Sofala

Who holds it

Title

Headman of the anchorage (see Headman of Sofala)

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

Lord in 1200

Not known: a local chief and a headman of the trading community; Kilwa's control not pinned (see the Sofala realm record).

How things stand that morning

A trading anchorage under local chiefs, frequented by Muslim and Indian merchants in the monsoon season; its 1200 form is unknown.

Charter

None: a settlement under a chief, without written privileges.

Council

Not known: the trading community presumably had a headman, as later.

Communities

Local Bantu-speaking people; resident and visiting Muslim traders; Indians (al-Idrisi says so of Sayuna).

Fairs and markets

Seasonal trade governed by the monsoons: ships arrived on the north-east monsoon (December-March) and left on the south-west (from about April).

Walls and castle

None known for 1200.

Trade and crafts

Gold, ivory and iron out; cloth, glass beads and other Indian Ocean goods in. Al-Idrisi stresses the abundance and size of Sofala's gold.

Where the sources disagree

• The probable site follows the later Portuguese town; the twelfth-century anchorage could lie elsewhere on the Buzi-Save coast.

Evidence: Written sources only (al-Mas'udi, al-Idrisi, the Kilwa Chronicle, the Portuguese of 1502-1505); no archaeology of the medieval town.

Primary sources for Sofala

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 Pleasure of One who Longs to Cross the Horizons (the Book of Roger), al-Idrisi (Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Sharif al-Idrisi) (completed in 1154 at Palermo, for Roger II of Sicily). The fullest geography of Africa a generation before 1200: the Maghreb and Ifriqiya town by town with distances and products; the Sahara routes through Sijilmasa, Awdaghust, Ghadames and Zawila; the Sudan with Ghana, Takrur, Sila, Barisa, Kawkaw (Gao) and Kugha, and Kanem with its towns Manan and Njimi; Nubia and Dongola, the Beja and the Red Sea ports; Zeila and Berbera; and the Zanj coast with Malindi, Mombasa, Qanbalu and Sofala with its gold, the earliest systematic notice of the Swahili towns. Read online
• 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.