Islam, Swahili Language, and Literature

The gradual introduction of Islam to the East African coast by Arab traders from, or even before, the ninth century has had an impact upon the coastal communities in three major ways: (a) it initiated the process of contact with a wider cosmopolitan, urban civilization of the Muslim world; (b) it enabled the cultural values of the Arabs, in particular, to be imported into East Africa as “Muslim” or even as “Islamic”; and (c) it brought the beginnings of literacy to the coast through the need to read the Qur’an.

Contact with the Arab world, particularly with southern Arabia, resulted in a variety of links in the commercial, political, and religious spheres. Arab trade with East Africa was followed by its conquest and colonization, the latest phase, the Zanzibar Sultanate, lasting from 1812 to its overthrow of Zanzibar Revolution of 1964. The impression of Arabia as a “model” for emulation in the religious sphere became more intense during the Sultanate, an impression that had been...