UTAFITI 14.

2 (2019) 242-256
Journal of African
Perspectives

brill.com/utaf

The Shirazi Civilisation and its Impact on the

East African Coast

Newton Kahumbi Maina

Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies, Kenyatta University, Kenya
newtonkahumbi@gmail.com

Abstract

The relations between Iran and East Africa are captured well by depicting the impact of
the Shirazi (Persian) civilisation on the East African coast. But some influential schol-
ars claim that historians tend to dismiss or trivialise the role played by the Shirazis in
East Africa. The demonstrable impact of Shirazi civilisation in East Africa is evident
in the expansion of trade between the East African coast and the Persian Gulf region
with the expansion of Islam. The Persian language has bequeathed to the Kiswahili
language many lexicons that are presently still accessible in the region. Persian poets
influenced Kiswahili literature through their classic works. The influence of Persian
architecture is seen in Shirazi building styles throughout cities including Zanzibar,
Kilwa and Manda. Thus Shirazis brought Persian traditions and customs to East Africa,
and some Shirazis intermarried with the Arabs and local communities. As compiled
here from other sources, there is enough enduring historical evidence to demonstrate
incontrovertibly the impact of the Shirazis in social, economic and political aspects
of East African life. This legacy arguably justifies greater contemporary cooperation
between East African nation states and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Keywords

civilisation – East Africa – Iranians – Persians – Shirazi

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The Shirazi Civilisation and its Impact on the East African Coast 243

1 Introduction

The relations between Iran and East Africa are easily demonstrated through
the historical impact of Shirazi civilisation on the East African coast, as is com-
piled here by a survey of published work on the subject.1 However, some schol-
ars trivialise the important role of Persians in the history of East Africa (Gibbe
2001: 63). For example, Chittick downplays the role of Persians by noting that:
“certainly the cultural impact of the Persians on the East African coast was
very slight” (Chittick and Rotberg 1975: 41). This dismissive treatment is readily
deconstructed by a review of evidence that clearly demonstrates the impact of
the Shirazi civilization in East Africa.

2 Meaning and Origin of ‘Shirazi’

There is debate among historians regarding the meaning and origin of ‘Shirazi’,
with the term attracting some identity questions, depending upon the text in
which the term is found. For example, according to Swaleh (2001: 79) the term
Shirazi is used to denote “the historical Swahili as opposed to others who set-
tled voluntarily or were forcibly settled as slaves on the coast during the nine-
teenth century.” Swaleh continues to observe that Shirazi are the Wangwana
of old Swahili as opposed to new Swahili; and that “to be a Shirazi is to be a
Swahili, a child of the motherland of the Swahili language and culture” (Swaleh
2001: 79). According to Prins, the Shirazi is a distinct group who socially and
historically is neither Arab nor Swahili; their sense of identity and entitle-
ment seem to have changed with circumstances, depending on their political
and historical fortunes (Prins 1967: 13). For lack of a better definition of the
Shirazi, we will maintain that the Shirazis – also known as Persians and as
Iranians – are the descendants of the those who originated from the Persian
province of Fars whose capital was Shiraz, hence the name Shirazis (Mbatha
and Shiundu 2001: 135).

1  
For the purpose of this paper, the terms Shirazi, Persian and Iranian will be used
synonymously.

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3 The Early Presence of Persians in East Africa

