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HISTORY OF PATE
- Michigan State University Press
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mSTORY OF PATE The first man who came (to Pate), among the Nabhans,l was Seleman, son of Seleman, son of Muthafar the Nabhan, with his brothers, Ali bin Seleman and Athman bin Seleman. He who was Sultan was this Seleman aforesaid, and he was king in Arabia and was driven out by the Ya'arubi2 and came to Pate in the year 600 (six hundred) of the Hijra (was) his coming, and he married the daughter of the King of Pate, '1 Batawina.3 And the custom 1 For the origin of the Nabhan (Nebhan) family, see Badger, Im{Jms and Seyyids ofOman (Introduction, p. viii). They reigned over Oman, with the title of malik ("king") from A.D. 1154 to A.D. 1406. Unfortunately, there is a gap in the records which form the material for the chronicle of Suleiman bin Sa'id (translated by Badger in the volume above referred to), and very few particulars of these kings are available. One of them was named Muzhaffar bin Suleiman, but he cannot be the same as the Muzhaffar (Muthafar) whose grandson became Sultan of Pate. The latter is not mentioned in the chronicle, though there is a reference to an earlier emigration to "the land of the Zanj," in the time of 'Abdu '1 Malik bin Marwan (A.D. 684-705). But cj. Stigand, p. 30. 2 " ••• The el Ya'arubah, whose presence in Oman at a very early period is attested by concurrent tradition ... supplied a succession of Imams to the country from A.D. 16241741 , when they were superseded by the existing dynasty of the Al-BO-Sa'id" (Badger, p. vi). As the names of only four Nabhan kings are recorded during the interval between 1154 and 1406, it is probable that some names have dropped out, and also that one or more Ya'arubi chiefs reigned after the expUlsion of Suleiman (Seleman) and his brothers, in or about 1204. 3 This form of the name seems preferable. As the termination is feminine, the name would seem to be that of the King of Pate's daughter. [Editor's note: Werner's Arabic is inadequate here. The MS gives the correct Arabic plural of nisba, or family name, of the ruler. The reference is thus to the dynasty.] Batawi is the name of an Arab clan, some of whose representatives are still living at Mombasa. Cf also Stigand, pp. 160, 161. This King of Pate is elsewhere called Ishak (Stigand, p. 31). The original foundation of Pate (not mentioned in the MS. before us) dates back to A.H. 69 (A.D. 689), and was no doubt due to the two brothers, Suleiman and Sa'id, who about that time were driven out of Oman by the invasion of EI-Hajjftj (Badger, p. xii). [Editor's note: Werner is being overly trustful TRANSLATION 169 of all the Swahili, to this day, is this: if a man carries your daughter, when the seven days of the wedding are finished, he goes to see his wife's father, (who) gives him something - this is the usage of all the Swahili. When Seleman went to see him, (his father-in-law) handed over the kingdom to him. From thenceforth he reigned, the aforesaid Seleman bin Seleman. And there was a town to the east of Pate, called Kitaka; there was also a second town called (p. 155) Shanga on the east of Pate; and Faza had its own rulers, the Mafaziyun. The kingdom of Pate had these towns, Kitaka and Pate; and Manda had its own king - the (king) of Manda was separate.4 And Seleman begat two sons, Muhammad and Ahmad, and afterwards he died, in the year 625 [A.D. 1228]. There reigned (in his stead) Muhammad bin Seleman, and his age was twenty years, and Ahmad was a boy of fifteen years. Muhammad reigned after his father and fought with the men of Shanga and conquered them and destroyed their town. Then the men of Shanga came to Pate, and some of them ran away. Among those who came to Pate (were some), their tribe (was that of) [Kibwana Ndanguu];5 they escaped, and it was not known where they of the legendary details. For archeological evidence of early settlement in the area see, for example, H.N. Chittick, "Discoveries in the Lamu Archipelago," Azania 2 (1967) pp. 37-68; Mark Horton, "Early Muslim Trading Settlements on the East African Coast: New Evidence from Shanga...