The Pate Chronicle: edited and translated from MSS 177, 321, 344, and 358 of the Library of the University of Dar es Salaam

ANCIENT HISTORY FROM SWAHILI SOURCES: Translation

ANCIENT mSTORY FROM SWAIllLI SOURCES The following histories are culled from old Pate records. They were communicated to me by Bwana Kitini who is a direct descendant of the Pate Sultans, and looked on locally as the authority on historical matters. For some reason or other I was not allowed access to the original documents, except one relating to recent Zanzibar history and evidently not much prized. l My informant, who, like most Orientals, had a prodigious memory for learning by rote,2 made notes and visited me daily for some months. I wrote the text down from his dictation and subsequently translated it as literally as possible. The reader must please pardon the peculiar phrasing sometimes adopted so as to keep as near as possible to the Swahili. The beginning of these coast towns,3 he who first made them was a ruler called Abdul Malik bin Muriani [Editor's note: the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, 685-705]. The date was the seventy-seventh year of the Hejra [696-7]. He heard of this country, and his soul longed to found a new 1 The Rev. W.E. Taylor, the greatest living authority on Swahili, told me that he had also heard of these documents but was unable to obtain access to them. 2 Although learning is at a low ebb on the east coast, the retentive memory which enables a literate Arab to become a Hafiz is evident. A Hafiz is one who can repeat the Koran by heart from cover to cover. 3 Ancient history only deals with the coast, as the interior was unknown. 38 STIGAND'S VERSION kingdom. So he brought Syrians, and they built the cities of Pate, Malindi, Zanzibar, Mombasa, Lamu and Kilwa.4 (p. 30) After that Abdul Malik died, and his sons who reigned did not care for the work of founding towns, and so they left them.5 Now Abdul Malik's tribe was the Bani Omaiya, and of these fourteen kings reigned. After this the Bani Omaiya dynasty went out, and there ruled the Bani Al Abbas. The third of this dynasty was Harun al Rashid,6 who reigned in the year 170 [786-787. Editor's note: Harlin aI-Rashid was the fifth 'Abbasid caliph, 786809 .]. This Sultan heard that Abdul Malik had built in Africa, and he was pleased to call people and give them much wealth wherewith he sent them to build houses on the coast. The people he sent were Persians. In the year 601 [1204-5] came the Nabahans to the coast coming forth from the Oman (Maskat). Now the origin of the Nabahans leaving the Oman is this. In the beginning at Maskat four tribes ruled. First reigned the tribe called the Kharusi. After that they were robbed of their kingdom by the Nabahans. A Nabahan Sultan called Imam? Muthafar took the kingdom and 4 The following towns are said to have been built or commenced by Abdul Malik. In each town or group of towns he had a Luwali (Governor). Mukadisho (mui wa mwisho=the end city), Marika, Barawa, Tula, Twavae, Koyama, Vumbi, Kismayu, Omwi, Ndao, Kiwayu, Pate, Paza, Shanga, Emezi (now Wangi), Magagoni (Tukutu), Amu (Lamu), Manda, Taka, Kitao, Komana, Uziwa, Shaka (said to be named from Persian Shah), Mea, Ozi, Malindi, Watamu, Mvita, Wasini, Kilwa, Tungi, Ngazija (the Comoro Islands). 5 A legend on the coast says that his son lafari ruled and died at Kiwayu. 6 This was the Haroon al Rashid of the'Arabian Nights', who ruled at Bagdad. 7 'Imam, the hereditary title of the Maskat rulers.' TRANSLATION 39 ruled over the whole of Oman. After him came his son Suleiman bin Muthafar, and the latter's son Suleiman bin Suleiman. Then occurred a quarrel between the Arabs and the Nabahans amongst the two tribes of the Henawi and Ghafir. Then the Yorubi fought the Nabahans and they gained strength and defeated the ruling Nabahan. So he went forth and fled away and came to the Sawaheli8 coast with some of his tribe, whilst others went to Jebel Riami; they are there at Riami until now. He who went to the Sawaheli coast was he who had been Sultan of Maskat. He landed at Pate and the inhabitants of Pate were those people who had been sent by Khalif Abdul Malik bin Muriani. So he remained in Pate with his people for...