The Persian presence in East Africa is seen in the Parthian and Sassanid2
coins of the first three centuries of Christian era that were probably dug up
in Zanzibar (Mokhtar 1990: 312). The Persians may have played an important
role in the maritime trade in the Indian Ocean in the sixth century ad. The
evidence is found in an early sixth century ad documentary called “Christian
Topography” (Mokhtar 1990: 306).3 The commercial role of Persians in East
African trade is found in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, one of the earliest
surviving records in the form of a guidebook to the ports and trading centres
of the Indian Ocean (July 1992: 70). The Periplus notes that Persians, Arabs and
other people from the Middle East came to the East African coast long before
the advent of Islam in the seventh century (July 1992: 70).
Several reasons are advanced for the migration of the Shirazis to East
Africa – political, economic, and socio-religious. But some of these received
accounts border on the absurd if taken at empirical face value. One such nar-
rative is a legendary dream, told in the Kilwa Chronicle: Ali bin al-Hasan, the
Sultan of Shiraz in the tenth century ad, dreamt of a monster rat with an iron
snout nibbling at the foundation of his town. He took this dream as a bad
omen signifying the destruction of his people, and therefore decided to mi-
grate with his family of seven sons, their wives, children and close followers,
to East Africa (Arabahmadi 2001: 153).4 Another account that is comparably
mythic rather than verifiable is that Ali bin al-Hasan could not bear the ridi-
cule and insults from his brothers and relatives which he received apparently
because his mother was a slave of dark skin colour, while his brothers all were
incontestably sons of Persian princesses. So together with his family and some
relatives, Ali bin al-Hasan decided to migrate to East Africa.
From an evidence-based historiographical perspective, the predominance
of scholars concur that the main reason for the migration of Shirazis to East
Africa was for the purpose of trading, especially with the intention of con-
trolling the ivory and gold trade at Sofala in Mozambique (Arabahmadi 2001,
Mbatha and Shiundu 2001).

2  Parthians an Aryan race ruled from 250-224 bc while the Sassanians ruled from 225 bc to
mid-seventh century ad (Mokhtar 1990: 312).
3  The “Christian Topography” is one of the earliest essays in scientific geography written by
a Christian author. It was originally written as five books by Cosmas Indicopleustes and ex-
panded to ten to twelve books around 550 ad.
4  There are various versions of this legend; see Arabahmadi 2001: 153, Mbatha and Shiundu
2001: 136, Mbwana 2001: 166.

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4 Debating the Origin and Enduring Presence of Shirazi along the

East African Coast

Beyond the general consensus concerning trade as the basis for travelling to
the region, subsequent controversy endures among scholars concerning the
settling of the Shirazis once they arrived on the East African coast. Some
Eurocentric scholars dismiss outright the possibility of an enduring Shirazi
presence along the East African coast (Sheriff 2001: 22).5 According to Sheriff,
for example, Kirkman argues that there is no evidence of the use of Persian
language and customs in East Africa, noting that the Persian Gulf influence on
the coast generated from the Arabs and not the Persians. Again, as document-
ed by Sheriff (2001: 28-29) James de Vere Allen regards the Shirazi phenom-
enon as pure myth, while Spear says the Shirazi were not Persians but Africans
or Afro-Arab traders from Shungwaya, the legendary home of the Miji Kenda.
We shall re-visit this view later in this essay by illustrating the evidence that
suggests not only the early presence of the Shirazi but also the lasting impact
of their civilisation in the cultures that developed along the East African coast.
Other scholars that support the hypothesis that the presence of Shirazis
along the East African coast developed beyond trade relations include Freeman-
Grenville (1988). Quoting the Kilwa Chronicle recorded by the Portuguese his-
torian Joao de Barros in 1552, Free man-Grenville gives an account of the arrival
of a Prince from Shiraz (in Persia). In 1009 ad, the Prince sailed down the coast
to Mogadishu and eventually settled at the port of Kilwa which he bought from
its African chief (1962: 75-76). Other accounts of the early Shirazi migrants fur-
ther support traditional claims about settlements of Kilwa by Shirazi merchant
princes, with the first inhabitants of Mogadishu being of Shirazi origin. Along
the Tana Delta, Malindi and Mombasa, aristocratic families and dynasties
claimed Shirazi origin. In other places along the East African coast, claims of
Shirazi descent are found among the people in Vumba on the Kenya-Tanzania
border, Pangani in Tanzania, and in the offshore islands of Zanzibar and Pemba.
Chronicles from the Comoros islands in the 1870s and in 1927 corroborate the
Kilwa Chronicle regarding these Shirazi settlements (Sheriff 2001: 28-29).
Further evidence of the early presence of Shirazi along the coast of East
Africa is provided by investigating archaeological sites and findings. These

