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

SWAHILI CHRONICLE OF PATE: INTRODUCTION

SWAIllLI CHRONICLE OF PATE Khabari ya-awwali ya-Nabhani M. HEEPE INTRODUCTION The following synthetic text of two versions of the Pate Chronicle was published by M. Heepe under the title "Suaheli-Chronik von Pate" in the Mitteilungen des Seminars for orientalische Sprachen. 1 It was accompanied by a facsimile reproduction of two Arabic-script MSS reduced in size by 1/3. These are included at the end of the present volume as MS M and MS A (notation introduced by Heepe to correlate the MSS with the dialects: A for "Amu," M for "Mvita"). The original MSS were obtained by the German Vice-Consul at Mombasa Mr. Wassmuss in 1911. The sixteen-page long MS M contains the briefer text in the Ki-Mvita (Mombasa) dialect of Swahili, while MS A, on 39 pages, has the more complete text of the chronicle in KiAmu . To my knowledge, MS M is the only Ki-Mvita version of the chronicle discovered so far. This MS is also unique in consistently using the toponym Amu (isolated form without the locative particle /-) instead of the more common form Lamu). The Arabic text is reproduced here, as in the original German publication, in two columns on each page, numbered by Heepe from right to left according to Arabic style of writing. In addition, the plates (found at the end of the journal issue) carry Roman numerals. MS M is interrupted; the last one-and-a-half lines of MS A (the only text on page 39) were reproduced by Heepe in a note at the end of the romanized transcript. This pattern is followed in the present edition. The Arabic script reduced facsimile of MSS A and M will be found at the end of the volume. Heepe was familiar with Stigand's version but not with Werner's, to 13. Abteilung: Afrikanische Studien 31 (1928): 145-92. 198 HEEPE'S VERSION which his own text rather closely corresponds. He had also read Alfred Voeltzkow's paraphrase and made frequent references to both; these were marked with abbreviations S and V in his edition, fully cited in the present volume as "Stigand" and "Voeltzkow." In footnotes, but especially extensively in comments following the translation (pp. 172-191), Heepe often quotes the historical traditions and records published by Guillain2 in matters relating especially to European and Omani dealings with the coast and to Zanzibar affairs. He also extensively used Justus Strandes' data3 and extracted Portuguese information about Pate and Mombasa. Much of his effort aimed at pointing out discrepancies in the names of Pate rulers and in the chronology of their reigns as cited in his version of the Chronicle and those recorded by Stigand and Voeltzkow. Many of these comments are redundant in view of Heepe's footnotes already calling the reader's attention to relevant passages, or they focus on other documents. Here I have reproduced the footnotes but not the commentary. For purposes of clarity, Heepe had divided his transcript into 67 paragraphs. These are assigned numbers in brackets; numbers in parentheses refer to pages of original MSS, i. e. to columns in the facsimile reproduction. Characters in brackets are conjectured by Heepe. Punctuation is absent in the MSS and sentence division often uncertain. Heepe used limited punctuation in transcription to reflect this lack of clear separation and often dropped 2 M. Guillain, Documents sur l'histoire, la geographie et Ie commerce de l'Afrique orientale, 3 vols. (paris, 1856). 3 Justus Strandes. Die Ponugiesenzeit von Deutsch - und Englisch-Ostafrika (Berlin, 1899). English translation by J.F. Wallwork, edited by J.S. Kirkman, "The Portuguese Period in East Africa," Transactions ofthe Kenya History Society, 2 (Nairobi, 1961). INTRODUCTION 199 capitalization after a period within the paragraph. He also treated the titles Shaykh, Sultan, Iman, and Sayyid as common nouns. Characters and words in parentheses occur alternately in versions A or M but not both. The footnotes in transcription are those by Heepe and retain the original numbers. Halfway through the transcript Heepe started a series of notes with a supplementary notation. These have been placed as footnotes at the bottom of the paragraphs to which they refer. The present author's comments will be found in brackets appropriately marked. Following Heepe's practice, personal names are highlighted both in the transcript and in the translation. Bold Roman numerals...