Zanj
Encyclopedia
Zanj was a name used by medieval Arab geographers to refer to both a certain portion of the coast of East Africa
and its inhabitants, Bantu-speaking peoples called the Zanj. The seaboard is also the origin of the place name "Zanzibar
".
was Barbara
, which was the land of the Eastern Baribah or Barbaroi (Berbers
), as the ancestors of the Somalis
were referred to by medieval Arab
and ancient Greek
geographers, respectively. In modern-day Ethiopia
was al-Habash
or Abyssinia, which was inhabited by the Habash or Abyssinians, who were the forbears of the Habesha
.
Arab and Chinese
sources referred to the general area south of the Abyssinian highlands and Barbara as Zanj, or the "country of the Blacks". Also transliterated as Zenj or Zinj, it was inhabited by Bantu
-speaking peoples called the Zanj. The core area of Zanj occupation stretched from the territory south of present-day Mogadishu
, to Pemba
Island in Tanzania
. South of Pemba lay Sofala
in modern Mozambique
, the northern boundary of which may have been Pangani
. Beyond Sofala was the obscure realm of Waq-Waq, also in Mozambique. The tenth century Arab historian and geographer Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī describes Sofala as the furthest limit of Zanj settlement and mentions its king's title as Mfalme, a Bantu word.
and Indians
, but according to some sources only locally since they possessed no ocean-going ships. According to other sources the heavily-Bantu Swahili peoples already had seafaring vessels with sailors and merchants trading with Arabia and Persia and as far east as India and China. Through this trade, some Arabs intermarried with local Bantu women, which eventually gave rise to the Swahili culture
and language
-- both Bantu in origin but significantly influenced by foreign elements (e.g. clothing, loan word
s, etc.).
Prominent settlements of the Zanj coast included Shungwaya (Bur Gao), as well as Malindi
, Gedi, and Mombasa
. By the late medieval period, the area included at least 37 substantial Swahili trading towns, many of them quite wealthy. However, these communities never consolidated into a single political entity (the "Zanj Empire
" being a late nineteenth century fiction).
The urban ruling and commercial classes of these Swahili settlements was occupied by Arab and Persian immigrants. The Bantu peoples inhabited the coastal regions, and were organized only as family groups. The term 'shenzi
' used on the East African coast and derived from Swahili 'zanji' referred in a derogatory way to anything associated with rural blacks. An example of this would be the colonial term a 'shenzi' dog, referring to a native dog.
The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Arab traders to all the countries bordering the Indian Ocean
. The Umayyad
and Abbasid
caliph
s recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as 696 AD, we learn of slave revolts of the Zanj against their Arab masters in Iraq
(see Zanj Rebellion
). Ancient Chinese texts also mention ambassadors from Java presenting the Chinese emperor with two Seng Chi (Zanji) slaves as gifts, and Seng Chi slaves reaching China from the Hindu
kingdom of Sri Vijaya
in Java
.
The term "Zanj" apparently fell out of use in the tenth century. However, after 1861, when the area controlled by the Arab Sultan of Zanzibar
was forced by the British to split with the parent country of Oman
, it was often referred to as Zanj. . The sea off the south-eastern coast of Africa was known as the "Sea of Zanj
" and included the Mascarene islands and Madagascar
. During the anti-apartheid struggle it was proposed that South Africa
should assume the name 'Azania' to reflect ancient Zanj.
:
-- Jahiz (d. 868 AD), Kitab al-Bukhala (The Book of Misers)
Al Jahiz, Kitab al-Hayawan, vol. 2
However, the 9th century Muslim author Al-Jahiz
, an Afro-Arab
and the grandson of a Zanj (Bantu) slave, disagreed.
Al-Jahiz also wrote a book entitled Risalat mufakharat al-Sudan 'ala al-bidan ("Treatise on the Superiority of Blacks over Whites"), in which he stated that Blacks:
In 1331, the Berber
explorer Ibn Battuta
was impressed by the substantial beauty of Kilwa
in the land of Zanj, and describes Zanj as:
refers to a series of uprisings
which took place over a period of fifteen years (869-883 AD) near the city of Basra
(also known as Basara) in modern day Iraq
.
