Listening to the Past: A Tenth-Century Muslim Traveler Describes Parts of the East African Coast

Other than Ethiopia, early African societies left no written accounts of their institutions and cultures, so modern scholars rely for information on the chronicles of travelers and merchants. Outsiders, however, come with their own preconceptions, attitudes, and biases. They tend to measure what they visit and see by the conditions and experiences with which they are familiar.

Sometime in the early tenth century the Muslim merchant-traveler Al Mas’udi (d. 945), in search of African ivory, visited Oman, the southeast coast of Africa, and Zanzibar. He referred to all the peoples he encountered as Zanj, a term that was also applied to the maritime Swahili culture of the area’s towns. Al Mas’udi’s report, excerpted here, offers historians a wealth of information about these peoples.

Omani seamen cross the strait [of Berbera, off northern Somalia] to reach Kanbalu island [perhaps modern Pemba], located in the sea of Zanj. The island’s inhabitants are a mixed population of Muslims and idolatrous Zanj. . . . I have sailed many seas, the Chinese sea, the Rum sea [Mediterranean], the Khazar [Caspian Sea], the Kolzom [Red Sea], and the sea of Yemen. I have encountered dangers without number, but I know no sea more perilous than the sea of Zanj. Here one encounters a fish called el-Owal [whale]. . . . The sailors fear its approach, and both day and night they strike pieces of wood together or beat drums to drive it away. . . . The Zanj sea also contains many other fish species possessing the most varied shapes and forms. . . . Ambergris* is found in great quantities along the Zanj coast and also along the coastline of Shihr in Arabia. . . . The best ambergris is found in the islands and on the shores of the Zanj sea: it is round, of a pale blue tint, sometimes the size of an ostrich egg, sometimes a little less. Lumps of it are swallowed by the whale. . . . When the sea becomes very rough the whale vomits up large rock size balls of ambergris. When it tries to gulp them down again it chokes to death and its body floats to the surface. Quickly the men of Zanj, or from other lands, who have been waiting for a favorable moment, draw the fish near with harpoons and tackle, cut open its stomach, and extract the ambergris. The pieces found in its intestines emit a nauseating odor, and Iraqi and Persian chemists call these nedd: but the fragments found near the back are much purer as these have been longer inside the body. . . .

The lands of the Zanj provide the people with wild leopard skins that they wear and that they export to Muslim countries. These are the largest leopard skins and make the most beautiful saddles. The Zanj also export tortoise-shell for making combs, and ivory is likewise employed for this purpose. The giraffe is the most common animal found in these lands. . . . They [the Zanj] settled in this country and spread south to Sofala, which marks the most distant frontier of this land and the terminus of the ship voyages made from Oman and Siraf on the Zanj sea. Just as the China sea ends with the land of Japan, the limits of the sea of Zanj are the lands of Sofala and the Waqwaq, a region with a warm climate and fertile soil that produces gold in abundance and many other marvelous things. This is where the Zanj built their capital and chose their king, whom they call Mfalme, the traditional title for their sovereigns. The Mfalme rules over all other Zanj kings and commands 300,000 cavalrymen. The Zanj employ the ox as a beast of burden, for their country contains no horses, mules, or camels, and they do not even know of these animals. Nor do they know of snow or hail. . . . The territory of the Zanj commences where a branch diverts from the upper Nile and continues to the land of Sofala and the Waqwaq. Their villages extend for about 700 parasangs in length and breadth along the coast. The country is divided into valleys, mountains, and sandy deserts. It abounds in wild elephants but you will not see a single tame one. The Zanj employ them neither for war nor for anything else. . . . When they want to catch them, they throw into the water the leaves, bark, and branches of a particular tree that grows in their country: then they hide in ambush until the elephants come to drink. The tainted water burns them and makes them drunk, causing them to fall down and be unable to get up. The Zanj then rush upon them, armed with very long spears, and kill them for their tusks. Indeed, the lands of the Zanj produce tusks each weighing fifty pounds and more. They generally go to Oman, and are then sent on to China and India. These are the two primary destinations, and if they were not, ivory would be abundant in Muslim lands.

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The merchant trade along the East African coast still relies on dhows, whose design has remained virtually unchanged since Al Mas’udi’s time.(Ken Welsh/age fotostock/Robert Harding World Imagery)

In China the kings and military and civil officers ride in ivory palanquins: no official or dignitary would dare to enter the royal presence in an iron palanquin. Only ivory can serve on this occasion. Thus they prefer straight tusks to curved. . . . They also burn ivory before their idols and incense their altars with its perfume, just as Christians use the Mary incense and other scents in their churches. The Chinese derive no other benefit from the elephant and believe it brings bad fortune when used for domestic purposes or war. In India ivory is much in demand. There dagger handles, as well as curved sword-scabbards, are fashioned from ivory. But ivory is chiefly used in the manufacture of chessmen and backgammon pieces. . . .

Although the Zanj are always hunting the elephant and collecting its ivory, they still make no use of ivory for their own domestic needs. For their finery they use iron rather than gold and silver, and oxen, as we mentioned above, as beasts of burden or for war, as we use camels or horses. The oxen are harnessed like horses and run at the same speed.

To return to the Zanj and their kings, these are known as Wfalme, meaning son of the Great Lord. They refer thus to their king because he has been selected to govern them fairly. As soon as he exerts tyrannical power or strays from the rule of law they put him to death and exclude his descendants from accession to the throne. They claim that through his wrongful actions he ceases to be the son of the Master, that is, the King of Heaven and Earth. They give God the name Maliknajlu, meaning the Sovereign Master.

The Zanj express themselves eloquently and have preachers in their own language. Often a devout man will stand in the center of a large crowd and exhort his listeners to render themselves agreeable to God and to submit to his commands. He depicts for them the punishments their disobedience exposes them to, and recalls the example of their ancestors and former kings. These people possess no religious code: their kings follow custom and govern according to traditional political practices.

The Zanj eat bananas, which are as abundant as they are in India; but the staples in their diets are millet and a plant called kalari that is pulled from the earth like truffles. It is similar to the cucumber of Egypt and Syria. They also eat honey and meat. Every man worships what he pleases, be it a plant, an animal or a mineral. The coconut grows on many of the islands: its fruit is eaten by all the Zanj peoples. One of these islands, situated one or two days’ sail off the coast, contains a Muslim population and a hereditary royal family. This is the island of Kanbalu, which we have already mentioned.

Source: Al Mas’udi, Les Prairies d’Or, trans. Arab to French by C. Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille (Paris: Imperial Printers, 1861, 1864), vol. I: pp. 231, 234, 333–335; vol. III: pp. 2, 3, 5–9, 26–27, 29, 30–31. Trans. French to English by Roger B. Beck.

QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS

  1. What does Al Mas’udi’s report tell us about the Zanj peoples and their customs? How would you describe his attitude toward them?
  2. What commodities were most sought after by Muslim traders? Why? Where were they sold?