xii, 272 pages : 23 cm

"Kiswahili has become the lingua franca of eastern Africa. Yet there can be few historic peoples whose identity is as elusive as that of the Swahili. Some have described themselves as Arabs, as Persians or even, in one place, as Portuguese. It is doubtful whether, even today, most of the people about whom this book is written would unhesitatingly and in all contexts accept the name Swahili."--BOOK JACKET. "This book was central to the thought and lifework of the late James de Vere Allen. It is his major study of the origin of the Swahili and of their cultural identity. He focuses on how the African element in their cultural patrimony was first modified by Islam and later changed until many Swahili themselves lost sight of it."--BOOK JACKET. "They share a language and they share a culture. Their territory stretches from the coast of southern Somalia to the Lamu archipelago in Kenya, to the Rovuma River in modern Mozambique and out into the islands of the Indian Ocean. But they lack a shared historical experience."--BOOK JACKET. "James de Vere Allen, in this study of contentious originality, set out to give modern Swahili evidence of their shared history during a period of eight centuries."--Jacket

Includes bibliographical references and index

The problem of Swahili identity -- The earliest coastal settlements -- Shungwaya: the setting -- Early trade & trade-routes -- Swahili traditions & metaphors -- Segeju traditions -- Shirazi traditions & the composition of Shungwaya -- Great Shungwaya & its successor-states -- The first Swahili diaspora & the coming of Islam -- Shirazi Islam & the Shirazi & Arab-Wangwana modes of dominance -- Shungwaya & the Swahili settlement -- Swahili identity reconsidered

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