The Zanj who were taken as slaves to the Middle East
were often used in hard agriculture-related outdoor work. In particular, Zanj slaves were used in labor-intensive plantations, harvesting crops like sugarcane
in the lower Mesopotamia
basin of southern modern-day Iraq, a relatively unusual development in the Islamic world, which generally reserved slave labor for household chores and as soldiers. Harsh circumstances apparently motivated, between the seventh and ninth centuries, three rebellions, the largest of which occurred between 868 and 883.
Others have taken a different interpretation of the Zanj rebellion believing that it was not a slave rebellion but that the revolt was mostly Arabs supported by East African immigrants in Iraq. This view was taken by M. A. Shaban who argued:
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
and its inhabitants, Bantu-speaking peoples called the Zanj. The seaboard is also the origin of the place name "Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
".
Division of East Africa
The geographers divided the coast of East Africa at large into several regions based on each region's respective inhabitants. In northern SomaliaSomalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
was Barbara
Barbara (region)
Barbara, also referred to as Bilad al-Barbar, was an ancient region on the northern coast of the Horn of Africa. The area was inhabited by the Eastern Baribah or Barbaroi , as the ancestors of the Somalis were referred to by medieval Arab and ancient Greek geographers, respectively.Along with the...
, which was the land of the Eastern Baribah or Barbaroi (Berbers
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
), as the ancestors of the Somalis
Somali people
Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...
were referred to by medieval Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
and ancient Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
geographers, respectively. In modern-day Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
was al-Habash
Al-Habash
Al-Habash was an ancient region in the Horn of Africa. Situated in modern-day Ethiopia, it was inhabited by the Habash or Abyssinians, who were the forbears of the Habesha people....
or Abyssinia, which was inhabited by the Habash or Abyssinians, who were the forbears of the Habesha
Habesha people
The term Habesha ābešā, Ḥābešā; al-Ḥabašah) refers to the South Semitic-speaking group of people whose cultural, linguistic, and in certain cases, ancestral origins trace back to those people who ruled the Axumite Empire and the kingdom known as DʿMT .Peoples referred to as "Habesha" today...
.
Arab and Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
sources referred to the general area south of the Abyssinian highlands and Barbara as Zanj, or the "country of the Blacks". Also transliterated as Zenj or Zinj, it was inhabited by Bantu
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
-speaking peoples called the Zanj. The core area of Zanj occupation stretched from the territory south of present-day Mogadishu
Mogadishu
Mogadishu , popularly known as Xamar, is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries....
, to Pemba
Pemba, Tanzania
Pemba Island, known as "The Green Island" in Arabic , is an island forming part of the Zanzibar archipelago, lying off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. It is situated about 50 kilometres to the north of the Unguja . In 1964 Zanzibar was united with the former colony of Tanganyika to...
Island in Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
. South of Pemba lay Sofala
Sofala
Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique.-History:...
in modern Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, the northern boundary of which may have been Pangani
Pangani
Pangani is one of the eight districts of Tanga Region in Tanzania. It is bordered to the North by the Muheza District, to the East by the Indian Ocean, to the South by the Pwani Region and to the West by the Handeni District.The center is Pangani....
. Beyond Sofala was the obscure realm of Waq-Waq, also in Mozambique. The tenth century Arab historian and geographer Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī describes Sofala as the furthest limit of Zanj settlement and mentions its king's title as Mfalme, a Bantu word.
History of Zanj
The Zanj traded extensively with Arabs, PersiansPersian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
and Indians
Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin
A Non-Resident Indian is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country, a person of Indian origin who is born outside India, or a person of Indian origin who resides permanently outside India. Other terms with the same meaning are overseas Indian and expatriate Indian...
