Arabia's Relations with East Africa As Reflected in Three Documents

ARAM, 8 (1996), 237-241 237

ARABIA'S RELATIONS WITH EAST AFRICA AS REFLECTED IN THREE DOCUMENTS

AMIN TIBI

For a long time before the birth of Islam, the Arabs of the coasts of Ara- bia were active in the trade of the Erythraean Sea, i.e. the Indian Ocean and its branches the Red Sea and the Gulf, hence their description as the Phoeni- cians of the Southern Sea. They were familiar with the monsoons and used, therefore, to sail towards the coasts of India in summer when the monsoons blew from the southwest, and would return in winter when the monsoons blew from the northeast. They would set sail towards the east African coast in winter (end of November to February) and would return in summer (end of March to September) according to the seasonal direction of the monsoons, a term which passed to European languages from the Arabic mawsim, i.e. season. Until the 16th century, the Indian Ocean was in fact the preserve of Arab and Indian navigators and traders. Arab communities were established in Cali- cut and other ports on the Malabar coast as well as in Malacca whence their commercial activity extended to the East Indies and China where an important Arab trading community resided in Canton. The Arabs of Southern Arabia were also active traders across the Red Sea. Since the beginning of the first millenium B.C., tribes from the Yemen and Îadramawt migrated and settled in the eastern highlands of Abyssinia – a name acquired from that of one of these tribes, Îabashat. In Axum, these settlers developed a remarkable civilization. Following the advent of Islam, this maritime commercial activity with Abyssinia and Zaila{, on the northern Somali coast, persisted. The Arabs established a string of settlements on the eastern Somali coast – the banadir – which they used for trade with the interior and for the propagation of Islam. Îadramis and Omanis, in particular, played a significant part in trade, in the propagation of Islam and in spreading Arabic and Islamic culture along the east coast of Africa from Mogadishu to Mozambique. Trade relations between southern Arabia and the east African coast go back centuries before Islam as attested by the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and by the ruins of sites along the Somali coast. Written by an anonymous Greek trader (shipmaster from Egypt) around 100 A.D. to serve as a guide for traders and navigators in the Red Sea area, southern Arabia, the Malabar coast and the east coast of Africa, the Periplus gives the names of the ports, the distances 238 ARABIA'S RELATIONS WITH EAST AFRICA between them and their exports and imports. The author mentions Rhapta (in the delta of the Rufiji river), the southernmost market town on the east African coast (Azania) and says that its ruler is a Ma{afiri, that it is subject to the suzerainty of Mouza (Maushij, north of the Yemeni port Mocha) which seems to have had a monopoly of its exports and imports, and that Rhapta is fre- quented by vessels from Mouza whose captains and crew were mostly Ara- bian.1 After the Periplus, the literary information about the east African coast ceases until about the middle of the 10th century when the Arab geographeer al-Mas{udi, who visited the coast (c. 915 A.D.), wrote Muruj al-Dhahab, in which he describes at length Arabia's trade with east Africa without naming market towns. Hence the significance of Kitab al-Zunuj, compiled by an anonymous author at the turn of this century, a manuscript of which was discovered and published in 1957 by Enrico Cerulli, as another source for the history of early Arabian settlement on the coast of east Africa in pre-Islamic times and in early Islam. The author drew his material from Arabic sources which have not survived. He speaks of ancient Arabian migrations and settlements, about the advent of Islam, to east Africa during the caliphate of {Umar b. al-Kha††ab, and of the establishment of further settlements under the Umayyads and early {Abbasids.2

THE PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHRAEAN SEA

After sailing southward by the coast from Opone (Ras Hafun on the Somali coast) “the island of Menonthias [Zanzibar or Pemba] is encountered. In it there are small boats sewn ....Two days' sail from the island lies the very last market town of the continent of Azania which is called Rhapta, which has its name from the sewn boats already mentioned. In Rhapta there is a great deal of ivory and tortoise-shell. The Mapharitic chief rules it according to an ancient agreement by which it falls under the kingdom which has become first in Arabia (i.e. Îimyar). Under the king, the people of Mouza hold it by pay- ment of tribute and send ships with captains and agents who are mostly Arabs, and are, through residence and intermarriage, familiar with the nature of the places and their language. There are brought to these marts things made specially in Mouza: spears, axes, small swords, awls, several kinds of glassware and, to some places, a little wine and wheat, not for trade, but for getting the goodwill of the Barbari. There are exported from these places a great deal of ivory, though it is infe-

