IBN BATTUTA AND EAST AFRICA

This note offers some comments on the recently published Textes et Documents relatifs à l'histoire de l'Afrique : Extraits tirés des Voyages d'Ibn Battûta, by R. Mauny, V. Monteil, A. Djenidi, S. Robert and J. Dévisse. The comments made concern passages, and more particularly notes thereon, dealing with the East African coast. None of the authors, I understand, knows this region, and the present remarks are presented in the hope that it will be useful to bring before readers primarily interested in the West coast of Africa some views mainly derived from recent work in the East. Mogadishu. Ibn Battuta's description of the ruling Sheikh is valuable confirmatory evidence that the earlier confederation of tribes had been replaced by a single ruler. In this earlier confederation the Muqri tribe was predominant x. Hrbek proposes that we should read the name of the qâdï of the town as Ibn Burhân ad-Dïn al-Muqrï, amending al-Misrï (the Egyptian) in this sense 2. Kilwa (p. 26 and Note 5). This name is incorporated in those of three places in the region at the present day, but two of them were of no importance before recent times. The earliest remains at Kilwa Kisiwani, the site of the ancient town, lie at the bottom of some 5 metres of deposit and go back to the ixth century ; but until the xnth century the town was, on the archaeological evidence, of no great wealth. No reputable tradition ascribes its founding to a descendant of Muhammad. It is unlikely that Rhapta was in the vicinity ; the delta of the Rufiji is a much more probable location. Recent archaeological work, and a re-examination of the historical records, indicates that the Shirazi dynasty was established around the end of the xnth century.