Early visitors from Arabia
Al-Mas’udi an Arab traveller from Bagdad, visited the Land of Zanj (East Africa) in 916 A.D. and he observed the following….
The Zanj use the ox a beast of burden and possess elephant tusks weighing fifty pounds and more. These usually go to Oman and from there are sent to China and India. The Zanj have an elegant language and men preach in it. These people have no religious law and their kings rule by custom and by political expediency…
This early report also mentions one island called Kanbalu which is one or two days sailing from the coast (thought to be modern Pemba) with a moslem population and a royal family.
Over the centuries which followed the Arab visitors settled and intermarried with the coastal people and this coastal mixture of people became the Swahili people.
Relations between the peoples of the mainland and the Swahili of the coastal and island towns varied considerably. In general it was in the interests of both to maintain good relations.
Peoples of the interior supplied the Swahili with ivory, furs and gold in exchange for cloth, imported jewellery, beads and other luxury.
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