5  According to Sheriff (2001) these include Kirkman, Allen, Shepherd and Spear.

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paraphernalia include coins,6 pottery,7 glassware, and inscriptions on tomb

stones, mihrab (niches showing the direction of Mecca – for the purposes of
conducting prayers) located in mosques occupying the coastal towns includ-
ing Mogadishu, Zanzibar and Kilwa (Arabahmadi 2001: 159-160). One of the
most important surviving remnants of archaeological evidence of the Shirazi
in East Africa is the mihrab of the Kizimkazi Mosque in Zanzibar. A part of
this structure dates from the beginning of the twelfth century ad (July 1992:
74; Sheriff 2001: 31). The building was modelled along the mosques built at the
time in Iran (Arabahmadi 2001:159).
There are other archaeological sites depicting ruins of mosques and palaces
with similar architectural design, such as Husuni Kubwa in Kilwa (Arabahmadi
2001: 159). These are surviving monuments indicative of the long-surviving pres-
ence of Shirazis in East Africa. South of Mombasa, there is small village called
Shirazi Bay with ruins of an ancient mosque in the Persian style (Arabahmadi
2001: 160). In Malindi, there are ruins of a burnt Shirazi city said to have sur-
vived and outlived the Portuguese rule in the fifteenth to seventeenth centu-
ries (Arabahmadi 2001: 160). More Shirazi (Persian) archaeological sites are
found on what is referred to as Shirazi Island in Tanga, Tanzania. One such site
contains ruins of a palace and related buildings (Arabahmadi 2001: 160). This
archaeological evidence which has been collected by scholars most recently
within this century, supports the hypothesis that socio-cultural links between
East Africa and the Persian Gulf date back nearly two thousand years (Sheriff
2001: 30-31), serving to demonstrate the influence of the Shirazis on the East
African coast.
So we can safely infer that immigration of the Shirazi likely continued, and
so did indeed occur in the second half of the twelfth century. This is suggested
by the appearance of coins belonging to Ali bin al-Hasan. The immigration is
corroborated by an abstract of the Arabic history of Kilwa which gives a twelfth
century account of Ali bin al-Hasan, the ruler of Shiraz in Persia, as sailing with
his seven sons, wives, children and dependents, to the East African coast in
seven dhows. However, the voyage experienced a severe storm that occasioned
the separation of the seven dhows, forcing the occupants to settle at differ-
ent places along the coast from Lamu, Tanga, Pemba, Anjuan, Zanzibar, Mafia,
Kilwa and Comoros (Arabahmadi 2001: 153). The royal family thus founded

6  For example, the 1955 discovery of collections in Zanzibar Museum features five Persian
coins ranging in age from the first to the third centuries ad (Sheriff 1990: 307).
7  For example, remnants of fifth century ad Iranian pottery were excavated at Kilwa (Gibbe
2001: 64); excavations in Shanga and Pate Islands yielded green glazed ceramics thought to
have originated in Persian Gulf area (Mbwana 2001: 169).

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seven city states starting with the first son, Hussein bin Ali, who settled in
Kilwa which became the centre of the Shirazi dynasty in the East African coast
(Sheriff 2001: 25, Arabahmadi 2001: 153). The Kilwa Chronicle corroborates this
account of the coming and arrival of “a ship in which there were people who
claimed to have come from Shiraz in the land of the Persians” (Sheriff 2001: 25).

5 The Impact of the Shirazi Civilisation upon East African

Communities

The evidence available supports the conclusion that the impact of the Shirazi
civilisation over many centuries remained prominent in the following central
aspects of East African life:

5.1 Origin and Growth of the Swahili Population

The on-going debate about the origin of the Swahili people is not within
the scope of this paper. It has been well documented by scholars includ-
ing James de Vere Allen (1993). However, it is worth noting that today many
traceable descendants of the Shirazis live in Shanga (Manda) in the Lamu
Island, Malindi, Mombasa, Tanga, Pemba, Mafia, Zanzibar, Kilwa, and in the
Comoros (Arabahmadi 2001: 156). Thus, some scholars argue that the Swahili
people emerged as a result of the intermarriages between Arabs and Shirazis.
Arguably, the settling of Shirazis in East Africa might have brought about the
growth of a new community of people known as the Swahili. This was a gen-
eration that was neither African nor Persian (Arabahmadi 2001: 156). Plausibly
this population emerged as a result of the intermarriage between the Persians,
Arabs, and the local inhabitants of mainly Bantu origin.

