A revised chronology of the Sultans of Kilwa in the 18th and 19th centuries

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Author/Creator Alpers, Edward A. Date 1967 Resource type Articles Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Northern , , United Republic of, Source Smithsonian Institution Libraries, DT365 .A992 Relation Azania: Journal of the British Insitute of History and Archaeology in , Vol. 2 (1967): 146-163 Rights By kind permission of Azania (British Institute in Eastern Africa). Format extent 21 pages (length/size)

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http://www.aluka.org A Revised Chronology of the Sultans of Kilwa

A Revised Chronology of the Sultans of Kilwa in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries by Edward Alpers Dr. Alpers is a lecturer in the History Department of the University College, Dar es Salaam. He has been studying the history of the Yao and of the Malawi Empire; to this examination of the Sultans of Kilwa in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries he brings an extensive knowledge of the Portuguese sources. Recent publications by Neville Chittick (1965, 1966), based on his excavations at Kilwa and on his interpretation of the Portuguese and Arabic versions of the sixteenth century Kilwa Chronicle, as well as on the numismatical evidence, challenge G.S.P. FreemanGrenville's earlier (1962a) reconstruction of the pre- Portuguese history of Kilwa and of the chronology of its sultans. Chittick's criticisms have generally met with wide approval. Less attention has been paid, however, to Freeman-Grenville's tentative reconstruction of the eighteenth and nineteenth century sultans of Kilwa, which appears as an introductory chapter, entitled "The Sultans of Kilwa, c. 1700 to c. 1856", in his The French at Kilwa Island (1965a, pp. 28-38). In a review of this volume (1965), I briefly pointed out certain weaknesses in this later chronology; but Freeman-Grenville is correct in stating (1966, p. 7) that his dating of the rulers of Kilwa in this period "has as yet not been challenged." In this article I wish to analyse the way in which Freeman- Grenville utilizes the sources at his disposal; then to introduce some new evidence which was unknown to him; and finally to propose a revised chronology and genealogy for these more recent sultans of Kilwa. Still the earliest known relevant document is a letter which was sent to Portugal in 1723 by the Sultan of Kilwa, Sultan Ibrahim b. Sultan Yusufb. Sultan Muhammad b. Sultan Alawi. According tojustus Strandes (p. 99, n. 15), who first published this reference in 1899, this letter was located among the "MS. Liss. Archivo do Conselho Ultramarino. Papeis de Servigo No. d'Ordem 1046." Since Strandes undertook his research at the end of the last century in Lisbon, there have been several major relocations and reclassifications of, as well as substantial additions to, the body of archives then extant there. The business of locating documents mentioned in early authorities is therefore no simple matter. I have, for example, looked in vain for this document under all the obvious headings in the various archives in Lisbon. Consequently, we still do not know either the contents of the letter or exactly to whom it was addressed. Nevertheless, it makes a useful beginning for this sort of reconstruction, especially as the genealogical details are all verifiable from other sources. The next source which was known to Freeman- Grenville is the treaty which was concluded between the Sultan of Kilwa and the French slave 140 Sultans of Kilwa trader Jean-Vincent Morice' on 14 September, 1776. Freeman-Grenville initially cites the information on the sultan's seal to this treaty, which renders only the names of the ruler and his father, Sultan Hasan b. Sultan Ibrahim, the name of the grandfather being omitted on the seal. But, he points out, this name is supplied in the text of the treaty itself, so that we have the more complete name of Sultan Hasan b. Sultan Ibrahim b. Sultan Yusuf (Freeman-Grenville, 1965a, p. 29). If we turn to the full text of the treaty, however, we find that a much more extensive genealogy is given in the treaty than that which Freeman-Grenville cites in his introductory chapter. According to Freeman-Grenville's own translation (ibid., p. 71), the treaty opens with the following proclamation: "From the slave who trusts in God, the Sultan of Kilwa [of the line] of the Kings, Sultan Hasan son of Sultan Ibrahim son of Sultan Yusuf son of Sultan Muhammad son of Sultan Ali the Kilwa Shirazi." Later on in his reconstruction, Freeman-Grenville introduces the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani. (For an English translation, see Freeman-Grenville, 1962b, pp. 220-226.) From this history we see that during the reign of Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim "a Frenchman came to do business" (Freeman-Grenville, 1962b, p. 223). As Freeman-Grenville notes (1965a, p. 35), it is clear that this is the same ruler who signed the treaty with Morice in 1776. But for Freeman-Grenville certain problems are raised by the fact that this sultan's genealogy, beyond his father, is at odds with Strandes' evidence and the (incomplete) information which he himself has gathered from the treaty. According to the Kisiwani tradition, Sultan Hasan's full genealogy is Sultan Hasan b. Sultan Ibrahim b. Sultan Muhammad b. Sultan 'Ali. Comparing this ruler's descent with the other data, it seems perfectly reasonable to assume that the oral tradition has merely forgotten the name of Sultan Yusuf b. Sultan Muhammad, who is mentioned in the letter found by Strandes and in the body of the treaty with Morice. Indeed, Freeman-Grenville reaches this same conclusion (ibid., p. 35). But because he ignores Sultan Hasan b. Sultan Ibrahim's full genealogy as given in the treaty, Freeman-Grenville forces himself into a position where he must try to account for the inclusion of a Sultan Muhammad in the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani and his omission in the treaty of 1776. Although he raises several interesting points in this discourse, all his efforts to this point are unnecessary, as the treaty does include Sultan Muhammad's name. Furthermore, the treaty quite plainly states that Sultan Muhammad's father was Sultan 'Ali. Thus the identification of Alawi with 'Ali seems evident. Had Freeman-Grenville made full use of the sources at hand he should have found no problems in collating Strandes' evidence with that in the text of the treaty concluded between the Sultan of Kilwa and M. Morice in 1776. Put in tabular form we can see this quite clearly (see Table opposite). In connection with 'Ali, or Alawi, the earliest documented Sultan of Kilwa in this period, it is worth noting that the Kisiwani tradition refers to a Shirazi named Ali b. Sulaiman as the founder of Kilwa. As Freeman-Grenville points out, there is a strong case for believing that this is merely a late nineteenth century rendition of the founding of Kilwa as documented in both the Arabic and Portuguese variants of the Kilwa Chronicle. On the other hand, if the 'Ali b. Sulaiman of tradition is to be identified as the 'Ali/ 1. Archives Nationales de , Paris, Colonies s6rie C4, vol. 49: Morice's Christian name appears in the copy of a contract, dated Port Louis, 30 September 1779, for the purchase of six hundred slaves by the Government of Ile de France. I am grateful to Dr. Freeman-Grenville for allowing me to utilize his draft paper, "Some Eighteenth-century Documents concerning Eastern Africa in the Archives de France." (1965b).

