rim and beyond. Successive colonial regimes have helped shape modern Swahili society, which has incorporated such influences into the region’s long-standing cosmopolitan tradition.</p><p></p><p>This is the first volume to explore the Swahili in chronological perspective. Each chapter offers a unique wealth of detail on an aspect of the region’s past, written by the leading scholars on the subject. The result is a book that allows both specialist and non-specialist readers to explore the diversity of the Swahili tradition, how Swahili society has changed over time, as well as how our understandings of the region have shifted since Swahili studies first began. </p><p></p><p>Scholars of the African continent will find the most nuanced and detailed consideration of Swahili culture, language and history ever produced. For readers unfamiliar with the region or the people involved, the chapters here provide an ideal introduction to a new and wonderful geography, at the interface of Africa and the Indian Ocean world, and among a people whose culture remains one of Africa’s most distinctive achievements.</p> <p>List of Figures</p><p></p><p>List of Tables</p><p></p><p>Maps</p><p></p><p>Preface</p><p></p><p>Note on Terminology</p><p></p><p>Contributors</p><p></p><p>1. The Swahili world</p><p></p><p>Section I: Environment, background, and Swahili historiography</p><p></p><p>2. The eastern African coastal landscape</p><p></p><p>3. Resources of the ocean fringe and the archaeology of the medieval Swahili</p><p></p><p>4. The eastern African coast: researching its history and archaeology</p><p></p><p>5. Defining the Swahili</p><p></p><p>6. Decoding Swahili genetic ancestry</p><p></p><p>7. Early connections</p><p></p><p>8. The Swahili language and its early history</p><p></p><p>9. Swahili origins</p><p></p><p>10. Swahili oral traditions and chronicles</p><p></p><p>11. Manda</p><p></p><p>12. Tumbe, Kimimba and Bandari Kuu</p><p></p><p>13. Unguja Ukuu</p><p></p><p>14. Chibuene</p><p></p><p>15. Urbanism</p><p></p><p>16. Town and village</p><p></p><p>17. Mambrui and Malindi</p><p></p><p>18. Shanga</p><p></p><p>19. Gede</p><p></p><p>20. Mtwapa</p><p></p><p>21. Pemba</p><p></p><p>22. Zanzibar</p><p></p><p>23. Mafia</p><p></p><p>24. Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara</p><p></p><p>25. Mikindani and the southern coast</p><p></p><p>26. The Comoros and their early history</p><p></p><p>27. The Comoros 1000 - 1350 CE</p><p></p><p>28. Mahilaka</p><p></p><p>29. The social composition of Swahili society</p><p></p><p>30. Metalworking on Swahili sites</p><p></p><p>31. Craft and industry</p><p></p><p>32. Animals in the Swahili world</p><p></p><p>33. Plant use and the creation of anthropogenic landscapes: coastal forestry and farming</p><p></p><p>34. The progressive integration of eastern Africa into an Afro-Eurasian world-system, first-fifteenth centuries CE</p><p></p><p>35. Eastern Africa and the dhow trade</p><p></p><p>36. Early inland entanglement in the Swahili world, c. 750-1550 CE</p><p></p><p>37. Mosaics and interconnectivity</p><p></p><p>38. Links with India</p><p></p><p>39.Links with China</p><p></p><p>40. Currencies of the Swahili world</p><p></p><p>41. Glass beads and Indian Ocean trade</p><p></p><p>42. Quantitative evidence for early long-distance exchange in eastern Africa: the consumption volume of ceramic imports</p><p></p><p>43. Islamic architecture of the Swahili coast</p><p></p><p>44. Swahili houses</p><p></p><p>45. Navigating the early modern world: Swahili polities and the continental-oceanic interface</p><p></p><p>46. Zanzibar old town</p><p></p><p>47. The Kilwa – Nyasa caravan route: the long-neglected trading corridor in southern Tanzania</p><p></p><p>48. Islam in the Swahili world: Connected authorities</p><p></p><p>49. The legacy of slavery on the Swahili coast</p><p></p><p>50. Life in Swahili villages</p><p></p><p>51. The modern life of Swahili stonetowns</p><p></p><p>52. Identity and belonging on the contemporary Swahili coast: the case of Lamu</p><p></p><p>53. Pate</p><p></p><p>54. Mombasa</p><p></p><p>55. The Swahili house: a historical ethnography of modernity</p><p></p><p>56. The future of Swahili monuments</p>