The most important early site of Maore (Mayotte), on a height above the coastal plain of the east coast, covering several hectares.
In the ninth to eleventh centuries it worked iron for India and the Middle East and cut Malagasy rock crystal for workshops in Iraq, Egypt and Persia, and it imported Gulf, Indian and Chinese wares (Tang white porcelain among them). Its decline is clear in the twelfth century, probably because traders now settled on Madagascar itself. On 1 January 1200 it is a shrinking settlement.
Who holds it
- Title
- Chief
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
Its own chief, not known.
How things stand that morning
In decline.
Charter
None known: Swahili towns had no written charters.
Council
Not recorded.
Communities
A culture of Austronesian type with some Bantu traits, in the excavators' reading.
Fairs and markets
No fairs; trade follows the monsoon season (ships arrive with the north-east kaskazi from about November and leave with the south-west kusi from about April).
Militia
Not recorded.
Walls and castle
None recorded.
Trade and crafts
Rock-crystal working, ironworking, re-export of Malagasy goods.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Excavated by Allibert and others (2013 research cited).
Primary sources for Comoros
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 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.
- Mapungubwe, the Zimbabwe plateau, Toutswe and the Comoros: the archaeological record (no text; radiocarbon-dated sites). There is no written word from the interior south of the Zambezi or from the Comoros in 1200; all that is known is from excavation. 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.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.