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[h=1]Zanj[/h] From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Zanj (
Arabic: زنج‎; "Land of the Blacks" or "Land of the
Negroes"[SUP]
[1][/SUP]) was a name used by medieval
Arab geographers to refer to both a certain portion primarly of the coast of
Southeast Africa and its inhabitants,
Bantu-speaking peoples called the
Zanj.[SUP]
[2][/SUP] The seaboard is also the origin of the place-name "
Zanzibar".
[TABLE="class: toc"]
[TR]
[TD] [h=2]Contents[/h]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[h=2]Division of East Africa[/h] Geographers historically divided the coast of East Africa at large into several regions based on each region's respective inhabitants. In
Somalia was
Barbara, which was the land of the Eastern
Baribah or
Barbaroi (
Berbers), as the ancestors of the
Somalis were referred to by medieval
Arab and ancient
Greek geographers, respectively.[SUP]
[2][/SUP][SUP]
[3][/SUP][SUP]
[4][/SUP] In modern-day
Ethiopia was
al-Habash or Abyssinia,[SUP]
[5][/SUP] which was inhabited by the
Habash or Abyssinians, who were the forebears of the
Habesha.[SUP]
[6][/SUP]
Arab and
Chinese sources referred to the general area south of the Abyssinian highlands and Barbara as
Zanj, or the "country of the Blacks".[SUP]
[7][/SUP] Also transliterated as
Zenj or
Zinj, it was inhabited by
Bantu-speaking peoples called the
Zanj.[SUP]
[2][/SUP][SUP]
[8][/SUP][SUP]
[7][/SUP] The core area of Zanj occupation stretched from the territory south of present-day
Mogadishu (although ethnic mogadhisans were not Zanj, but rather the inhabiting slaves),[SUP]
[9][/SUP] to
Pemba Island in
Tanzania. South of Pemba lay
Sofala in modern
Mozambique, the northern boundary of which may have been
Pangani. Beyond Sofala was the obscure realm of Waq-Waq, also in Mozambique.[SUP]
[10][/SUP][SUP]
[11][/SUP] The tenth-century Arab historian and geographer
Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī describes Sofala as the furthest limit of Zanj settlement and mentions its king's title as
Mfalme, a Bantu word.[SUP]
[2][/SUP]
[h=2]History of Zanj[/h] The Zanj traded extensively with Arabs,
Persians and
Indians, but according to some sources only locally since they possessed no ocean-going ships.[SUP]
[2][/SUP] According to other sources the heavily-Bantu Swahili peoples already had seafaring vessels with sailors and merchants trading with Arabia and Persia and as far east as India and China.[SUP]
[12][/SUP][SUP]
[13][/SUP][SUP]
[14][/SUP] Through this trade, some Arabs intermarried with local Bantu women, which eventually gave rise to the
Swahili culture and
language -- both Bantu in origin but significantly influenced by foreign elements (e.g. clothing,
loan words, etc.).[SUP]
[15][/SUP]
Prominent settlements of the Zanj coast included
Shungwaya (
Bur Gao), as well as
Malindi,
Gedi, and
Mombasa. By the late medieval period, the area included at least 37 substantial Swahili trading towns, many of them quite wealthy. However, these communities never consolidated into a single political entity (the "
Zanj Empire" being a late nineteenth-century fiction).
The urban ruling and commercial classes of these Swahili settlements was occupied by Arab and Persian immigrants. The Bantu peoples inhabited the coastal regions, and were organized only as family groups.[SUP]
[2][/SUP] The term '
shenzi' used on the East African coast and derived from Swahili "zanji" referred in a derogatory way to anything associated with rural blacks. An example of this would be the colonial term a "shenzi" dog, referring to a native dog.