Edward Alpers Strandes Treaty Alawi 'Ali II Muhammad b. Alawi Muhammad b. 'Ali II Yusufb.Muhammad Yusufb.Muhammad Ibrahim b. Yusuf Ibrahim b. Yusuf (F1. 1723)] Hasan b. Ibrahim (Fl. 1776) Alawi of record, I think it is preferable not to pursue this point Cf. ibid., pp.34- 35). Rather, I feel that we should accept the fact that telescoping has taken place, and then concentrate on trying to place the modern 'Ali/Alawi b. Sulaiman in his historical context. This is not so easily done. In the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani, 'Mi b. Sulaiman is said to have married the daughter of Mrimba, the first headman of Kilwa Kisiwani. But 'Ali seems clearly to be datable to the seventeenth century, while the only other evidence we possess for Mrimba seems to point to a mid-eighteenth century dating (Abdallah, p. 9, 11. 9-17). This assignation, however, is contingent upon our acceptance of the identification of Mrimba as a unique personality. At present, there is no way to substantiate such a belief, and I am inclined to regard the name Mrimba as an inheritable tide, rather than a personal name. This, then, is a point which requires further research. Returning to Hasan b. Ibrahim's date of accession, Freeman-Grenville (1965a, p. 81) bases his dating on Morice's testimony, written from Kilwa on 4 November, 1776, that: * . . the king who now reigns in Kilwa is the youngest of three brothers. The eldest of these reigned for two years and was dethroned, ... because he drank too much. The second only reigned for a year; he was deposed because he was of too limited an intelligence. The third has reigned for four years, everyone is delighted with him. It seems that he will go on reigning until the end of his life. These two deposed kings are both on the island and have no title but that of private citizens. On the unverified strength of this evidence alone, Freeman-Grenville (ibid., p. 30) dates the death of Sultan Ibrahim b. Yusuf and the accession of his eldest son to the throne in 1769. Similarly, he ascribes this son's deposition for drunkenness to 1771; and a year later he has Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim b. Yusuf taking over from his other unqualified elder brother. Were Morice our only source on this matter, we would have little alternative to accepting what he says. In fact, the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani mentions a younger brother of Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim, who preceded him as sultan. But the details of his reign seem less reliable than Morice's information, for we are told that when he came to power "there was trouble in the land for seven years from famine and locusts*... We know nothing of the events of Sultan Isufu (Yusuf), because he did not reign properly on account of the trouble" (Freeman-Grenville, 1962b, p. 223). The suspicions that are

148 Sultans of Kilwa raised by the assignation of a seven year reign to this ruler are confirmed by a similar passage in the Swahili History of Pate, where we learn that a certain Sultan Ahmad "reigned seven years without rain falling, and then he abdicated of his own free will..." (ibid., p. 258). In these circumstances, Freeman-Grenville is quite justified in prefering Morice to the Habari za Zanani za Kilwa Kisiwani. Regrettably, in his tentative reconstruction, he completely ignores Strandes' reference (p. 302) to the fact that in 1759 Sultan Hasan b. Sultan Ibrahim b. Sultan Yusuf sent an envoy to Mogambique with news of the struggle between , Pate, and Muscat, and assuring the Portuguese of his continued friendship. The omission of this valuable piece of information becomes all the more remarkable when we find Freeman-Grenville citing this very same reference on page 41 (1965a), just three pages after the presentation of his final tentative reconstruction. Furthermore, Strandes' evidence also indicates that Morice cannot be regarded as an infallible source of information. We must therefore reject Freeman-Grenville's dates for the death of Sultan Ibrahim b. Yusuf b. Muhammad, for the reigns of his two elder sons, and for the accession of Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim b. Yusuf. New archival sources have recently been found in Lisbon which sustain thisjudgment; but before turning to them it is necessary to continue our examination of FreemanGrenville's reconstruction in The French at Kilwa Island. Moving towards the early nineteenth century rulers of Kilwa, I am unable to add anything to Freeman-Grenville's comments (ibid., pp. 30, 36) on the unique reference (Gray, 19-62a) to Sultan Abu Bakr b. Sultan Hasan b. Sultan Ibrahim the Shirazi of Kilwa, who wrote a letter to the Governor of Ile de France in 1797. This sultan's existence, his dating, and his pedigree are indisputable. Yet he is nowhere mentioned in the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani. FreemanGrenville's placement of this individual as Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim's immediate successor (if not necessarily his eldest living son) is the only way in which we can make sense of this reference. With the last four sultans of the line Freeman-Grenville has less success. Here, again, he fails to utilize the available sources to their fullest advantage, while drawing some rather dubious conclusions from the same sources. The first of these rulers, Sultan Yusuf b. Sultan Hasan b. Sultan Ibrahim, is said, in the Habari za Zatnani za Kilwa Kisiwani, to have been his father's eldest son and successor. Perhaps this is an indication that the reign of Sultan Abu Bakr b. Hasan b. Ibrahim was not a happy one, and that his elder brother, Yusuf, soon replaced him as sultan. In any case, whenever Sultan Yusuf b. Hasan came into office, it is virtually certain that he was reigning when H. M. Frigate Nisus visited Kilwa in 1812. We owe this information to the diligence and curiosity of the ship's surgeon, James Prior, who records that the sultan's name was Yousou Fou (p. 68). Yet Freeman-Grenville persists in dating this voyage, and thus the one date we have had up to now for Sultan Yusufb. Hasan, to 1811 (1962b, p. 202; 1965, p. 28, 36), although Prior himself states quite explicitly, in the Advertisement to his journal (p. iii), that "the voyage along part of the Eastern coast of Africa... took place in consequence of the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope, in 1812, of an embassador (sic) from the King of the Comoro Islands to the governor of that colony.. ." This point also seems clear enough to Sir John Gray (1963, p. 222). Sultan Yusuf b. Hasan b. Ibrahim, or at least Prior's Sultan Yousou Fou, was on the throne of his ancestors in 1812. For the remainder of his reconstruction, Freeman-Grenville relies exclusively on the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani, interpreting its details in light of historical

Edward Alpers knowledge of the coast during this period. He is probably right, I think, in rejecting the possibility (1965a, pp. 36-37) that Sultan Yusuf b. Hasan's son, Mfumo Hasan (Formo Sani), who greeted Prior on his visit to Kilwa in 1812 (p. 70), ever succeeded to the throne. All the more reliable available evidence points to this conclusion (see below, p. 152). But in trying to date Sultan Yusuf b. Hasan's death and the regnal dates of his successors, he encounters a considerable amount of difficulty. In regard to the first point, Freeman-Grenville seizes upon the statement in the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani (Freeman-Grenville, 1962b, pp. 223-224) that "there was great friendship" between Sultan Yusuf b. Hasan and Sayyid Sa'id of , and that "Said bin Sultan was on excellent terms with the people and the ruler." There is nothing unusual in this passage, which seems a common enough accounting of the fact that, as Freeman-Grenville himself puts it (1965, p. 32), there were "cordial relations" between Sayyid Sa'id and the vassal Sultan of Kilwa, Yusufb. Hasan. But Freeman-Grenville reads far more into this passage. "Since," he writes, "Sayyid Said's first visit to Zanzibar was in 1827, the friendship of the kind described could hardly have occurred before that date." He then goes on to suggest that "Yusuf bin Hasan's friendship with Sayyid Said should presumably be placed c. 1827-32, if not later" (ibid., pp. 32, 36). It must be stated categorically that there is not one shred of evidence in the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani that these two men ever met personally. It is also a disconcerting matter of detail to find Freeman-Grenville incorrectly dating Sayyid Sa'id's first visit to East Africa to 1827. Both Gray (1962b, pp. 123- 124) and Coupland (pp. 273-274) indicate that although the fleet set sail from Muscat late in 1827, it did not actually reach East Africa, at Mombasa, until the first week of the new year, January 1828. There is, on the other hand, a very clear statement on the chronological circumstances of Sultan Yusuf b. Hasan's death in the same Swahili history. This FreemanGrenville disregards. The last paragraph in the tradition which deals with the reign of Yusuf b. Hasan describes in relative detail the raids made on Kilwa Kisiwani and on the lesser islands in the Mafia group by the Sakalava people of north-western . When the Sakalava had finally been defeated, and their captives returned to Mafia, we are told: "Then Sultan Isufu died" (Freeman- Grenville, 1962b, p. 224). Sir John Gray (1963, p. 222) has previously noted this situation, adding that the Sakalava raid on Mafia "took place in about 1822." In fact, this date is rather too late; but this is of no significance in the present context. What matters is that Freeman-Grenville could have arrived at a much more plausible date for the end of Sultan Yusuf b. Hasan's reign than he has, simply by making better use of the sources at his disposal. Had he placed Yusuf b. Hasan's death at sometime shortly after 1822, he might also have avoided his speculations concerning the sultan's friendship with Sayyid Sa'id. What, then, of the succeeding sultans? The Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani (Freeman-Grenville, 1962b, p. 224) has this to say: Sultan Mohamed bin Sultan Hasani succeeded. The people intrigued with Sultan Selimani bin Sultan Hasani, to such an extent that they both went to Muscat about the succession-from which Sultan Selimani returned. When they arrived at Muscat before Said bin Sultan, he imprisoned Sultan Mohamed, and Sultan Selimani returned to come and rule himself.