5.2 Trade and Commerce

It is far less controversial to speculate that the coming of the Shirazis im-
proved the economy of East Africa by initiating a prosperous trade. The
gold market emerging from Sofala thrived eight hundred years ago; and the
sea trade between East Africa and the ports of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf
escalated rapidly during this period. By the middle of the thirteenth centu-
ry, Kilwa had become the main port of entry along the coast of East Africa
and had also gained control of the gold trade from Sofala (July 1992: 76). It
is speculated that due to the gold trade, Kilwa was able to establish politi-
cal and economic dominance over the entire coast of East Africa, subjugat-
ing the towns of Malindi, Mombasa, and the islands of Pemba, Zanzibar and
Mafia (Osore and Ngugi 2001). Besides gold, the Shirazis exported from East

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Africa mangrove poles, leopard skins, gum, wood, iron, copper, ivory, skins,
copal, frankincense, myrrh, rhinoceros horns, tortoise shells and ambergris.
In return they imported glass bowls, swords, daggers, hatchets, lances, awls,
glass beads, tools, rugs, iron pots and pans (Mbatha and Shiundu 2001: 143).
The historian Chittick (1975) attributes the origin of the use of coins in the
region to the Shirazis. According to the Kilwa Chronicle, the beginning of
the Shirazi dynasty in Kilwa marks the first appearance of coins, bearing the
name of Ali bin al-Hasan. This is further confirmed by archeological findings
which reveal coins bearing the name of Persian Abdallah Zahar (Mbatha and
Shiundu 2001: 143).

5.3 Growth of Towns and City States

The Kilwa Chronicle indicates that the Shirazi city states enjoyed a measure of
security and peace, good life, and prosperity. It is argued that the coming of the
Portuguese changed the fortunes of these Shirazi city states, as the Portuguese
invaders are said to have destroyed the trade and the economic establishments
that they came to meet in East Africa (Mbatha and Shiundu 2001: 147).
Prior to this invasion, however, the founding and growth of the Kilwa has
been attributed to the coming of the Shirazis, regarded as one of their endur-
ing impacts along the East African coast. The recognised founder of Kilwa was
a Shirazi called Sultan Ali bin Suleiman. He married the daughter of the ruling
African chief of Kilwa. The son who was a product of this marriage (who was
half Swahili, half Persian) became the ‘second ruler’ of Kilwa (Gibbe 2001: 65).
It is fairly uncontroversial that Kilwa owed its prosperity to trade and com-
merce from the gold trade, such that by 1350 ad the polity’s wealth and power
could be rivalled only by Mogadishu (Mbatha and Shiundu 2001: 142). As re-
corded by Gibbe (2001: 66) by the fourteenth century, Kilwa was “the principal
town on the coast, the greater part of whose inhabitants are Zanj of very black
complexion,” as captured in the annals of the medieval Muslim Moroccan
traveller Ibn Battuta (1304-1377 ad) who visited Kilwa in 1331 ad. The traveller
noted: “Kilwa is one of the most beautiful and well-constructed towns in the
world. The whole of it is elegantly built” (Gibbe 2001: 66). One may conjecture
that Kilwa expanded and became prosperous owing to the presence of the
Shirazi and their domination prior to the Portuguese intrusion. This expansion
and growth led to the building of the famous impressive palace called Husuni
Kubwa (Freeman-Grenville 1988: 142). It was built on two acres and included an
ornamental swimming pool, terraces and court yards.
As noted earlier, Kilwa exercised hegemony along the East African coast es-
pecially in the nearby islands of Mafia, Pemba and Zanzibar, which lay within
the town’s sphere of influence. These islands produced a wealth of crops that

