The Zafiraminia (meaning "descendants of Ramini") were a group of Muslim settlers on the island of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. They appeared in Madagascar at least a century before the more well-known

Antemoro The Antemoro (or Antaimoro) are an ethnic group of Madagascar living on the southeastern coast, mostly between Manakara and Farafangana. Numbering around 500,000, this ethnic group mostly traces its origins back to East African Bantu and Indone ...

; the two peoples' traditions are often not distinguished. The leaders of the Zafiraminia claimed to descent from family lines that moved from

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...

Mangalore Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ke ...

and then to Madagascar. However some scholars believe their origin is more likely to have been in either Sumatra or among the Bugis of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

. Other traditional accounts also support a Sumatran origin, as Ramini is apparently a medieval name for Sumatra. They are thought to have first come to Madagascar about the 13th century.

References

Islam in Madagascar Ethnic groups in Madagascar {{ethno-stub