150 Sultans of Kilwa When he arrived at Kisiwani, the townsfolk sent him back to Muscat, saying: 'Since you wish to rule, release your brother Mohamed from prison, and bring him here: then you shall rule.' Sultan Selimani returned to Muscat and released his brother Sultan Mohamed, and they both came back as far as Zanzibar. There Sultan Selimani died, leaving Sultan Mohamed. The details of the succession dispute between Sultan Yusuf b. Hasan's (probably younger) brothers, Muhammad and Sulaiman, should be readily apparent. Their rivalry reached such a state that either the citizens of Kilwa, or the Omani governor, who was the effective ruling power, sent them off to Muscat to avail themselves of Sayyid Sa'id's arbitration. Thrice it is stated that Muscat was their destination; once that Sayyid Sa'id was in residence there. It was only after Sulaiman's unsuccessful bid to foist himself off on the people of Kilwa as their legitimate sultan, and his return to Muscat to retrieve his brother, that they are said to have spent any time at Zanzibar (cf. Gray, 1963, p. 222). Nor is it stated, or implied, that Sayyid Sa'id was then at Zanzibar. The death at Zanzibar of Sultan Sulaiman b. Hasan, by fair means or foul, left Sultan Muhammad b. Hasan, albeit temporarily, as the sole claimant to the throne. The most likely conclusion to be drawn from this evidence is that these appeals were made to Sayyid Sa'id sometime after Sultan Yusuf b. Hasan's death in the early 1820s, and before Sayyid Sa'id's coming to Zanzibar, which took place between the time of his first visit in 1828 and the final removal of his capital to East Africa in 1840. Indeed, given the nature of the evidence, it seems most probable that the dispute and the arbitration all happened before Sayyid Sa'id's first voyage to East Africa, although we cannot conclude this categorically on the sole basis of the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani. It can, in fact, be ascertained from other sources that this was the case. But Freeman-Grenville (1965a, p. 36) sees things differently: Sayyid Said's permanent residence in Zanzibar began in 1840. In recounting the quarrel which took place about the succession after Yusuf bin Masan's death, although it is not explicitly stated, it appears to be assumed that Sayyid Said was in normal residence in Zanzibar: the tradition speaks of both Sultan Muhammad and his rival brother as returning from Zanzibar after their appeal. The incident, and Sulaiman's almost immediate death, can thus be placed in the fifth decade of the nineteenth century. It is clear that Freeman-Grenville has substantially misread the tradition, when he deduces that Sayyid Sa'id was in residence in Zanzibar; and his dating of this incident must therefore be rejected out of hand. It should be noted, too, that Sultan Sulaiman b. Hasan did not return to Kilwa from Zanzibar with his brother Muhammad. Finally, Freeman-Grenville's account of the end of the Kilwa sultanate is unsatisfactory. The last known Sultan of Kilwa seems to have been Hasan b. Sulaiman, who assumed his father's mantle after the latter's death at Zanzibar and pressed his claim to the throne. There are two different traditional accounts describing how Hasan b. Sulaiman became sultan and how the sultanate ended with his reign, while a third variant recounts a similar situation. The Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani (Freeman-Grenville, 1962b,

Edward Alpers pp. 224-225) reveals the growing importance of the town of Kilwa Kivinje, situated on the mainland some sixteen miles to the north of Kilwa Kisiwani. It notes that the people of Kisiwani warned Sultan Muhammad b. Hasan not to pass by way of the rival town on his return from Zanzibar, but that he succumbed to the invitation of the Kivinje people to do so. Consequently, the Kilwa Kisiwani folk proclaimed Hasan b. Sulaiman, who was undoubtedly waiting in the wings, as sultan. The mainlanders and the islanders united behind their chosen sultans, each of whom seems clearly to have been no more than a symbol of the increasingly bitter rivalry between the two towns, Kilwa Kisiwani struggling for survival and Kilwa Kivinje aiming to emerge as the most important trading port on the coast of southern Tanzania. "So they made war, and the people of Kisiwani came to Mjengera (just north of Kilwa Kivinje) and fought with them for many days. Then Sultan Mohamed made his home at Mkondaji (on the mainland) and Sultan Hasan made his home at Kisiwani, until Sultan Mohamed died. And since Sultan Mohamed and Sultan Hasan ruled there has been no proper kingdom, nor have we heard of their habits and customs. After the death of Sultan Mohamed power was in the hands of Said bin Sultan himself. Sultan Hasan had no power but only the honour of the title Sultan." Thus, the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani would have us believe that the line simply expired, for no further mention is made of the sultans of Kilwa in the chronicle. The second variant comes from P. A. Lienhardt (cited in Freeman-Grenville, 1965a, p. 37), who collected it at Pande, a small mainland village near Kilwa Kivinje, from "the hereditary circumciser of the survivors of Kilwa's ruling family." Lienhardt was told that there were two claimants to the throne. One was the previously encountered Sultan Hasan b. Sulaiman; the other was a certain Ibrahim b. Mawahibu, who is otherwise unknown to us. The Sultan of Zanzibar (presumably Sayyid Sa'id, but he is not mentioned by name) was asked to arbitrate and decided in favour of Hasan b. Sulaiman. The rejected Ibrahim b. Mawahibu, together with his son Fadhila, left the island and settled on the mainland, where Fadhila maintained the family opposition to Sultan Hasan b. Sulaiman after the death of his father, Ibrahim. According to the tradition, Fadhila had one trump card to play, for the unsuccessful arbitration had granted his father the right to use "the horn of Kilwa, the principal emblem of the sultanate and of the Shirazis." Fadhila managed to inveigle the royal horn (of which this tradition is the unique source of knowledge) from Sultan Hasan, who only surrendered it reluctantly. Having gained possession of the horn, Fadhila refused to return it and he told his followers that he meant to 'kill' the horn and put an end to the sultanate for ever. And so, as it is said, Fadhila took the horn and drowned it in the sea, and as his boat was passing Kilwa he sent a message to Hasan the last of the sultans, saying: The giant rock cod has swallowed the horn. There is no knowing whether he will vomit it up again. Utilizing these two accounts, the second of which is clearly symbolical, telling us nothing at all about the actual fate of Sultan Hasan b. Sulaiman, Freeman- Grenville

