The Swahili coast
City-states on the East African shore trade across the Indian Ocean.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 500 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
Kilwa, Mombasa, Zanzibar, Malindi and dozens of other towns grow from the eleventh century on the monsoon trade linking Africa to Arabia, India and China, exporting gold, ivory and enslaved people and importing textiles and ceramics. Their culture is African and Muslim, their language Bantu with heavy Arabic borrowing, and their architecture coral stone. Ibn Battuta visited Kilwa in 1331 and called it one of the finest cities he had seen.