The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Arab traders to all the countries bordering the
Indian Ocean. The
Umayyad and
Abbasid caliphs recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as 696 AD, we learn of slave revolts of the Zanj against their Arab masters in
Iraq (see
Zanj Rebellion). Ancient Chinese texts also mention ambassadors from Java presenting the Chinese emperor with two
Seng Chi (Zanji) slaves as gifts, and Seng Chi slaves reaching China from the
Hindu kingdom of
Sri Vijaya in
Java.[SUP]
[16][/SUP]
The term "Zanj" apparently fell out of use in the tenth century. However, after 1861, when the area controlled by the Arab Sultan of
Zanzibar was forced by the
British to split with the parent country of
Oman, it was often referred to as Zanj.[SUP][
citation needed][/SUP]. The sea off the south-eastern coast of Africa was known as the "
Sea of Zanj" and included the
Mascarene islands and
Madagascar. During the anti-
apartheid struggle it was proposed that
South Africa should assume the name 'Azania' to reflect ancient Zanj.
[h=2]Arab views on the Zanj[/h] Arab descriptions of Zanj have been inconsistent.[SUP]
[16][/SUP][SUP]
[17][/SUP] A negative view is exemplified in the following passage from
Kitab al-Bad' wah-tarikh, vol.4 by the medieval Arab writer
Al-Muqaddasi:
"As for the Zanj, they are people of black color, flat noses, kinky hair, and little understanding or intelligence."
"We know that the Zanj (blacks) are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions."
-- Jahiz (d. 868 AD), Kitab al-Bukhala (The Book of Misers)
"Like the crow among mankind are the Zanj for they are the worst of men and the most vicious of creatures in character and temperament."
Al Jahiz, Kitab al-Hayawan, vol. 2
However, the 9th-century Muslim author
Al-Jahiz, an
Afro-Arab and the grandson of a Zanj (
Bantu)[SUP]
[2][/SUP][SUP]
[3][/SUP][SUP]
[8][/SUP] slave, disagreed.
"They say; If a Zanji and a Zanji women marry and their children remain after puberty in Iraq, they come to rule the roost thanks to their numbers, endurance, intelligence, and efficiency."
Al-Jahiz also wrote a book entitled
Risalat mufakharat al-Sudan 'ala al-bidan ("Treatise on the Superiority of Blacks over Whites"), in which he stated that Blacks:
"...have conquered the country of the
Arabs as far as
Mecca and have governed them. We defeated
Dhu Nowas (
Jewish King of
Yemen) and killed all the
Himyarite princes, but you,
White people, have never conquered our country. Our people, the Zenghs (
Negroes) revolted forty times in the
Euphrates, driving the inhabitants from their homes and making Oballah a bath of blood.[SUP]
[18][/SUP]
"...Blacks are physically stronger than no matter what other people. A single one of them can lift stones of greater weight and carry burdens such as several Whites could not lift nor carry between them. [...] They are brave, strong, and generous as witness their nobility and general lack of wickedness..."
In 1331, the Arabic-speaking
Berber explorer
Ibn Battuta visited the
Kilwa Sultanate in the Land of Zanj, which was ruled by Sultan Hasan bin Sulayman's Yemeni dynasty.[SUP]
[19][/SUP] Battuta described the kingdom's Arab ruler as often making slave and booty raids on the local Zanj inhabitants, the latter of whom Battuta characterized as "jet-black in color, and with tattoo marks on their faces."[SUP]
[19][/SUP]
"Kilwa is one of the most beautiful and well-constructed towns in the world. The whole of it is elegantly built. The roofs are built with mangrove pole. There is very much rain. The people are engaged in a holy war, for their country lies beside the pagan Zanj. Their chief qualities are devotion and piety: they follow the Shafi'i sect. When I arrived, the Sultan was Abu al-Muzaffar Hasan surnamed Abu al-Mawahib [loosely translated, "The Giver of Gifts"]... on account of his numerous charitable gifts. He frequently makes raids into the Zanj country [neighboring mainland], attacks them and carries off booty, of which he reserves a fifth, using it in the manner prescribed by the Koran [Qur'an]."[SUP]
[19][/SUP]
[h=1]Zanj[/h] From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to:
navigation,
search
Zanj (
Arabic: زنج‎; "Land of the Blacks" or "Land of the
Negroes"[SUP]
[1][/SUP]) was a name used by medieval
Arab geographers to refer to both a certain portion primarly of the coast of
Southeast Africa and its inhabitants,
Bantu-speaking peoples called the
Zanj.[SUP]
[2][/SUP] The seaboard is also the origin of the place-name "
Zanzibar".