152 Sultans of Kilva concludes that the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani "is correct in describing Sultan Hasan as a feeble nonentity." This much is evident. What is lacking, however, is any attempt to go beyond the facade of the two traditions in order to determine the real fate of Sultan Hasan. I mentioned before that there are three versions of how the sultanate came to an end. The last is the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kivinje (Velten, pp. 253-264), to which FreemanGrenville gives unduly short shrift in his reconstruction. For while it is true that the tradition "represents a very diluted and unreliable form of the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani," (Freeman-Grenville, 1965, p. 34) the account which it gives of the fate of the sultanate is a valuable supplement to those given in the other two traditions. Briefly, the Kivinje chronicle says, quite inaccurately, that a certain Yusuf b. Hasan established the Shirazi dynasty of Kilwa Kisiwani. On his death there was a succession dispute between his son and designated successor, Hasan b. Yusuf, and his jealous brother, Isma'il b. Hasan. Their rivalry caused a civil war amongst the islanders, from which Isma'il emerged victorious. But his reign lasted only a few days, because Hasan poisoned him. So it was that Sultan Hasan b. Yusuf came to rule Kilwa Kisiwani and Kilwa Kivinje, which is here mentioned for the first and only time in the tradition. Sultan Hasan was popular with his subjects and his reign was peaceful. There were great profits from the ivory and gum copal trade during his time. Then, we are told, "Sultan Said bin Said (sic) came from Muscat, and arrived at Unguja. And at that time, when he came to govern Unguja, there were no sultans in these countries of Kilwa, because all the sultans had died" (Velten, pp. 258-259). The parallel between these events and those described in the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani is striking. Although the names of the rivals are different, it seems possible that the circumstances of Ismail b. Hasan's death by poisoning may reflect on those of Muhammad b. Hasan's otherwise obscure demise. Another tantalizing point which is raised by the Kivinje tradition is the unique appearance of a Sultan Hasan b. Yusuf, who, if the name is indeed correct, might be Prior's Fumo Hasan. These are intriguing items of speculation, but no more than that. The really important point which emerges from the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kivinje is that we have yet another totally different explanation given for the termination of the sultanate itself. Comparing the three very different versions of this extremely important development, it seems to me that we are confronted with three independent attempts to hide the real truth of the matter. Sir John Gray's researches suggest that this was indeed the case. In his valuable History of Zanzibar (p. 183) he writes of Sayyid Sa'id's concern at reported French attempts to establish a foothold on the mainland (which in December 1841 had been proved by Atkins Hamerton, the British Consul at Zanzibar, to be groundless), in the following terms: Later in 1842, however, the French brig-of-war Messager visited Kilwa and approached certain 'chiefs' there regarding the purchase of their island. The chiefs had hastened with the news to Zanzibar and were reported by Hamerton to be 'terribly frightened.' Seyyid Said was equally alarmed. Fearing that the Shirazi Sultan of Kilwa might succumb to the temptation of French gold, he caused him to be deported to Muscat.

Edward Alpers Here, then, in a source which in other instances is utilized by Freeman-Grenville, is the ultimate fate, together with its approximate date, of the Kilwa sultanate. (cf. Burton, II, p. 366, who names the deported last Sultan as Muhammad [Muammadi].) If Freeman-Grenville's tentative chronology of these later sultans of Kilwa is unacceptable, what evidence have we, beyond the texts which he had at his disposal, from which to construct a more realistic outline of this sort? Strandes' earliest notice of Sultan Hasan b. Sultan Ibrahim b. Sultan Yusuf is dated at Mogambique, 24 July, 1759 (p. 321, n. 10). But this letter merely refers to the sultan as a third party.2 I have, however, discovered the original Portuguese translation of the sultan's letter, as well as the Portuguese reply to this letter. The first was received at Mogambique from Sultan Hasan b. Sultan Ibrahim b. Sultan Yusuf (Sultan Assane Bonusultan Ibraimo, Bonusultan Issufo) on either 20 or 24 April, 1759. It tells of the previous year's expedition sent from Muscat against the combined rebels of Mombasa and Pate (for details, see Alpers, 1966, pp. 154155), and assures the Portuguese governor (then Pedro de Saldanha de Albuquerque) of continued amity between Kilwa and the Portuguese. The letter also explains that its bearer is the Sultan's brother and ambassador. In his reply, Saldanha de Albuquerque mentions the Sultan's brother by name: Mwinyi Juma Mwinyi Jamoto (:) (Moenha Juma Moenha Jamote). This is the only known reference to this brother of Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim.3 A year later Saldanha de Albuquerque received another, unlocated, letter from Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim, which apparently contained further news of the northern coast and expressed the Sultan's desire for continued trade between Kilwa and Mogambique.4 Five years later, in April 1765, another delegation from the same Sultan of Kilwa was received at , as we know from the copy of a "Letter from the Quiloa Sultane Assane Bune Sultane Ibraymo, and jointly all the Moors of Mindano [Mikindani?], and Mombasa, and Muenha Combo is able to give the news of what is happening here."5 The contents of this letter, Mwinyi Kombo's pretences to the throne of Mombasa, the ensuing farcical Portuguese expedition to recapture Mombasa, and Mwinyi Kombo's eventual fate, have all been dealt with in some detail elsewhere. (See Strandes, pp. 302304; Freeman-Grenville, 1965a, pp. 220-224; Teixeira Botelho, pp. 491-494; Hoppe, pp. 52-59). The principal interest of the letter for the present purposes is that it identifies Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim as a leader among the traditional Swahili coast rulers who were chafing under the yoke of Omani rule, and seeking Portuguese aid in the cause of independence from the . During the southwest monsoons of 1770, an unknown French slave trader at MoQambique reported to J. Brayer du Barre, a shipowner at Ile de France, that the King of Kilwa, "a little Moorish town" to the south of Mombasa, "has assured me at Mozambique, that he desires greatly to be put under the protection 2. Arquivo Hist6rico Ultramarino, Lisboa, C6dice 1317, fl. 62-63, Pedro de Saldanha de Albuquerque to Secretary of State, Mogambique, 24July 1759. 3. A.H.U., Morambique, caixa 7, "Verso da Carta do Rey do Quilloa," n.d., and reply, Mogambique, 27 April 1759; copies in A.H.U., C6dice 1317, fl. 72-73. 4. Ibid, fl. 215, Saldanha de Albuquerque to King of Kilwa, Mogambique, 12 May, 1760. 5. A.H.U., Mogambique, caixa 11, Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim to Governor of Mogambique (copy by Francisco Pereira de Almeida, dated Moqambique, 15 August, 1765), enclosed in Baltasar Manuel Pereira do Lago to Crown, Morambique, 19 August, 1765.