1 G.W.B. Huntingdom, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, (London, 1980), p. 30. 2 Kitab al-Zunuj (Arabic text) published by E. Cerulli in Somalia, Scritti Vari Editi ed Inediti, I, (Rome, 1957), pp. 235-239. A. TIBI 239 rior to that of Adulis/Adouli, and rhinoceros horn, and tortoise-shell, next in demand to that of India, and a little nautilus shell ....".3 The settlements on the coast were subject to the suzerainty of Mouza (Maushij, locally pronounced Moshi) on the Yemeni coast north of Mocha, whence Yemeni merchants arrived in East Africa for settlement and for trading in east African commodities which, in turn, they exported to India and China in the east, and to Egypt and the Mediterranean world in the west. It is noteworthy that there is no mention of traffic in slaves from east Africa, “nor have we any evidence for the slave trade of a documentary kind in the eighth and ninth centuries".4 As for the Ma{afiri chieftain referred to in the Periplus, he belongs to a famous south Arabian tribe, Ma{afir, included among the Himyar. The territory they inhabited lay in qada' (subdistrict) of al-Îujariyya (district of Ta{izz), extending westwards to Mocha. The Ma{afiris had a long and notable history since before Islam. The name of the tribe appears in a Sabaean inscription from ∑irwaÌ dated about 500 B.C., which records the founding of the great Sabaean kingdom. In early Islam, most of the Ma{afir migrated to Egypt and al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). In Egypt, the Ma{afiris played an important part in developing the country. A Ma{afiri was put in charge of the planning of al- Fus†a†, the new capital, by the Arab conqueror and first governor of Egypt, {Amr b. al-{AÒ. The most famous Ma{afiri in al-Andalus is al-ManÒur MuÌammad b. Abi {Amir, the celebrated 10th-century Ìajib (chamberlain) during the caliphate of Hisham II.5 The author of the Periplus speaks of intermarriage between the Arabians and the natives of east Africa, and of the Arabians being familiar with local tongues, a fact which can be taken as the beginning of a long process that eventually led to the emergence of Swahili culture.6

A MAKHZUMI DYNASTY IN SHOA

Banu Makhzum is a clan of Quraysh which achieved a prominent position in pre-Islamic Mecca. They owned much land and property in and around Mecca. In the sixth centry A.D., Makhzumis were prominent in the trade with the Yemen and Abyssinia, where they constituted the predominant Meccan pres- ence. In the Tihama of Yemen, the district of {Athar had a Makhzumi chieftain.7

3 Periplus, pp. 30+31. 4 G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, The Swahili Coast, 2nd to 19th Centuries, (London, 1988), VII, pp. 710-72. 5 Al-Hamdani, Al-Îasan b. AÌmad, ∑ifat Jazirat al-{Arab, (Beirut, 1983), p. 194; Ibn Îazm al-Andalusi, {Ali, Jamharat Ansab al-{Arab, (Cairo, 1962), p. 418. 6 The Swahili Coast, II, p. 6. 7 Al-Hamdani, p. 232. 240 ARABIA'S RELATIONS WITH EAST AFRICA