[TABLE="class: toc"]
[TR]
[TD] [h=2]Contents[/h]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[h=2]Division of East Africa[/h] Geographers historically divided the coast of East Africa at large into several regions based on each region's respective inhabitants. In
Somalia was
Barbara, which was the land of the Eastern
Baribah or
Barbaroi (
Berbers), as the ancestors of the
Somalis were referred to by medieval
Arab and ancient
Greek geographers, respectively.[SUP]
[2][/SUP][SUP]
[3][/SUP][SUP]
[4][/SUP] In modern-day
Ethiopia was
al-Habash or Abyssinia,[SUP]
[5][/SUP] which was inhabited by the
Habash or Abyssinians, who were the forebears of the
Habesha.[SUP]
[6][/SUP]
Arab and
Chinese sources referred to the general area south of the Abyssinian highlands and Barbara as
Zanj, or the "country of the Blacks".[SUP]
[7][/SUP] Also transliterated as
Zenj or
Zinj, it was inhabited by
Bantu-speaking peoples called the
Zanj.[SUP]
[2][/SUP][SUP]
[8][/SUP][SUP]
[7][/SUP] The core area of Zanj occupation stretched from the territory south of present-day
Mogadishu (although ethnic mogadhisans were not Zanj, but rather the inhabiting slaves),[SUP]
[9][/SUP] to
Pemba Island in
Tanzania. South of Pemba lay
Sofala in modern
Mozambique, the northern boundary of which may have been
Pangani. Beyond Sofala was the obscure realm of Waq-Waq, also in Mozambique.[SUP]
[10][/SUP][SUP]
[11][/SUP] The tenth-century Arab historian and geographer
Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī describes Sofala as the furthest limit of Zanj settlement and mentions its king's title as
Mfalme, a Bantu word.[SUP]
[2][/SUP]
[h=2]History of Zanj[/h] The Zanj traded extensively with Arabs,
Persians and
Indians, but according to some sources only locally since they possessed no ocean-going ships.[SUP]
[2][/SUP] According to other sources the heavily-Bantu Swahili peoples already had seafaring vessels with sailors and merchants trading with Arabia and Persia and as far east as India and China.[SUP]
[12][/SUP][SUP]
[13][/SUP][SUP]
[14][/SUP] Through this trade, some Arabs intermarried with local Bantu women, which eventually gave rise to the
Swahili culture and
language -- both Bantu in origin but significantly influenced by foreign elements (e.g. clothing,
loan words, etc.).[SUP]
[15][/SUP]
Prominent settlements of the Zanj coast included
Shungwaya (
Bur Gao), as well as
Malindi,
Gedi, and
Mombasa. By the late medieval period, the area included at least 37 substantial Swahili trading towns, many of them quite wealthy. However, these communities never consolidated into a single political entity (the "
Zanj Empire" being a late nineteenth-century fiction).
The urban ruling and commercial classes of these Swahili settlements was occupied by Arab and Persian immigrants. The Bantu peoples inhabited the coastal regions, and were organized only as family groups.[SUP]
[2][/SUP] The term '
shenzi' used on the East African coast and derived from Swahili "zanji" referred in a derogatory way to anything associated with rural blacks. An example of this would be the colonial term a "shenzi" dog, referring to a native dog.