Sultans of Kilwa of the French.. ."6 It is most unlikely that the sultan, who passes without name, was actually at Mogambique in person, but we have seen that it was not unusual for his ambassador to be there. It also seems reasonable to interpret the sultan's invitation for French protection as yet another feeler for military aid against the Omani Arabs. This tactic would be in character for Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim. The next year we have more positive evidence that the sultan was seeking aid from every possible quarter. Sometime before 12 April, 1771, another ambassador from the Sultan of Kilwa arrived at Mogambique bearing this extremely interesting letter from his master: I, the King of Kilwa, Sultan Mfalme Hasan bin Sultan Ibrahim bin Sultan Yusuf the Shirazi Alawi (Sulte Mufalome Ase bone Sultane Ebrahimo Bone Sultame Uxufe Sirasice Lauy), send this letter to the Governor of Morambique, wishing him good health, and also apprising him of my own. I also send my ambassador, Musa Muhammad, of the Malindane caste (Muxa Amamhamad Casta Melindane), whom I have ordered to seek news of Portugal and to learn about former assistance, because all the people of my Kingdom- Mombasa, Mafia, Mongalo, and Zanzibar-are ready to receive Portugal's aid against the Arabs, so that they might restore these lands to the Portuguese. The reply to this note states only that it is impossible to respond to the sultan's requests until the annual fleet from Portugal arrives in August. On the other hand, it gives a different version of both the ruler's name and that of his ambassador. The former is addressed as the King of Kilwa, Sultan Hasan b. Sultan Ibrahim b. Sultan Muhammad b. Sultan YusufKilwi(:) Shirazi (Sultane Assane Rey de Quiloa, Ebuno Sultane Ebraimo, Buno Sultane Momade; Buno Sultane Eusufo, Quiloae sirazi), while his envoy is referred to as Mwenyi Musa Mwenyi Muhammad, "a Moor of the Malindane caste" (Muenhe Chaa! casta mouro Melindane Moenhe Mumade).7 Comparing the two different versions of the sultan's name with the text of the 1776 treaty concluded by the same ruler with Morice, it seems likely that the discrepancies can be resolved. The clerk who translated the sultan's letter apparently dropped Muhammad, the penultimate name in the pedigree, while the scribe who drafted the reply seems to have deleted the last name in the line, Alawi, and reversed those of the sultan's grandfather and great-grandfather, Yusuf and Muhammad. If we accept this reconstruction, we have fair evidence that the Sultan of Kilwa in 1771 was the same Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim b. Yusuf b. Muhammad b. Alawi who was reigning at the time of Morice's first visit, some five years later. 6. A.N.F., Colonies s6rie C4, vol. 29, "Extrait d'une lettre ecritte de mozambique au J. Brayer du Barre en forme d'instruction et yjoint une lettre ecritte en arabe par le Roy de quilloa," n.d., but between extracts dated 15 March and 8 October, 1770. Although a letter in Arabic script follows these extracts, it is neither in Arabic nor from the Sultan of Kilwa, but rather "in ancient Lamu Swahili in Arabic script from Alawi b. Sayyid Ahmad b. Abdallah to his brother Mwinyi Waziri Abdallah bin Seyyidina Ahmad b. Abdallah, asking him to look after his wife and to bring her to Pate." The letter is undated. (Freeman-Grenville, 1965b, p. 11.). 7. A.H.U., Mogambique, caixa 14, translation of letter from King of Kilwa, n.d., and reply (in a different hand), Mogambique, 12 April, 1771.

Edward Alpers This fact throws some interesting light on what we know about the history of Kilwa at this time. According to Morice (Freeman-Grenville, 1965a, pp. 151- 152), during the first three months of each year, the Arabs withdrew to Zanzibar in order to purchase their stock in trade from the Omani merchant vessels. Even the Arab governor of Kilwa joined this annual exodus, thereby temporarily leaving the island free from his control. On the occasion of this phenomenon in 1771, with the Arabs safely away in Zanzibar, the people of Kilwa simply declared their independence and notified the Arabs that they would in future be tolerated only as traders. Morice goes on to say that the Arabs believed the people of Kilwa to be backed "by a fairly strong party because they sent no armed men. Note that the people of Kilwa were supported by the people of Mafia and the adjacent islands and by the whole Kingdom of Kilwa." This description accords well with Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim's contemporary picture of general dissatisfaction with Omani overrule along the entire coast, even if the Portuguese translation of his letter gives a grossly inflated representation of the extent of his domain. Furthermore, although there is in Morice's sketch no indication of the sultan's role in this quiet revolution, his several attempts to enlist the aid of the French and the Portuguese (although their help proved unnecessary) strongly suggests that he was at the very least the rallying point for the Kilwa patriots who engineered the rebellion. It also seems more probable that an internally dynamic movement of this nature would have taken place in these circumstances, rather than during the reign of either a dullard or a drunkard (cf. ibid., p. 41). A final point of interest which emerges from Sultan Hasan's last endeavour to ensure Portuguese support for his cause (which may have been conveyed at the very moment of Kilwa's ultimatum to the Arabs) is that his ambassador was certainly the same individual who is named in the 1776 treaty with Morice as Bwana Mwinyi Musa Malindane. As Secretary to the Sultan it was through his offices that Morice was bound to buy slaves, "in order to avoid all difficulty at Kilwa" (ibid., p. 70). Hitherto, Morice's several references to the office of Malindane have been unique, and Freeman-Grenville presents an interesting analysis of the problem in his introduction to the text (ibid., pp. 42-47). But in view of these new notices of the Malindane, the conclusions he draws about the title itself may possibly require re-examination. A brief recapitulation of the firmly established dates which we now possess seems in order at this point. In 1723 Sultan Ibrahim b. Yusuf was reigning at Kilwa. By 1759 he had been succeeded by his son, Hasan b. Ibrahim, who was still Sultan of Kilwa when Morice concluded his treaty in 1776. Have we any reasonable bases for speculation regarding the regnal dates of these two sultans beyond these facts? Certainly a few exist, but they must be regarded with care. In January 1719 the Portuguese Viceroy of the State of India addressed a letter of amity to the Sultan of Kilwa, noting the oppressive behaviour of the Arabs there and sending him a small gift in token of Portuguese friendship.8 The letter and gift were apparently delivered secretly, to avoid arousing the Arabs' suspicion. As was to happen half a century later, however, Kilwa did not need external aid in order to expel their Omani overlords, for after two decades of foreign rule, the people of Kilwa reasserted their ancient independence early in the 1720s (Strandes, pp. 275-278). The next bit of 8. British Museum, Additional Ms. 20, 906, f. 211, D. Luis de Meneses, Conde de Ericeira, to King of Kilwa, Goa, 27 January 1719.

156 Sultans of Kilwa information we have about Kilwa concerns the death of Fr. Francisco de Prezentago, also known as Francisco da Costa, who is reported to have been killed "by the Mouros Monjungulos in Kilwa on the occasion of the conquest of Mombasa in 1729." (Silva Rego, p. 675). This is a perplexing reference. On the one hand, the two standard authorities on the Portuguese re-occupation and final loss of Mombasa in 1727-1729 nowhere mention the presence of Portuguese at Kilwa (Boxer, pp. 75-81; Strandes, pp. 278-294). This does not, of course, rule out the possibility that a single Portuguese friar, perhaps encouraged by the eviction of the Arabs earlier in the decade, was not ministering his faith at Kilwa thereafter. On the other hand, it is difficult to make sense of the phrase Mouros Monjungulos. Presuming Monjungulos to be a variant of Musungulos, the usual Portuguese name for the Nyika living on the mainland behind Mombasa (see ibid., p. 351), we might read this as "Swahili(zed) Nyika." If this reading is correct, we must explain their presence at Kilwa, although this is not out of the question, provided that they were visiting sailors, or merchants, from Mombasa. But it seems more likely that the person who recorded Fr. Francisco's death, if indeed it took place at Kilwa, knew very little about Kilwa and the exact circumstances of this event, except perhaps that the assassins were African Muslims. He may therefore have assumed that they were Islamized Nyika, who probably would have been a type not unfamiliar to the Portuguese in the East. The next of these speculatory references is less open to such interpretation, but is also less likely to be rewarding. In the late 1730s, during the administration of the corrupt Nicolau Tolentino de Almeida, a son of the Sultan of Kilwa engaged in abortive negotiations at Mogambique with the governor for the establishment of "a new Trade" between the two towns.9 A few years later, in 1742, there was an exchange of letters between the new governor and the same Sultan of Kilwa, who again sent his son to act as ambassador to the Portuguese. Unfortunately, although the Portuguese correspondence refers to letters from the sultan and from other Swahili from north of Cape Delgado, these appear now to be lost.10 It is tempting to identify this sultan as Ibrahim b. Yusuf, and his son as the future Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim. This cannot be done positively, however, although it does seem more likely that the Sultan of Kilwa was at this date the father, rather than the son. The last of these sources, though much later in date, may help us to understand the intriguing notice of the death of Fr. Francisco da Prezentarao. Late in 1784, a certain French slaver named Joseph Crassons de Medeuil rather hastily attempted to negotiate a treaty of protection with the Sultan of Kilwa. Crassons claims that a letter to this effect was drafted to the King of France, stating among its provisions that in return for his protection "they offer to hand over a part of the island on its North Coast in which is situated the fort formerly belonging to the Portuguese [the Gereza] and from which they were driven out by the present king's father.. ." (Freeman-Grenville, 1962b, p. 194). Whatever the provenance of this last piece of information concerning the father of the reigning sultan, there seems to be a real possibility that Crassons' evidence makes sense. As I see it, there are four possible interpretations of Crassons' statement. One is that Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim was still reigning in 1784 and that his father was already sultan 9. A.H.U., Movambique, caixa 3, Almeida to Crown, n.d., but probably c. 1741- 1742. 10. Centro de Estudos Hist6ricos Ultramarinos, Lisboa, Filmoteca, Livro das Monq6es 115, fl. 183 and 170171, jos6 Gongalves Valverde to D. Lourengo de Noronha, Cape Delgado Islands, 20 June 1742, and Noronha to Viceroy, Mogambique, 14 August, 1742. The latter is published in Braganga Pereira, p. 256.