, but according to some sources only locally since they possessed no ocean-going ships. According to other sources the heavily-Bantu Swahili peoples already had seafaring vessels with sailors and merchants trading with Arabia and Persia and as far east as India and China. Through this trade, some Arabs intermarried with local Bantu women, which eventually gave rise to the Swahili culture
Swahili people
The Swahili people are a Bantu ethnic group and culture found in East Africa, mainly in the coastal regions and the islands of Kenya, Tanzania and north Mozambique. According to JoshuaProject, the Swahili number in at around 1,328,000. The name Swahili is derived from the Arabic word Sawahil,...
and language
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
-- both Bantu in origin but significantly influenced by foreign elements (e.g. clothing, loan word
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s, etc.).
Prominent settlements of the Zanj coast included Shungwaya (Bur Gao), as well as Malindi
Malindi
Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Galana River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi is 117,735 . It is the capital of the Malindi District.Tourism is the major industry in Malindi. The city is...
, Gedi, and Mombasa
Mombasa
Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya. Lying next to the Indian Ocean, it has a major port and an international airport. The city also serves as the centre of the coastal tourism industry....
. By the late medieval period, the area included at least 37 substantial Swahili trading towns, many of them quite wealthy. However, these communities never consolidated into a single political entity (the "Zanj Empire
Zanj Empire
The Zenj Empire was established in 980 AD by Ali ibn Hasan of the Shirazi Dynasty. The founding of the empire was also based on a joint venture that entailed Persians and Shabankara Kurds. The Shabankara Persians, specifically, were from the Shiraz region in southern Iran.The Zanj Empire was the...
" being a late nineteenth century fiction).
The urban ruling and commercial classes of these Swahili settlements was occupied by Arab and Persian immigrants. The Bantu peoples inhabited the coastal regions, and were organized only as family groups. The term 'shenzi
Shenzi
Shenzi can refer to:* Shenzi , a hyena character from Disney's animated film The Lion King and the Broadway musical of the same name.* The honorary name of the Chinese philosopher Shen Buhai, or his lost work Shenzi...
' used on the East African coast and derived from Swahili 'zanji' referred in a derogatory way to anything associated with rural blacks. An example of this would be the colonial term a 'shenzi' dog, referring to a native dog.
The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Arab traders to all the countries bordering the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. The Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
and Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
s recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as 696 AD, we learn of slave revolts of the Zanj against their Arab masters in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
(see Zanj Rebellion
Zanj Rebellion
The Zanj Rebellion was the culmination of series of small revolts. It took place near the city of Basra, located in southern Iraq over a period of fifteen years . It grew to involve over 500,000 slaves who were imported from across the Muslim empire and claimed over “tens of thousands of lives in...
). Ancient Chinese texts also mention ambassadors from Java presenting the Chinese emperor with two Seng Chi (Zanji) slaves as gifts, and Seng Chi slaves reaching China from the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
kingdom of Sri Vijaya
Srivijaya
Srivijaya was a powerful ancient thalassocratic Malay empire based on the island of Sumatra, modern day Indonesia, which influenced much of Southeast Asia. The earliest solid proof of its existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, I-Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for 6...
in Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
.
The term "Zanj" apparently fell out of use in the tenth century. However, after 1861, when the area controlled by the Arab Sultan of Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
was forced by the British to split with the parent country of Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
, it was often referred to as Zanj. . The sea off the south-eastern coast of Africa was known as the "Sea of Zanj
Sea of Zanj
The Sea of Zanj is a former name for that portion of the western Indian Ocean adjacent to the East African region referred to by medieval Arab geographers as Zanj. The islands of the Sea of Zanj included Mauritius, Madagascar and Réunion. These islands have had a complex and bloody history as a...
" and included the Mascarene islands and Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
. During the anti-apartheid struggle it was proposed that South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
should assume the name 'Azania' to reflect ancient Zanj.
Arab views on the Zanj
Arab descriptions of Zanj have been inconsistent. A negative view is exemplified in the following passage from Kitab al-Bad' wah-tarikh, vol.4 by the medieval Arab writer Al-MuqaddasiAl-Muqaddasi
Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shams al-Din Al-Muqaddasi , also transliterated as Al-Maqdisi and el-Mukaddasi, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of Ahsan at-Taqasim fi Ma`rifat il-Aqalim .-Biography:Al-Muqaddasi, "the Hierosolomite" was born in Jerusalem in 946 AD...
