Sultan of Kilwa

Who he is

Name

Not pinned. Al-Husain bin Sulaiman on the Freeman-Grenville and Bosworth reckoning of the chronicle (acceded about 1191, reigned 25 years); otherwise a sultan of Ali bin al-Hasan's line whose name is not known

Title

Sultan of Kilwa, of the Shirazi line

Since

Not pinned

Born

Not known

Family

See Kilwa. In the chronicle's sequence: Sulaiman al-Hasan bin Dawud (father), brothers Dawud, Talut and Khalid; the house descends from Ali bin al-Hasan and the daughter of the mainland king.

Confidence

low

Kilwa Chronicle, Arabic (Sulwa, about 1520) and Portuguese (Barros, 1552) versions, through Bosworth's list on Wikipedia; Chittick 1965 for the later dating.

What it holds

• Kilwa Kisiwani island and town
• The facing mainland shore (Kilwa Masoko)
• Through kin: Mafia (see Ruler of Mafia)
• The port dues and the market of the town

How it was acquired

Inherited within the Shirazi house; the chronicle shows brothers succeeding brothers as often as sons succeeding fathers.

Allies and rivals

His kinsman at Mafia; the townsmen; rivals among his own brothers and cousins; the neighbouring town of Sanje ya Kati; the mainland chiefs.

How things stand that morning

Holds the island and its shore on 1 January 1200. His name is not settled (see Kilwa).

Wealth

Port dues, his own trading, the coinage, gardens on the mainland.

Military

Household and townsmen; boats. No fortress attested for 1200.

Threats

• Deposition by kin or townsmen
• A rival town on the next island

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. Through 1200No dated event is known.

Where the sources disagree

• Naming the sultan depends entirely on which chronology is followed; see Kilwa.

Evidence: Late chronicle and undated coins.

On the map: Drawn on the archaeologists' dating; see the realm record.

Primary sources for Kilwa

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Kilwa Chronicle (Arabic version about 1520 to 1530; Portuguese summary printed by João de Barros in 1552). The only narrative for the Swahili coast before the Portuguese, in two versions that agree on the dynasty and disagree on much else: the arrival of Ali ibn al-Hasan from Shiraz, his purchase of the island, and the line of his descendants, with reign lengths that put Sulayman ibn al-Hasan, Dawud ibn Sulayman, Talut and Husayn ibn Sulayman in the decades around 1200 (Bosworth's conversion gives Husayn about 1191 to 1215), the winning of Sofala's gold trade, and later the Mahdali dynasty of Abu'l-Mawahib. Read online
• The coins of Kilwa and the early Swahili inscriptions (coins struck from about the eleventh century; dated inscriptions from 1107). The only contemporary writing from the coast around 1200.
• The Travels of Ibn Battuta: Egypt, the Horn, the Swahili coast and Mali, Ibn Battuta (dictated to Ibn Juzayy) (1355, at Fez). A century and a half late, but the first eyewitness of places that in 1200 are known only from hearsay: Zeila and its stench, Mogadishu with its sultan, qadi and merchant hosts, Mombasa, and Kilwa under the Mahdali sultan Abu'l-Muzaffar al-Hasan, raiding the Zanj of the mainland; and the Sahara road from Sijilmasa through Taghaza and Walata to the court of Mali under Mansa Sulayman, then Timbuktu, Gao and Takedda among the veiled Berbers. Read online
• The History of the Observant Traveller: the pages on Zeila, Berbera, Mogadishu and Dahlak, Ibn al-Mujawir (Yusuf ibn Yaqub ibn al-Mujawir) (about 1221 to 1230). The closest description of the Horn's ports to 1200, written about twenty-five years later by a trader and official who worked the Aden trade: Zeila and its traffic in slaves, ivory and the goods of the Ethiopian interior; the Barbar (Somali) coast with Berbera and Mogadishu, and the sea route from Aden to Mogadishu and on to Kilwa with its sailing seasons; the Dahlak islands with their own sultan and his dues; Socotra; and the customs and prices of Aden under the Ayyubids of Yemen. Read online
• The East African Coast: Select Documents, Various (edited and translated by G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville) (the collection published 1962; second edition 1975). The standard English collection for the coast, and the one place to read together everything written about the Swahili towns near 1200: al-Masudi and Buzurg ibn Shahriyar (tenth century), al-Idrisi (1154), Yaqut (1220s), Ibn al-Mujawir (1220s), Ibn Said, the Chinese notices of Duan Chengshi and Zhao Rugua (1225), Ibn Battuta's visit of 1331, the Kilwa Chronicle in both versions, and the Portuguese.