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included sugar and citrus fruits. The women bedecked themselves in jew-
els and silk, reflecting the prosperity associated with those cities at the time
(July 1992: 76).
From the thirteenth century, records depict other Shirazi kings as expand-
ing their territories in the coast of East Africa. The Shirazi dynasty of Kilwa
lasted for only three generations. The decline started with the coming of the
Omani Arabs from Yemen who established the Sharifian dynasty towards the
end of the thirteenth century (Sheriff 2001: 33). The decline continued towards
the end of the fifteenth century with the coming of the Portuguese, when
Kilwa’s dominance along the coast seriously dwindled. July captures the wan-
ing fortunes of Kilwa:

A series of dynastic struggles sapped her strength and apparently sev-

erally curtailed profits from the Sofala gold trade; then, in this moment
of growing weakness, the city was struck by an external affliction which
combined with her internal difficulties to force her into an extended pe-
riod of economic and political difficulty (July 1992: 76).

The coming of the Portuguese hastened the decline of Kilwa, partly because
of the city’s internal weaknesses and partly because of the trading restric-
tions imposed by the Portuguese. Many inhabitants of Kilwa moved to other
towns fearing subjection to the injustices and exploitation of the Portuguese
(July 1992: 77). The fall of Kilwa had a ripple effect on other cities along the
coast. For example, beginning from the sixteenth century, Malindi had aban-
doned the Shirazi tradition and adopted an Arab one (Simiyu 2001: 48-50).
On the other hand, these other cities and districts along the East African coast
may have owed their growth as well to Shirazi influence, including Lamu,
Malindi, Mombasa, Tanga, Pemba, Mafia, Zanzibar and urban centres of the
Comoros Islands.

5.4 Islamicization
The spread of Islam along the East African coast in the twelfth century marked
a golden age of Shirazi Islam when towns such as Kilwa, Zanzibar, and oth-
ers acquired Shirazi dynasties. The Shirazi rulers built mosques in the towns
where they settled, clearly contributing to the spread of Islam in East Africa.
The existence of the ruins of the Kizimkazi mosque in Zanzibar (Mbatha and
Shiundu 2001: 141) and the number of old mosques in different cities, villages,
and islands, testifies to the growth of Islam along the East African coast during
the period of Shirazi dynasty (Arabahmadi 2001: 155). Ibn Battuta reported the
considerable Islamicization of the area around the city of Kilwa, which was

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the stronghold of the Shirazi dynasty from the eleventh to twelfth centuries
(Freeman-Grenville 1988: 189). As an indicator that the Shirazi had already had
some religious impact, Ibn Battuta noted that: “the people are engaged in a
holy war, for their country lies beside that of the pagan [sic] Zanj. The chief
qualities are devotion and piety: they follow the Shafi’i rite” (Gibbe 2001: 64).
The mosques became religious, cultural and intellectual centres which influ-
enced the local people, who in turn converted to Islam or adopted some cul-
tural practices and mannerisms of the Persians, such as changing their names
and adopting the Shirazi mode of dress.
Thus it is not controversial to say that the Shirazis assisted in laying the foun-
dation of the Islamicization of the East African coast. The Shirazis intermar-
ried with the local people and this integration facilitated the spread of Islam
as well among the local African people. After embracing Islam, the indigenous
inhabitants in turn propagated their new religion among their fellow African
communities (Arabahmadi 2001: 155). Since the Shirazi rulers were of Shi’a
faith, one may confidently assume that they may have attempted to spread
Shi’a Islam to the inhabitants and this led to its growth between the twelfth
and the fourteenth centuries (Arabahmadi 2001, Mbatha and Shiundu 2001).
But with the coming of the Arabs, Shirazi traditions began to fade, giving
way to Arabic influences. Arabic cultural spokesmen claimed a purer form of
Islam; this may have accelerated the abandonment of the Shia faith, and its
replacement by Sunni Islam (Arabahmadi 2001).

