Shanga

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Shanga is a former port city on the east coast of Kenya within the Lamu Archipelago. Shanga is considered to be the earliest presence of Muslim settlers on the East African coast and also south of the Sahara.

The place on the island of Pate was an important stop for Muslim traders and seafarers who traveled along the African coast and as far as India. Apart from a brief mention in the godfather chronicle , it was not mentioned in any surviving text. All information comes from archaeological excavations carried out here by Mark Horton and Richard Wilding from 1980 with exemplary thoroughness. From pre-Islamic times, pot shards were excavated, which suggest an early settlement by black African ranchers and trade contacts with southern Arabia. Similar pottery, unglazed in the earliest times, was also found on neighboring islands and in 1989 on the Tana River . In Shanga, 41 types of sherds were distinguished and assigned to four time periods. The extent to which cattle breeders were the first settlers on the island is not yet clear.

In the 8th century the place consisted of round huts and was surrounded by a wooden fortification. Two mosques lying one above the other were excavated from the period from 780 to 850, whereby the oldest mosque at the bottom could have been built around 675. Post holes indicate that a “tent-like” structure was initially built. Grave finds from the earliest times indicate a permanent settlement. A total of 25 renovations were made to the mosque. Since the qibla wall with a stone in the middle as a symbolic mihrāb was initially oriented towards Jerusalem, an earliest construction is even considered during Muhammad's lifetime . In the 9th or 10th century the mosque was made of wood, from around the 11th century it was made of coral stone and plastered with lime.

Around this time, rectangular houses and coral stone fortifications were built around the mosque. Remains of stone houses have also been excavated outside the city wall. Silver coins with inscriptions from local Muslim rulers from the 9th century have been found in Shanga. Other coins that were in circulation among the Fatimids date from the end of the 10th and 11th centuries.

In the following century, economic stagnation can be observed, as only buildings made of wood were built. In the 14th and 15th centuries, when the town was in its prime, numerous new buildings were built from a different coral stone. The mosque was abandoned in the early 15th century. After this time, the place lost its importance as a seaport for Arab traders. The religious and economic center on this stretch of coast was Lamu from 1550 to around 1800.

The remaining ruins from the 13th or 14th century are located southeast of the village of Siyu (there stone houses from the 15th century) and consist of about 130 houses, a large and a small mosque and a palace. The city was surrounded by a defensive wall with five entrances. Outside the wall there is a cemetery with around 300 graves.

literature

  • Mark Chatwin Horton: Shanga: The Archeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa. British Institute in Eastern Africa, London 1996 ISBN 187256609X .
  • Mark Chatwin Horton: Shanga: An Interim Report. National Museums of Kenya , Nairobi 1981.
  • Mark Chatwin Horton and John Middleton: The Swahili. (The Peoples of Africa.) Blackwell Publishers, Oxford 2001. ISBN 0-631-18919-X .
  • Randall L. Pouwels: The East African Coast, C. 780 to 1900 CE In: Nehemia Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels: The History of Islam in Africa. Ohio University Press, Athens (Ohio) 2000, pp. 252-254.
  • Chryssee MacCasler Perry Martin and Esmond Bradley Martin : Quest for the past: An historical guide to the Lamu Archipelago. Marketing and Pub. Ltd., Nairobi 1973.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anna-Lena Forslund: Pottery and East Africa. Uppsala University 2003, p. 14f ( Memento of February 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ).
  2. ↑ Jamalilyl, pp. 8-10.

Coordinates: 2 ° 17 '  S , 40 ° 54'  E