Edward Alpers when the Portuguese were driven from the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts, including Kilwa, in 1698. A second is that either there were other Portuguese in addition to Fr. Francisco at Kilwa in 1729, or that in view of their final withdrawal from Mombasa in that year, the concurrent murder of a single Portuguese priest at Kilwa constituted a second expulsion of the Portuguese in the folklore of the town some six decades later. In either case, it is virtually certain that Sultan Ibrahim b. Yusuf was reigning in 1729. A third interpretation is that the driving out of the Arabs in 1721 and the murder of Fr. Francisco in 1729 both occurred in the reign of Ibrahim b. Yusuf, and that the two events had been synthesised in local memory by 1784. In both these interpretations, Hasan b. Ibrahim remains as sultan at the time of Crassons' visit. Finally, one could argue that the expulsion of the Arabs in 1771 from their headquarters in the Portuguese- built Gereza (the Omani reconstruction dates from after the reoccupation of 1785: see Gray, 1964, p. 24; Freeman-Grenville, 1965a, pp. 53-54, 56; Strandes, p. 338) was somehow falsely conveyed to, or misunderstood by Crassons as meaning that the Portuguese were thrown out during the reign of Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim. In this case, it would have been his son, presumably Abu Bakr, with whom Crassons made his bargain. Of these four readings, I think that the last can be rejected straightaway, as it carries far less authority than the others. My own preference has hitherto been for the conclusion indicated by both the second and third interpretations of the material, although I would discard the totally speculative idea of a greater Portuguese presence at Kilwa in 1729. Nevertheless, the first possibility is recommended by our knowledge that the Portuguese certainly were present in some strength at Kilwa until the end of the seventeenth century (see Alpers, 1966, pp. 56-59), despite the fact that it implies an unusually long regnal period (at least eighty-six years) for only two sultans, father and son. Furthermore, although the genealogical details are rather confused in the Kisiwani tradition (see above, p. 146), there is good reason to believe that Sultan Ibrahim b. Yusuf succeeded as a minor, and that his great-aunt (not his aunt, as the chronicle states), Fatima binti Ali, acted as regent until he came of age. (See Freeman-Grenville, 1962b, pp. 222-223, and cf. his analysis of this passage in 1965a, p. 35). Even if he were in his early twenties in 1698, he would only have been in his sixties in 1742, when it very likely seems he was ruling. That the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani names Hasan as the elder of Ibrahim b. Yusuf's two children does not seem to be a serious problem, either; this may merely be a way of indicating that he was the elder of the two sons who succeeded to the title. In any case, Morice believed that Hasan was the youngest of three brothers. Considering the available sources, then, I think that this first interpretation is tentatively to be recommended. But without further documentation of a more positive nature, we can do no more than speculate on this point. What seems very probable, however, is the conclusion that Sultan Hasan b. Ibrahim was reigning in 1784, and that it was he who negotiated with Crassons, as he had with Morice less than a decade before. Of the remaining new documentation there is nothing which adds to our knowledge of the enigmatic Sultan Abu Bakr b. Hasan b. Ibrahim. All I have found is a rather typically frustrating Portuguese reference in 1794 to the King of Kilwa, "whose letter I am sending enclosed to Your Excellency." But like so many other enclosures, this one is not to be found in any of the correspondence from Mogambique.11 There is, however, a good bit 11. A.H.U., Morambique, caixa 28, Manuel Ant6nio Correia to D. Diogo de Sousa, Ibo, 22 February 1794.

1h8 Sultans of Kilwa of valuable information on Sultan Yusuf b. Hasan. We have already noted that Prior did not record this sultan's patronymic in 1812 (see above, p. 148). At the beginning of the following year, just four months after the Nisus left Kilwa, however, a brief letter of introduction was received at Morambique by the governor from Sultan Yusuf b. Sultan Hasan b. Sultan Ibrahim (Sultane Osufo Buno Sultane Assane Buno sultane Ibraimo). Although its contents are inconsequential, noting only that an unnamed brother, coming from Zanzibar, wishes to trade at Mogambique, this letter clearly establishes the place of Prior's Sultan Yousou Fou in the genealogy of his forebears.12 On 29 March, 1817 a letter of rather more importance was addressed from Mozambique by the new governor to the same Sultan Yusuf b. Sultan Hasan (Sultao Sufu Sultio Assane). Jos6 Francisco de Paula Cavalcanti de Albuquerque, the governor, was writing in reply to an otherwise unknown letter from Sultan Yusuf to his predecessor, whom he had replaced less than two months before (Bordalo, p. 126). Recapitulating the contents of the sultan's letter, he notes that "you informed him (the previous governor) of having thrown the Sakalava who had been there out of Kilwa in less than three days."1 Here we have documentary substantiation for an important event which is clearly recalled in the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani as being towards the end of Yusuf b. Hasan's reign (see above, p. 149). It should be noted, too, that this raid on Kilwa was previous to the more famous Sakalava expedition against the Mafia Islands, which took place a year later in late 1817 and early 1818. Indeed, the Kilwa Kisiwani tradition makes a clear distinction between these two raids. Given the date of Cavalcanti de Albuquerque's letter to Yusuf b. Hasan, and in view of our knowledge of the organization of the Sakalava raids (see Alpers, 1966, pp. 248-251), it seems most likely that the raid against Kilwa took place towards the end of 1816, or at the very beginning of 1817. This accords well with the invaluable observations of the French traveller Frangois-Joachin-Fortun6 Albrand, who noted in 1819 that "Kilwa was attacked not long ago by the Sakalava... [who] last year formed an expedition against Mafia..." (Albrand, p. 82). Fortun6 Albrand was a gifted young Oriental linguist who also had compiled a wellreceived Arabic dictionary of 25,000 words before he left France in 1817 for R6union (which was still at that time called Bourbon), where he combined a teaching post with the duties of secretary to the administrateur g~ngral of the colony. Two years later the Governor of Bourbon sent him as ambassador to the Sultan of Kilwa, who is said to have proposed to cede Zanzibar and Mafia to France. As we have seen, there was a well established tradition for this sort of ploy by the Sultans of Kilwa. Accordingly, Albrand set sail aboard the corvette Amaranthe on 16 January, 1819. (cf. Gray, 1964, p. 22, n. 2.) Unfortunately, we do not know the duration of Albrand's sojourn in East Africa, although he spent enough time at Kilwa and Zanzibar to learn some Swahili, an achievement which sets him apart from both Morice and Crassons. It appears, however, that Albrand returned to Bourbon in the same year (Roman d'Amat, p. 1288). Albrand's remarks on the Sakalava raids constitute only one half of his validation of the testimony of the Kisiwani chronicle. Those on the sultanate itself (pp. 82- 83) not only furnish us with useful supplementary information on the mode of succession to the 12. A.H.U., Mogambique, caixa 57, Sultan Yusuf b. Sultan Hasan b. Sultan lbraim to Governor of Mogambique, Kilwa, 17 February, 1813. 13. A.H.U., C6dice 1377, fl. 210.