5.5 Development of Kiswahili Vocabulary

The Persian language apparently played an important role in the expansion
of the Kiswahili language by bequeathing to it many lexicons that are found
in many of today’s Kiswahili linguistic communities. Some will argue that
Farsi, the Persian language, is the second highest contributor of foreign vo-
cabulary into Kiswahili. Many Persian words may have been introduced into
Kiswahili through Arabic. According to Sheriff (2001), the word ‘Zanj’ from
which Zanzibar and its Arabic and Persian variants are derived, may be of
Persian origin. Some of these words were identified as recently as the late nine-
teenth century by Krapf (1882) who compiled the first Swahili dictionary in the
Roman script. Many Kiswahili words, especially those in the architectural field,
originate from the Persian language. For example dirisha (window) and mbuzi
(goat). According to Sheriff (2001: 33) quoting Krumm, seventy-eight Persian
words probably entered Kiswahili directly, and an additional twenty-six may
have entered through Arabic. Also according to Sheriff (2001:34), Knappert has

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drawn a list of three hundred Kiswahili words of Persian origin. There are also
Persian loan words, relating to Kiswahili in the old extant Swahili literature,
which date back to the early eighteenth century. Some of these words derive
directly from Persian, while others have come through other mediating Arabic
and Indian languages. Many of the latter relate to navigation and traveling, veg-
etables and spices, chemicals and minerals, tools and textiles, as well as beads
of different colours (Sheriff 2001: 33). Knappert as cited by Sheriff, further notes
that Persian words in Kiswahili represent nouns concerning practical life, cui-
sine, shipping and commerce. It is in this connection that he concludes that
Swahili people owe a wealth of useful additions to their vocabulary denoting
their material culture to the Persians. Table 1 captures some of the words in
Persian and Kiswahili.

Table 1 Persian words in Kiswahili and their English equivalents

Persian Kiswahili English

Navigation and trade

bandar bandari port
gharb magharibi west
minar mnara light house
dukan duka shop
faideh faida profit
charhan charhani sewing machine
Religion
barakat baraka blessing
Din dini religion
sadaqeh sadaka alms
Dhaif dhaifu weak
Tobeh toba repentance
Government
jamhur jamhuri republic
Rais rais president
rasmi rasmi official
sultan sultani political leader
siasat siasa politics
wazir waziri minister
Taj taji crown

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Table 1 Persian words in Kiswahili and their English equivalents (cont.)

Persian Kiswahili English

Food crops/plants; prepared foods/dishes

Ananas nanasi pineapple
Asal asali honey
Embe embe mango
Pulu pilau spiced rice
Felfel pilipili red pepper
Sarake siki vinegar

Source: adopted from Mbatha and Shiundu (2001: 138-141)

5.6 Influence of Persian Literature upon Kiswahili Literature

Persian enrichment of East African literature is evident through various an-
cient manuscripts, e.g. the Manuscript of Baharistan composed by the mysti-
cal poet Jani in 1487. This is a collection of writings that range from anecdotes
of saints, mystics and poets to biographical notes about poets and the say-
ings of philosophers intended to be sources of instruction and amusement
(Mbwana 2001: 169).
According to Knappert (1979: 59), the influence of Persian literature in
Kiswahili literature is evident in the classic and epic poems from Persia, which
display features in common with Kiswahili poetry. This is especially evident in
the Divan authored by Hafidh, a Persian poet of the fourteenth century. The
Divan is one of the greatest pieces of poetry which has impacted Kiswahili
poets. It has been described as: “rich in fancy, powerful in imagination, origi-
nal, sublime, wild and glowing, grave and gay” (Gibbe 2001:68). Divan greatly
influenced what has been regarded as the Kiswahili poem of all time, that is,
the Inkishafi which was compiled in Pate, Kenya between 1810 and 1820 by
Sayyid Abdallah bin Ali bin Nassir. Inkishafi echoes the Divan. Inkishafi in its
turn also influenced some of the celebrated Kiswahili poets such as the widely-
revered first Swahili-writing novelist, Shaaban Robert in the twentieth century
(1909-1962) as observed by Gibbe (2001: 68). Another Persian literary icon who
has greatly influenced Kiswahili poetry is Omar Khayyam, whose poems were
translated into Kiswahili by Shaaban Robert in the 1950s (Gibbe 2001: 69).