:
"As for the Zanj, they are people of black color, flat noses, kinky hair, and little understanding or intelligence."
"We know that the Zanj (blacks) are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions."
-- Jahiz (d. 868 AD), Kitab al-Bukhala (The Book of Misers)
"Like the crow among mankind are the Zanj for they are the worst of men and the most vicious of creatures in character and temperament."
Al Jahiz, Kitab al-Hayawan, vol. 2
However, the 9th century Muslim author Al-Jahiz
Al-Jahiz
Al-Jāḥiẓ was an Arabic prose writer and author of works of literature, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics.In biology, Al-Jahiz introduced the concept of food chains and also proposed a scheme of animal evolution that entailed...
, an Afro-Arab
Afro-Arab
Afro-Arab refers to people of mixed Black African and genealogical Arab ancestral heritage and/or linguistically and culturally Arabized Black Africans...
and the grandson of a Zanj (Bantu) slave, disagreed.
"They say; If a Zanji and a Zanji women marry and their children remain after puberty in Iraq, they come to rule the roost thanks to their numbers, endurance, intelligence, and efficiency."
Al-Jahiz also wrote a book entitled Risalat mufakharat al-Sudan 'ala al-bidan ("Treatise on the Superiority of Blacks over Whites"), in which he stated that Blacks:
"...Blacks are physically stronger than no matter what other people. A single one of them can lift stones of greater weight and carry burdens such as several Whites could not lift nor carry between them. [...] They are brave, strong, and generous as witness their nobility and general lack of wickedness..."
In 1331, the Berber
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
explorer Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta , or simply Ibn Battuta, also known as Shams ad–Din , was a Muslim Moroccan Berber explorer, known for his extensive travels published in the Rihla...
was impressed by the substantial beauty of Kilwa
Kilwa Masoko
Kilwa Masoko is a port town in eastern Tanzania. It is located at around .Kilwa Masoko is the site of very impressive ruins from the Ottoman Arab dynasties....
in the land of Zanj, and describes Zanj as:
"Zanj, jet-black in colour, and with tattoo marks on their faces. [...]Kilwa is a very fine and substantially built town, and all its buildings are of wood."
Zanj Rebellion
The Zanj rebellionZanj Rebellion
The Zanj Rebellion was the culmination of series of small revolts. It took place near the city of Basra, located in southern Iraq over a period of fifteen years . It grew to involve over 500,000 slaves who were imported from across the Muslim empire and claimed over “tens of thousands of lives in...
refers to a series of uprisings
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
which took place over a period of fifteen years (869-883 AD) near the city of Basra
Basra
Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...
(also known as Basara) in modern day Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
.
The Zanj who were taken as slaves to the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
were often used in hard agriculture-related outdoor work. In particular, Zanj slaves were used in labor-intensive plantations, harvesting crops like sugarcane
Sugarcane
Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...
in the lower Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
basin of southern modern-day Iraq, a relatively unusual development in the Islamic world, which generally reserved slave labor for household chores and as soldiers. Harsh circumstances apparently motivated, between the seventh and ninth centuries, three rebellions, the largest of which occurred between 868 and 883.
Others have taken a different interpretation of the Zanj rebellion believing that it was not a slave rebellion but that the revolt was mostly Arabs supported by East African immigrants in Iraq. This view was taken by M. A. Shaban who argued:
"It was not a slave revolt. It was a zanj, i.e. a Negro, revolt. To equate Negro with slave is a reflection of nineteenth-century racial theories; it could only apply to the American South before the Civil War."
"All the talk about slaves rising against the wretched conditions of work in the salt marshes of Basra is a figment of the imagination and has no support in the sources. On the contrary, some of the people who were working in the salt marshes were among the first to fight against the revolt. Of course there were a few runaway slaves who joined the rebels, but this still does not make it a slave revolt. The vast majority of the rebels were Arabs of the Persian Gulf supported by free East Africans who had made their homes in the region."