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Pate Island
Pate (Paté) Island () is located in the Indian Ocean close to the northern coast of Kenya, to which it belongs. It is the largest island in the Lamu Archipelago, which lie between the towns of Lamu and Kiunga in the former Coast Province. The island is almost completely surrounded by mangroves. Like much of the Swahili Coast, Pate's history was marked by a steady transition from agricultural communities in the early first millennium into a specialized, urban trading society around the 10th century, likely earlier. Islam spread down the coast from African Muslims in the Horn of Africa, helping to develop what would be known as the Swahili culture. Despite myths to the contrary, Pate was neither an Arab nor Persian colony, but an African town frequented by trading Arabs, Persians, Indians, and others. It was the centre of the Pate sultanate from the 13th–19th centuries. The Swahili port of Pate long vied with Lamu and Takwa (on Manda Island) for economic dominance of t ...
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Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi. Its second-largest and oldest city is Mombasa, a major port city located on Mombasa Island. Other major cities within the country include Kisumu, Nakuru & Eldoret. Going clockwise, Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest (though much of that border includes the disputed Ilemi Triangle), Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, Tanzania to the southwest, and Lake Victoria and Uganda to the west. Kenya's geography, climate and population vary widely. In western, rift valley counties, the landscape includes cold, snow-capped mountaintops (such as Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya) with vast surrounding forests, wildlife and ...
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India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since 2023; and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is near Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago., "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by modern humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European populations averag ...
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Mazrui
The Mazrui or Mazar'i (Arabic: المزاريع) were an Omani Arab clan that reigned over some areas of East Africa, especially Kenya, from the 18th to the 20th century. In the 18th century they governed Mombasa and other coastal places and opposed the Omani Al Bu Sa'id Dynasty that ruled over Zanzibar. On at least one occasion they attacked Stone Town allying with the Portuguese. When the British East Africa Protectorate was established in the late 19th century, the Mazrui were one of the groups that most actively resisted the British rule, along with the Kikuyu and Kamba people. Notable people * Ali Mazrui Ali Al'amin Mazrui (24 February 1933 – 12 October 2014), was a Kenyan-born American academic, professor, and political writer on African and Islamic studies, and North-South relations. He was born in Mombasa, Kenya. His positions included Dir ..., academic and writer Footnotes Further reading * Akinola, G.A. (1968): ''The Mazrui of Mombasa''. Year: 1968. Period ...
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Lamu Island
Lamu Island is a port, city, and island just off the shore of Kenya in the Indian Ocean approximately 150 miles from Mombasa. It is a part of the East African country of Kenya. Lamu was founded in the 12th century. Lamu is one of the longest-established and best-preserved remaining settlements of the Swahili tradition in east Africa that remains today. The island has continually been inhabited for over seven hundred years, and continues to be an important center in eastern Africa. Swahili culture The island of Lamu is a Swahili settlement filled with culture. Prior to the birth of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, people of various countries and regions migrated to the island of Lamu. Traders and sailors from the Arabian Peninsula, China, India and South-East Asia traveled across the Indian Ocean to the East African Coast to reach the island of Lamu. The diverse mixture of sailors and traders with the native people of the Lamu island created distinguishable social classes and a diver ...
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Battle Of Shela
The Battle of Shela (or Kuduhu) occurred around 1812 on the sand dunes near the village of Shela on Lamu Island, in what is now Kenya, just south of the larger village of Lamu. The people of Lamu won against superior forces from Mombasa and Pate. The battle led to the domination of the coast by the rulers of Oman. Background The Lamu Archipelago is a group of three islands off the coast of what is now Kenya. The largest and most fertile is Pate, the northernmost. Manda lies to the south of Pate, separated by a narrow channel from Lamu, the farthest south. Manda and Lamu are sandy and covered with dunes. Lamu supports mango and coconut trees. The islands provide the best anchorages on the coast north of Mombasa. The battle was one of several between the people of Lamu and Pate during the 18th and 19th centuries. At the time of the war the population of Lamu was estimated at between 15,000 and 21,000, and the town was expanding its trade while Pate was in decline. The sultans of Pa ...
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Utendi Wa Tambuka
''Utend̠i wa Tambuka'', also known as ''Utenzi wa Tambuk''aThe symbol ''d̠'' is a transliteration of the Arabic for the Swahili sound ''dh'' (). Often this sound is written simply ''z'', hence the different spellings. ("The Story of Tambuka"), ''Utenzi wa Hirqal'' or ''Kyuo kya Hereḳali'' (the book of Heraclius), is an epic poem in the Swahili language by Bwana Mwengo wa Athman, dated 1728. It is one of the earliest known documents in Swahili. Depiction of the Byzantine Empire's wars Known by various titles in English, including ''The Book of the Battle of Tambuka'' and ''The Story of Heraclius'', the story recounts numerous events of the Arab–Byzantine wars, Arab–Byzantine and Byzantine-Ottoman wars, Byzantine-Ottoman wars between the Muslims and Rum, Romans (the contemporary name for the Byzantines). The Byzantines were represented by the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, Heraclius. The story covers a period from 628 (the Battle of Mu'tah) to 1453 (the Fall of Constantin ...