After the two early migrations of Muslims from Mecca to Abyssinia in the time of the Prophet, the first Muslim who is reported to have settled in Abyssinia during the caliphate of {Umar b. al-Kha††ab, was Wudd b. Hisham al-Makhzumi. Manuscripts from the Somali Banadir Coast speak of groups of Makhzumis who settled, in early Islam, in Mogadishu and other Somali coastal towns. Other Makhzumis settled also on the east African coast where they and their descendants enjoyed prominence as fuqaha' (jurists) and traders. The names of two prominent Makhzumis in Lamu (off the northern coast of Kenya) in the 19th century appear in Kitab al-zunuj.8 The best evidence of Arabian migrations from the Îijaz to the Horn of Africa in early Islam is the establishment, towards the end of the third century A.H./ninth century A.D., of a Makhzumi sultanate in eastern Shoa on the southern fringe of the Abyssinian plateau. It was founded by Wudd b. Hisham al- Makhzumi who is said to have migrated, with his tribe, from the Îijaz. The short fragment of a chronicle, discovered by Enrico Cerulli and published in 1941, about this Makhzumi dynasty in southern Abyssinia speaks of the dynasty in its final days when the sultanate was torn by domestic feuds and was also exhausted by its wars with its neighbour to the southeast, the Muslim state of Awfat/Ifat, which formed an alliance against the Makhzumi sultanate with Yekuno Amlak, first king of the Solomonic dynasty in Abyssinia. Towards the end of the fragment, the anonymous chronicler of the Makhzumi sultanate in Shoa says: “We have been informed that they [the Makhzumi amirs] are the descendants of Wudd b. Hisham al-Makhzumi who had arrived during the caliphate of {Umar b. al-Kha††ab. Wudd's descendants ruled Shoa in the year 283 [896 A.D.] until the year 684 [1285 A.D.], that is, for a period spanning 390 years.9 The establishment of the Makhzumi dynasty in Shoa (896-1285 A.D.) must have encouraged Arab settlement in Abyssinia and fostered Arab trade and, consequently, the spread of Islam in the Abyssinian plateau. A queen of the Makhzumi dynasty – Badat b. Maya (d. 445/1063) – appears to have established amicable relations with the rulers of southern Arabia through Arab traders who had settled in her domain. As the Dahlak islands (off the Eritrean coast) were the venue for Arab trade in northern Abyssinia, to the Arabs in the Makhzumi sultanate in Shoa, Zayla{ on the northern Somali coast was the venue for their traffic with the Yemen and India.

KITABAL-ZUNUJ

A composite work compiled by an anonymous writer at the turn of this century, Kitab al-Zunuj consists of materials collected from several sources,

8 Kitab al-Zunuj, pp. 244, 249. 9 E. Cerulli, ‘Il sultanato della Scioa…', Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, I, (Rome, 1941), p. 9. A. TIBI 241 including an unknown Arabic source about the early settlement of Himyarite Arabs on the coast of east Africa. The word Zanj (plural Zunuj) occurs in the writings of medieval Arab authors as the term for the whole area from Mogadishu to Sofala in northern Mozambique.10 According to Ya{qubi (d. 284/897), “the Zanj inhabit the land beyond the kingdom of Abyssinia".11 The anonymous author of Kitab al-Zunuj says that the early Arab settlers arrived on the coast of east Africa at a time when the Tubba{ (i.e. rulers) of the Yemen – before Islam – controlled commerce. They founded Kilwa, Pate, Siu, Lamu and Mombasa.12 The author speaks of the migrations of Yemeni groups to Abyssinia after the failure of the Abyssinian viceroy Abraha's campign against Mecca (Year of the Elephant, c. 570 A.D.) and the return of the Abyssinians to their homeland. They were joined by some Îimyarite Arabs who remained in Abyssinia for 80 years. The descendants of these Arabs then moved from Abyssinia to the coast of east Africa.13 The author says that Islam arrived in east Africa in the year 21 A.H./642 A D. during the caliphate of {Umar b. al-Kha††ab. He goes on to mention the arrival of Arabs from Syria on the coast to collect taxes in the year 75/695 during the caliphate of ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan. They arrived in Mogadishu and Kilwa under the command of amir Musa b. Zubayr al-Khath{ami who undertook to teach people the Qur}an and the prin- ciples of Islam. He built a fortress in Kilwa and stocked it up with weapons.14 In 149/766, an {Abbasid envoy, YaÌya b. {Umar al-{Anzi, arrived in east Africa in the reign of Abu Ja{far al-ManÒur and amicably managed to collect taxes from people in the coastal towns. After the reluctance of these people to pay taxes, Harun al-Rashid sent an expeditionary force to the land of the Zunuj and appointed his own governor in Mombasa, Pemba (the Green Island) and Kilwa. His son al-Ma'mun sent an army of 50,000 men to the towns of the coast following their insubordination and reluctance to pay tax.15

10 The Swahili Coast, II, p. 9. 11 Al-Ya{qubi AÌmad, Tarikh al-Ya{qubi, Vol. I (Beirut, 1980), p. 192. 12 Kitab al-Zunuj, p. 235. 13 Ibid., p. 237. 14 Ibid., p. 238. 14 Ibid., p. 239.