WHI-Chap19-Swahili city states

Swahili City-States

The Swahili city-states were a series of coastal cities on the eastern coast of Africa. Established by the Bantu peoples in the second century C.E., the cities grew rapidly around the tenth century, when Islamic merchants began to trade with them. By the eleventh and twelfth centuries C.E. trade had turned the Swahili city-states into thriving, wealthy trade societies. These cities taxed and regulated trade within their areas, and their kings used the resulting profits to further spread the cities’ influence. When coupled with their enormous wealth, the volume of trade passing through the Swahili city-states increased the quality of life. Buildings went from mud and wood to stone and coral. Imported goods from as far as China were used by wealthy merchants and nobles. One of the most successful of these states was Kilwa, with a population of 12,000. Between 1300 and 1505, Kilwa prospered tremendously, constructing many stone buildings and mosques. Many imported luxury goods have been discovered, which Kilwan merchants imported in exchange for gold, slaves and ivory from interior Africa. Kilwa was exporting a ton of gold annually by the fifteenth century. In the mid-fourteenth century, the Muslim traveler ibn-Battuta visited Kilwa. Swahili city-states, apart from their great wealth and prosperity, were the crucial connection between African trade and maritime trade in Arabia, Persia, India, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.

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