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Swahili Language
Swahili, also known as as it is referred to endonym and exonym, in the Swahili language, is a Bantu languages, Bantu language originally spoken by the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent littoral islands). Estimates of the number of Swahili speakers, including both native and second-language speakers, vary widely. They generally range from 150 million to 200 million; with most of its native speakers residing in Tanzania and Kenya. Swahili has a significant number of loanwords from other languages, mainly Arabic, as well as from Portuguese language, Portuguese, English language, English and German language, German. Around 40% of Swahili vocabulary consists of Arabic loanwords, including the name of the language ( , a plural adjectival form of an Arabic word meaning 'of the coasts'). The loanwords date from the era of contact between Arab slave trade, Arab traders and the Northeast Bantu languages, B ...
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Mark Horton (archaeologist)
Mark Chatwin Horton, FSA, (born 15 February 1956) is a British maritime and historical archaeologist, television presenter, and writer. Academic career Horton attended Peterhouse, Cambridge, graduating and receiving a doctorate. He is Professor of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Bristol. One of his former students is the archaeologist and television presenter Sam Willis. He is part of a project to establish the Cultural Heritage Institute in the former Great Western Railway carriage works at Swindon, offering research and masters training from 2020. He has conducted excavations in Zanzibar, Egypt, the Caribbean, North America, Central America and France, as well as sites in Britain. His chief publications are on the Swahili site of Shanga, Kenya, between 1980 and 1986 and more recently sites on the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, notably Tumbatu, Ras Mkumbuu, Mtambwe Mkuu and C ...
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Neville Chittick
Dr. Neville H. Chittick (September 18, 1924 – July 27, 1984) was a British scholar and Archaeology, archaeologist. He specialized in the historic cultures of Northeast Africa, and also devoted various works to the Swahili Coast. Biography Chittick was born in 1924. In a professional capacity, he initially worked with Max Mallowan as general field assistant in Nimrud in 1951 and later in Sudan as the Director of Antiquities.Ogot, 2003. (p. 308). He later lived in Tanganyika Territory, Tanganyika, serving as the colonial territory's first Conservator of Antiquities. In 1961, Chittick was appointed the first Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa in Nairobi. He worked in that position until 1983. After a long career in archaeology, Chittick died in 1984. He is buried in the Ascension Parish Burial Ground, Cambridge, Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground. Expeditions Chittick's expeditions and residence on the Swahili Coast produced a body of research into the pre-c ...
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Swahili Coast
The Swahili coast () is a coastal area of East Africa, bordered by the Indian Ocean and inhabited by the Swahili people. It includes Sofala (located in Mozambique); Mombasa, Gede, Kenya, Gede, Pate Island, Lamu, and Malindi (in Kenya); and Dar es Salaam and Kilwa (in Tanzania). In addition, several coastal islands are included in the Swahili coast, such as Zanzibar and Comoros. Areas of what is today considered the Swahili coast were historically known as Azania or Zingion in the Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman era, and as Zanj, Zanj or Zinj in Middle Eastern, Indian and Chinese literature from the 7th to the 14th century.A. Lodhi (2000), ''Oriental influences in Swahili: a study in language and culture contacts,'', pp. 72-84 The word "Swahili" means people of the coasts in Arabic and is derived from the word ''sawahil'' ("coasts"). The Swahili people and their culture formed from a distinct mix of African and Arab origins. The Swahili were traders and merchants and readily absorb ...
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Nabhani Dynasty
The Nabhani dynasty (or Nabhanids; ''ʾusrat banī nabhān''), members of the Bani Nabhan family, also referred to as the Sultans of Sohar, were rulers of Oman from 1154 until 1624, when the Yaruba dynasty took power. One of their most visible legacies is the Bahla Fort, a large complex of mud brick buildings on stone foundations built from the 12th to the 15th century. It was registered in 1987 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Nabhanids dynasty may be a possible ancestor of the Nabhan family, a family of Syrian and Lebanese descent that has influential members in the United States. Some immigrated and settled in New York City in the mid-20th century. Other members of the family have influence in Brazil, especially in rural areas, such as Luiz Antonio Nabhan Garcia, Minister of Land Affairs in the Bolsonaro government and former president of the Union for Rural Democracy (UDR). Background After the early days of Islam, the tribes in the interior of Oman were led by I ...
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Oman
Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline faces the Arabian Sea to the southeast and the Gulf of Oman on the northeast. The exclaves of Madha and Musandam Governorate, Musandam are surrounded by the United Arab Emirates on their land borders, while Musandam’s coastal boundaries are formed by the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. The capital and largest city is Muscat. With a population of approximately 5.46 million and an area of 309,500 km2 (119,500 sq mi), Oman is the Countries with highest population, 123rd most-populous country. From the 18th century, the Omani Sultanate was Omani Empire, an empire, competing with the Portuguese Empire, Portuguese and British Empire, British empires for influence in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. At its peak in the 19th ce ...
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