Edward Alpers throne (cf. Freeman-Grenville, 1962a, p. 151; 1965a, pp. 45, 81), but also confirm and add to the account of Sultan Yusuf b. Hasan's death, and the struggle which followed it, in the Swahili history: The kingdom of Kilwa is at the same time hereditary and elective. The crown cannot leave the reigning family, but all the relatives of the same degree of the deceased (ruler) have equal right to it, and the choice must be made among them by the deputies of the diverse tribes of the coast. At the time of our arrival at Kilwa, the last king had just died, and his successor was not yet elected. Two brothers of the deceased aspired to replace him, and this rivalry seemed to excite no misunderstanding among them. The elder of these princes, named Sulaiman (Soleiman), has a lively and enterprising character; his animosity against the Arabs is extreme, but he knows to conceal it. Thus we have positive evidence that Sultan Yusufb. Hasan died sometime before Albrand arrived at Kilwa, probably either at the very end of 1818 or in the early months of 1819. This dating also substantiates the implication in the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani that he died shortly after the last Sakalava raid on the Tanzanian coast. Thanks to Albrand we now also know that Sultan Sulaiman b. Yusuf was older than his brother Muhammad. Nor, being an outsider, is it surprising that Albrand should not have been privy to the apparently bitter rivalry between the two brothers, which is so vividly related in the Swahili tradition. Finally, Albrand also mentions that a nephew of the Sultan reigning at the time of the final Omani occupation of Kilwa, early in 1785, distinguished himself in the fighting against the Arabs. This man, Mfalme Hasan, cannot be identified with any other known member of the royal family. Two further casual references at this time to undiscovered correspondence from the Sultan are no help at all, although the earlier must relate to the reign of Yusuf b. Hasan, while the latter might conceivably indicate that his son, Muhammad, had actually succeeded by October 1819.14 On the other hand, a brief note of amity from the Governor of Mogambique in 1830 establishes that the reigning monarch was a Sultan Hasan (Assane), who was continuing the old tradition of maintaining official contact with the Portuguese through the offices of a commercial ambassador. As often before, this man was a relative of the sultan, in this case a nephew named Husain b. Umar (Usene Bon Omar).15 Neither he nor his father are mentioned in the traditions. Despite the absence of this sultan's patronymic, I think that we can safely identify him with Sultan Hasan b. Sulaiman, who is identified in the Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani as the last Sultan of Kilwa. It is most likely, as the chronicle tells us, that he was sultan in name only; indeed, his lack of influence may well account for what appears to be his reasonably lengthy tenure of office. (cf. the Kivinje chronicle above, p. 152). Only the renewed threat in 1842 of 14. A.H.U., C6dice 1380, fl. 203-204, Cavalcanti de Albuquerque to Tomis Ant6nio de Vilanova Portugal, Morambique, 9 March, 1818; A.H.U., C6dice 1394, fl. 14, Jolo da Costa Brito Sanches to Conde dos Arcos, Morambique 10 October, 1819. 15. A.H.U. C6dice 1425, fl. 4, Paulo Jos6 Miguel de Brito to Sultan Hasan of Kilwa, Mogambique, 13 March 1830.

Sultans of Kilwa resence at Kilwa moved Sayyid Sa'id to take the final step and deport Sultan uscat. written at some length on the present subject not so much because of its importance, but because of the methodological problems which are raised by cue sources involved. As I hope I have demonstrated, these include not only the traditional histories, but also the documentary evidence which we have examined. It is only by the careful and attentive use of both these sorts of materials, where the latter is available, that we can hope to achieve any accuracy in reconstructing the chronologies of African polities, both coastal and interior. After this article was submitted for publication, I was enabled to carry out a programme of research in the Historical Archives of Goa, India, through the generosity of a grant from the Committee on Research of the University of California, Los Angeles. Foremost among the documents which I collected were fourteen letters which have survived in the original Swahili texts, written in Arabic script, as well as in the contemporary Portuguese translations. These letters span the second and third decades of the eighteenth century and are concerned with the attitude of the Swahili rulers to their new Omani masters. Important as this new material is, for the present I wish only to note briefly those details which bear upon the present article. In the first place, my previous suggestion that Sultan Ibrahim b. Yusuf was ruling in 1698 is now proved to be too generous, while the discovery of the relevant documentation is a clear reminder of the limitations of the sort of reconstruction which led me to that conclusion. In 1711 the Queen of Kilwa wrote two letters to one Mwinyi Juma b. Mwinyi Kwaja, a Mombasan resident of the Kerimba Islands who had served as a Portuguese spy to the northern coast in the previous year (see Strandes, pp. 275-276, where he goes unnamed). Although the Queen remains anonymous in the Portuguese translations, the Swahili texts of the letters name her as Mfalme Fatima.16 At the same time, Juma b. Kwaja received a joint letter from two sons "of the deceased King of Kilwa" whose names are given as Muhammad b. Yusuf (Mohamed buni euSuf) and Ibrahim b. Yusuf (Ibrahimo buni eusuf). A covering letter from the "Portuguese" spy refers to Muhammad as "Prince", while another clearly indicates that he was a more important figure at Kilwa in 1710-1711 than his brother Ibrahim.17 So we now have positive evidence that Ibrahim b. Yusuf was not sultan until after 1711, and that an Mfalme Fatima, who must certainly be identified as the Fatima binti 'Ali of tradition, was ruling at that date, apparently as regent for Muhammad b. Yusuf. This evidence would also seem to validate my placing of this unique female ruler of Kilwa in the royal genealogy. Incidental to this more significant material is the appearance of a daughter of Mfalme Fatima whose name is given as Mwana Nakisa (Mana naquissa).18 16. Historical Archives of Goa, Livro das Mon6es 77, fl. 98-99, 101r, 102r. 17. Ibid., fl. 95r, Portuguese translation dated Goa, 25 September 1711; fl. 90r "Informagao g trouxe MuenheJuma.....", n.d.; fl. 87-88, Juma b. Kwaya to Viceroy, Moganbique, 15 August 1711. 18. Ibid., fl. 104r, Mwana Nakisa to Juma b. Kwaya, translation dated Goa, 25 September 1711.