The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Arab traders to all the countries bordering the
Indian Ocean. The
Umayyad and
Abbasid caliphs recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as 696 AD, we learn of slave revolts of the Zanj against their Arab masters in
Iraq (see
Zanj Rebellion). Ancient Chinese texts also mention ambassadors from Java presenting the Chinese emperor with two
Seng Chi (Zanji) slaves as gifts, and Seng Chi slaves reaching China from the
Hindu kingdom of
Sri Vijaya in
Java.[SUP]
[16][/SUP]
The term "Zanj" apparently fell out of use in the tenth century. However, after 1861, when the area controlled by the Arab Sultan of
Zanzibar was forced by the
British to split with the parent country of
Oman, it was often referred to as Zanj.[SUP][
citation needed][/SUP]. The sea off the south-eastern coast of Africa was known as the "
Sea of Zanj" and included the
Mascarene islands and
Madagascar. During the anti-
apartheid struggle it was proposed that
South Africa should assume the name 'Azania' to reflect ancient Zanj.
[h=2]Arab views on the Zanj[/h] Arab descriptions of Zanj have been inconsistent.[SUP]
[16][/SUP][SUP]
[17][/SUP] A negative view is exemplified in the following passage from
Kitab al-Bad' wah-tarikh, vol.4 by the medieval Arab writer
Al-Muqaddasi:
"As for the Zanj, they are people of black color, flat noses, kinky hair, and little understanding or intelligence."
"We know that the Zanj (blacks) are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions."
-- Jahiz (d. 868 AD), Kitab al-Bukhala (The Book of Misers)
"Like the crow among mankind are the Zanj for they are the worst of men and the most vicious of creatures in character and temperament."
Al Jahiz, Kitab al-Hayawan, vol. 2
However, the 9th-century Muslim author
Al-Jahiz, an
Afro-Arab and the grandson of a Zanj (
Bantu)[SUP]
[2][/SUP][SUP]
[3][/SUP][SUP]
[8][/SUP] slave, disagreed.
"They say; If a Zanji and a Zanji women marry and their children remain after puberty in Iraq, they come to rule the roost thanks to their numbers, endurance, intelligence, and efficiency."
Al-Jahiz also wrote a book entitled
Risalat mufakharat al-Sudan 'ala al-bidan ("Treatise on the Superiority of Blacks over Whites"), in which he stated that Blacks:
"...have conquered the country of the
Arabs as far as
Mecca and have governed them. We defeated
Dhu Nowas (
Jewish King of
Yemen) and killed all the
Himyarite princes, but you,
White people, have never conquered our country. Our people, the Zenghs (
Negroes) revolted forty times in the
Euphrates, driving the inhabitants from their homes and making Oballah a bath of blood.[SUP]
[18][/SUP]
"...Blacks are physically stronger than no matter what other people. A single one of them can lift stones of greater weight and carry burdens such as several Whites could not lift nor carry between them. [...] They are brave, strong, and generous as witness their nobility and general lack of wickedness..."
In 1331, the Arabic-speaking
Berber explorer
Ibn Battuta visited the
Kilwa Sultanate in the Land of Zanj, which was ruled by Sultan Hasan bin Sulayman's Yemeni dynasty.[SUP]
[19][/SUP] Battuta described the kingdom's Arab ruler as often making slave and booty raids on the local Zanj inhabitants, the latter of whom Battuta characterized as "jet-black in color, and with tattoo marks on their faces."[SUP]
[19][/SUP]
"Kilwa is one of the most beautiful and well-constructed towns in the world. The whole of it is elegantly built. The roofs are built with mangrove pole. There is very much rain. The people are engaged in a holy war, for their country lies beside the pagan Zanj. Their chief qualities are devotion and piety: they follow the Shafi'i sect. When I arrived, the Sultan was Abu al-Muzaffar Hasan surnamed Abu al-Mawahib [loosely translated, "The Giver of Gifts"]... on account of his numerous charitable gifts. He frequently makes raids into the Zanj country [neighboring mainland], attacks them and carries off booty, of which he reserves a fifth, using it in the manner prescribed by the Koran [Qur'an]."[SUP]
[19][/SUP]