5.7 Scientific, Vocational, and Administrative Documentation

Besides the Muslim lunar year, the Swahili people of the East African coast
have borrowed the Persian nautical/agricultural calendar with the Persian

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Nairuzi, a label used as an alternative to the Swahili name Siku ya Mwaka or

‘Mwaka Kogwa’. This is celebrated as a new year holiday in Mombasa, Pemba
and Zanzibar (Sheriff 2001: 35, Arabahmadi 2001: 157-158).

5.8 Persian Architecture

Persian building styles have had a sizeable impact on the East African coast, as
already noted in mosque structural designs and details. Persian architectural
skills brought more sophisticated designs of variously purposed stone build-
ings along the coast. Shirazi immigrants introduced new styles for building
homes modelled along those in Persia, using iron, metal, cement and carv-
ing on wood (Arabahmadi 2001: 157). These building designs were apparent as
Kilwa developed into a powerful city state. The ruins of Persian designed build-
ings, palaces, mosques are evident in the towns of Bagamoyo, Kilwa, Lamu,
Mafia, Malindi, Mombasa, Pemba and Zanzibar (Arabahmadi 2001, Gibbe
2001). Arabahmadi (2001: 157) describes the style of Iranian architecture and
craftsmanship in the tenth to twelfth centuries of Shirazi civilisation in the
following words:

Iranian architects promoted one of the glorious heritage[s] of Iranian

art such as the kufic inscription, and soon the masterpieces of Iranian
architecture like the Kizimkazi Mosque, the palace of Suleiman ibn Ali
in Kilwa, the Husuni Kubwa palace of Kilwa, mihrab of Shahre Sokhte
mosque around Malindi, the ruins of an old mihrab of a mosque in the
village of Shiraz south of Mombasa and the ruins of a Shirazi stone city
known as Kurwa in Mafia island clearly show the influence of Iranian art
in East Africa.

The above description undoubtedly captures the lasting influence of Persian

architecture in East Africa, which continued unabated even after the fall of
the Shirazi dynasty and the coming of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century.

5.9 Shirazis’ Enduring Role in Politics

Following from the control of Shirazi dynasties throughout Malindi, the is-
lands of Pemba and Zanzibar, Mafia and Comoros islands, the Kilwa city state
and the surrounding areas (Gibbe 2001: 69) up through the fourteenth cen-
tury, it is not surprising that the Shirazi of Kilwa co-opted the local inhabitants
to resist Portuguese rule along the East African coast in the fifteenth century.
In modern times, the African Association was formed in Zanzibar in 1934;
while the Shirazi Association was founded in 1938, drawing its membership
from Africans and the Shirazi. In 1957, the African Association and the Shirazi

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Association coalesced to form the Afro-Shiraz party headed by Sheikh Abeid

Karume, who became the leader of Zanzibar in the 1960s (Osore and Ngugi
2001: 105). This party became one of the main political movements of the is-
land. It ousted the Sultan of Zanzibar in a bloody coup on 12th January 1964
(Gibbe 2001: 70).

6 Conclusion

A great quantity of empirical evidence demonstrates unambiguously that the

impact of the Shirazis in the social, economic and political development of East
Africa has existed over many centuries. Despite its unpopularity among many
social historians and political commentators, the role of the Persians in East
Africa cannot be wished away. The first conference with the theme “Historical
role of Iranians (Shirazis) in the East African Coast” was held in Nairobi in 2001.
The proceedings of this conference, to date, may be the only major source of
published documentation reflecting the history of the Shirazis in East Africa.
Various articles presented at this conference constitute the source of much of
the material in this essay.
A second symposium at the University of Dar es Salaam was hosted in April
2018 by the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department of the College of
Humanities, sponsored by the Cultural Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran
in Dar es Salaam.
From these presentations and the findings of other curators, historians,
archaeologists, socio-linguists, and anthropologists, the data overall reveals a
Shirazi influence in the growth of the Swahili community, in trade and com-
merce, development of towns and city states, Islamicization, Swahili language
and literature, architecture, and politics. This legacy of Iranian civilisation in
East Africa constitutes a clear basis for further historical, cultural and knowl-
edge exchange, as well as greater cooperation between the East African states
and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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