Edward Alpers The only other information which bears on this problem concerns the reign of Sultan Ibrahim b. Yusuf. There is, unfortunately, no indication of his apparently senior brother, Muhammad, but we now have enough evidence to conclude that Ibrahim had assumed the throne by 1720, at the very latest. In 1720 and 1721 a certain Mwinyi Wali (?) Muhammad (Volay Mamede) carried out two separate missions to the Sultan of Kilwa. Like his earlier counterpart, Juma b. Kwaja, he was also an inhabitant of the Kerimba Islands. He seems to have been entrusted with the Viceroy's letter of 1719 to the Sultan, which I mentioned above on page 155. Following the completion of his two missions Muhammad was given a letter of recommendation to the King of Portugal from the Sultan of Kilwa who received him on both occasions, Sultan Ibrahim b. Sultan Yusuf b. Sultan Muhammad b. Sultan Alawi (Sultani Ibraimo, Buno Sulty. OSufo, Buno Sultany Musmady Buno Sultani Anby). Although there is some confusion in the Portuguese rendering of the names of his grandfather and great-grandfather (only the translation of this particular letter survives), our previous knowledge of Sultan Ibrahim's patronymics facilitates the reading of this garbled version.19 It also seems very likely that this is the letter for which I searched in vain in Lisbon (see above, p. 145). Finally, at the other end of his reign, we now have a letter written by this same sultan in about 1729.0 The diagram overleaf attempts to set out the chronology of the sultanate of Kilwa in the period considered in this article. 19. H. A. G., Livro das Mon46es 93-A, fl. 4, King of Kilwa to Crown, n.d., but ante-1724. 20. H. A. G., Livro das Mon4 es 97-B, fl. 617r, Mfalme Ibrahim b. Sultan Yusuf(Falame Ibrahimo buno Sultane Suffo), King of Kilwa, to Governor of Mogambique, Ant6nio Cardim Frois, n.d., but c. 1729-1732. The imprecision of the dating of the documents in this section derives from the fact that I am necessarily relying on the Portuguese translations, which do not give the dates of the original letters. This problem should eventually be eliminated, however, when my colleagues at the Institute of Swahili Research complete their examination of the photocopies of these fourteen precious documents. REFERENCES Abdallah b. Hemedi 'lAjjemy 1963 The Kilindi, ed. J. W. T. Allen and William Kimweri, Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, in association with the African Studies Program, Boston University. Albrand, F. 1838 "Extrait d'un M~moire sur Zanzibar et sur Quiloa," Bulletin de la Socidti de Giographie, Paris, 2e S~rie, No. 10, pp. 65-84. Alpers, E. A. 1965 Review of G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville, The French at Kilwa IslandAn Episode in Eighteenth-century East African History, in Journal of African History, Vol. VI, No. 3, pp. 418-419. 1966 "The role of the Yao in the development of trade in East-Central Africa, 1698-c. 1850," Ph.D. Thesis, University of London. Bordalo, F. M. 1859 Ensaios sobre a Estatistica das Possess7es Portuguezas no Ultramar, Serie II, Livro IV, "Provincia de Mocambique," Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional. Boxer, C. R. 1960 "The Portuguese on the Swahili Coast, 1593-1729," in Boxer and C. de Azevedo, Fort Jesus and the Portuguese in Mombasa, 1593-1729, London: Hollis and Carter, pp. 11-86. Bragania Pereira, 1938 Arquivo Portugues Oriental, nova ediggo, Vol. iv, Tomo 2, Parte 2. A. B. de (ed.) Bastori-Goa.

Sultans of Kilwa Burton, R. F. Chittick, H. N. Coupland, R. Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P. Gray, J. M. Hoppe, F. Prior, J. Roman D'Amat Silva Rego, A. da Strandes, J. Teixeira Botelho, J. J. Velten, C. 1872 Zanzibar: City, Island, and Coast, London: Tinsley Brothers, 2, vols. 1965 "The 'Shirazi' Colonization of East Africa," Journal of African History, Vol. VI, No. 3, pp. 275-294. 1966 "Kilwa: A Preliminary Report," Azania, Vol. I, pp. 1-36. 1938 East Africa and its Invaders from the earliest times to the death of Seyyid Said in 1856, Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1962a The Medieval History of the Coast of Tanganyika, Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1962b The East African Coast-Select Documents from the first to the earlier nineteenth century, Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1965a The French at Kilwa Island-An Episode in Eighteenth-century East African History, Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1965b "Some Eighteenth-century Documents concerning Eastern Africa in the Archives de France", Draft paper. 1966 "Chronology from Genealogical Evidence: The East African Coast," paper presented to the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Conference on African Chronology. 1962a "The French at Kilwa in 1797," Tanganyika Notes and Records, Nos. 58/59, pp. 172-173. 1962b History of Zanzibar from the Middle Ages to 1856, London: Oxford University Press. 1963 "Zanzibar and the Coastal Belt, 1840-1884," in R. Oliver and G. Mathew (eds.), History of East Africa, Vol. I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 212-251. 1964 "The Recovery of Kilwa by the Arabs in 1785," Tanganyika Notes and Records, No. 62, pp. 20-26. 1965 Portugiesisch-Ostafrika in der Zeit des Marquis de Pombal (1750-1777), Berlin: Colloquium Verlag, Bibliotheca Ibero-Americana, Band 7. 1819 Voyage along the Eastern Coast of Africa, to Mosambique, Johanna, and Quiloa: ... in the Nisus Frigate, London: for Sir Richard Phillips &Co. 1933 Article on Fortun6 Albrand in Dictionnaire de Biographie Franvaise, Vol. I, Paris, pp. 1288-1289. 1955 Documentalro para a Histria das Miss6es do Padroado Portugues do Oriente, Vol. XI, Lisboa: Agencia Geral do Ulramar. 1961 The Portuguese Period in East Africa, trs. J. F. Wallwork, ed. J. S. Kirkman, Historical Society, Transactions, Vol. II, Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau. 1934 Histdria Militar e Politica dos Portugueses em Movambique da descoberta a 1833, Lisboa: Centro Tipogrdfico Colonial. 1907 Prosa und Poesie der Suaheli, Berlin: Im selbstverlag des Verfassers.

THE SULTANATE OF KILWA IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES Sulaiman SULTAN 'ALI/ALAWI I I FATIMA binti 'ALI Clearly documented: ft. 1710-1711, as regent during minority of Muhammad and Ibrahim b. Yusuf I Mwana Nakisa b. ? Clearly documented: ft. 1710-1711 i SULTAN MUHAMMAD b. 'ALI/ALAWI SULTAN YUSUF b. MUHAMMAD I SULTAN IBRAHIM b. YUSUF Muhammad b.Yusuf Clearly documented: ft. 1710-1711, apparently as heir designate Clearly documented:ft. 1710-1711 (in minority), reigning 1720-c. 1729; suggested,fl. post-1737 to 1742 II ? b. Ibrahim Sultan Yusuf b. Ibrahim Clearly documented: Strongly inferred:ft. fl 1776 1776 (one of two deposed Sultans met by Morice ?) I II Mfalme Hasan b. ? Strongly inferred: fought against Arabs at Kilwa early in 1785 I SULTAN YUSUF b. HASAN Clearly documented: ft. 1813-1817; strongly inferred:ft. 1812; d. late 1818--early 1819. Almost certainly named by Prior in 1812 1 Mfumo Hasan b. Yusuf Clearly documented:ft. 1812 I SULTAN ABU BAKR b. HASAN I SULTAN HASAN b. IBRAHIM * Clearly documented: ft. 1759-1776; strongly inferred: ft. 1777-1784 i SULTAN SULAIMAN b. HASAN MwinyiJuma MwinyiJamoto (?) b. ? Clearly documented: ambassador to Mozambique, 1759 Sultan Muhammad b. Hasan SULTAN HASAN b. SULAIMAN ...... 'Umar b. ? Strongly inferred:ft. 1830; deported by Sayyid Sa'id c. 1842/1843 Husain b. 'Umar Clearly documented: ambassador to Mocambique, 1830 * The Habari za Zamani za Kilwa Kisiwani says he is older than Sultan Yusuf b. Ibrahim. KEY: NAMES IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS: documented Sultans Names in Upper and Lower case Letters: documented members of Royal Family Italics: named only by tradition.

A z a n i a The Journal of the British Institute of History and Archaeology in East Africa Edited by NEVILLE CHITTICK VOLUME II - 1967 Published on behalf of the Institute by Oxford University Press Nairobi AddisAbaba Lusaka 1967

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