The ''Kilwa Chronicle'' is a text, believed to be based on oral tradition, which describes the origins of the Swahili city-state of

Kilwa Kilwa Kisiwani (English: ''Kilwa Island'') is an island, national historic site, and hamlet community located in the township of Kilwa Masoko, the district seat of Kilwa District in the Tanzanian region of Lindi Region in southern Tanzania. K ...

, on an

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

island near the East African coast. It recounts the genealogy of the rulers of the

Kilwa Sultanate The Kilwa Sultanate ( fa, پادشاهی کیلوا) was a sultanate, centered at Kilwa Kisiwani, Kilwa (an island off modern-day, Kilwa District in Lindi Region of Tanzania), whose authority, at its height, stretched over the entire length of t ...

, following the foundation of the city by

Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...

from

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...

and Hormuz in the tenth century until the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Subsequent ancient DNA studies have confirmed much of the basis of these stories to be true. Two sources of the ''Chronicle'' exist: the in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

version that is a section of the book by the historian

João de Barros João de Barros () (1496 – 20 October 1570), called the ''Portuguese Livy'', is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his ''Décadas da Ásia'' ("Decades of Asia"), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southea ...

. The genealogical account is similar in both versions but other details vary substantially.

Sources

(1552) , Dec. I, Lib. 8, Cap. 6
p. 223ff
* Strong, S. Arthur (1895) "The History of Kilwa, edited from an Arabic MS", ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', January (No volume number), pp. 385–431
online

References

{{Use mdy dates, date=September 2020 African chronicles History of Tanzania 2nd-millennium books History books about Africa Lists of monarchs in Africa