What were the Swahili city-states of East Africa?

What were the Swahili city-states of East Africa?

During the 10th century, several city-states flourished along the Swahili Coast and adjacent islands, including Kilwa, Malindi, Gedi, Pate, Comoros, and Zanzibar. These early Swahili city-states were Muslim, cosmopolitan, and politically independent of one another.

What was the name of the group of people who migrated from the interior of Africa to the eastern coast?

Modern scholars now largely agree that both the Swahili and Shirazi people are the descendants of Bantu-speaking farmers who migrated to the East African coast in the first millennium C.E. They adopted maritime tools and systems, including fishing and sailing, and developed a healthy regional trade network by the 8th …

Which ancient African kingdom was located in Eastern Africa?

Buganda, powerful kingdom of East Africa during the 19th century, located along the northern shore of Lake Victoria in present-day south-central Uganda.

How many Swahili city-states are there?

eight city-states
The eight city-states of Swahili include, Mogadishu, Lamu, Malindi, Mombasa, Zanzibar, Kilwa, Mozambique, and Sofala. They were major sea ports that were used for trade from 500-1500 AD.

What was the Swahili city-states known for?

From roughly 1000-1500 CE, the extensive maritime trade that connected China to the Red Sea was dominated by the Swahili city-states, trading cities along Africa’s east coast. These trading cities operated as their own governments and traded in practically every product that could be found between Africa and Asia.

Who are the eastern Bantus?

Bastin’s (1980, 1983) ‘grammatical statistics’, for example, produced three clusters. The cluster most appropriately labelled Eastern Bantu comprises Shambala, Swahili, Pokomo, giTonga, Tsonga, Zulu, Sotho, Venda, Makua, Sena, Nyanja, Shona and Chaga.

Who were the Arabs at the coast of East Africa?

The Arabs at the East African Coast Notes – The Arabs started coming to the East African coast by 1000AD and they came mainly from Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Persia etc.

What were the East African kingdoms?

While Egypt was a powerful kingdom of East Africa, it was not the only one. Further south along the Nile, around what is now Sudan, was a region called Nubia. The Nubian people settled there around the 5th century BCE, and started developing trade networks that would later stretch from Egypt to South Africa.

What did the city states of East Africa do?

All of the states produced pottery. Ironworking had evolved in East Africa before the rise of the city states. They improved the process and produced iron objects for trade as well as local use. Archaeology studies provide evidence that the city states carried on a flourishing long distance trade with Persia, India, and China .

What are the names of the West African empires?

West African Empires 1 The Ghana Empire. The Ghana Empire was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania, western Mali, and eastern Senegal, and derived its power from the control of trans-Saharan trade, particularly 2 Mali. 3 Songhai. 4 The Yoruba States.

When did East Africa become an Islamic Center?

From approximately 1000 to 1500 AD, a number of city-states on the eastern coast of Africa participated in an international trade network and became cosmopolitan Islamic cultural centers.

Why did the African city states decline after 1500?

The architecture also reflected a luxurious lifestyle for the merchant class and a complex economy with varying levels of craftsmanship and expertise. Portuguese and Dutch dominance of the Indian Ocean trade after 1500 led to the decline of the city states. Many of them such as Sofala and Kilwa became outposts of European colonial authority.