For Freedom, Sultan and Africa; or Zanzibar-wank!

The succession of Abdulaziz, born Mwami Kalasa Mukanda-Bantu to the chieftaincy of the Garanganzes, established by his father the infamous warrior king M’Siri, is largely hailed as a turning-point in modern Zanzibari history. Son (although some claim adopted) of M’Siri, Mukanda Bantu grew to despise the favoured consort of his father, Maria de Fonseca, the daughter of a powerful Portuguese-Angolan trader ally of his father. Competition for the favour M’Siri between the two was not calmed by their nearness in age. In the mid-1850’s, Mukanda traveled to Zanzibar to advance his fortunes. The young inlander quickly became popular amongst theological and academic circles in the island’s madrassas and gained the eye of the Sultan’s brother, Sayyid Barghash bin Said. When the latter failed to usurp the throne in 1859, Mukanda was amongst his entourage exiled to Bombay for five years (included in the exiled party was the sayyid’s younger sister, Sayyida Salma, who acted as secretary for Barghash’s partisans during the insurrection. Abdulaziz and the sayyida would grow well-acquainted during the years in Bombay and later marry upon their the party’s return to Zanzibar.) While the Sayyid preoccupied himself with efforts to return to Zanzibar, Mukanda continued his theological and academic pursuits and became a practicing Muslim. This is often seen as the influence of Sayyida Salma. Although it is not when specifically he adopted the name Abdulaziz, from his return to Zanzibar with Sayyid Barghash in 1864 onwards he is known exclusively as Abdulaziz bin Mwenda Msiri, sometimes with addition of Alyayaki- the Garanganze. It is believed he adopted this name after the reigning Ottoman sultan and caliph of the time, the Sultan Abdulaziz.


In addition to becoming familiar with the English language (more so Abdulaziz than Barghash) the years in Bombay further strengthened the young men’s opposition to the slavery of their homeland. The three and their supporters were allowed to return to Zanzibar in 1864, assured of their abolitionist and reformist tendencies. Sayyida Salma is credited with encouraging literacy and charity in the cause of abolition amongst the ladies of the Muscati Arab elite on the island, while Sayyid Barghash and Abdulaziz devised plans to develop the sultanate and its mainland dependencies, inspired from the prosper and success they saw of Muslim communities in the Raj. Meanwhile, Barghash and Abdulaziz continue their liaising and advocacy of the causes of abolition and modernization amongst Arab and inland notables on the island respectively.

In August of 1864, the future second bishop of the British Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), Dr. Steere, landed at Zanzibar. The bishop, hearing of the talks of abolition amongst partisans of a failed coup on part of the Sultan’s brother, quickly becomes acquainted with Sayyid Barghash and Abdulaziz. The doctor decides to re-establish the headquarters of the UMCA in Zanzibar, and with support of the Arab and African residents of the island, sends his workers to the mainland from there. This is the first European mission in East Africa. The influence of the Mission and the Anglican Church, along with Sayyid Barghash’s séjour in Bombay would become a foundation of modern Anglo-Zanzibari relations.

In 1865, the traditional African great chieftain of the island (the Mwinyi Mkuu) Muhammad bin Ahmed bin Hassan el-Alawi, died and was succeeded by his son, Ahmed bin Muhammad bin Ahmed el-Alawi. Of the same generation of the Barghash and Abdulaziz, the new Mwinyi Mkuu was interested in the reform and modernization advocated by the sultanic heir and his inland African companion. In the spring of the same year, Sayyid Barghash, the Mwinyi Mkuu Ahmed bin Muhammad and Abdulaziz the son Msiri with the advice and involvement of the Anglican bishop Dr. Steere and Sayyida Salma signed a secret pact, now known as the Pact of Dunga, signed at the Mwinyi Mkuu’s palace, promising to use their respective dominions, influence and roles for the creation of a modern Zanzibar, first and foremost the abolition of slavery.


The pact recognized Abdulaziz as the heir of Msiri on the part of the Sayyid and accepted his proposal of marriage to Sayyida Salma in return for Abdulaziz’s allegiance to Sayyid Barghash as sultan. It also included provisions for continuing the cooperation of the offices of Sultan and Mwinyi Mkuu in advancing the peoples, currently divided between free and the enslaved, of the region. It also recognized the benefits of the Anglican mission and the three agreed to foster its development and accepted provisions for evangelization of non-Muslim slaves, envisioned to be freed during the future reign of Barghash.

In 1866, Sayyida Salma gave birth to a daughter who was named Basmah, presumed to be after the Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Pertevniyal Sultan. Given Abdulaziz’s adoption of an Ottoman name and his Turkish sympathies later in life, this is likely the case. That same year, David Livingstone arrived in Zanzibar to begin his quest searching for the source of the Nile until his death seven years later. The same year also saw the arrival of another influential European in Zanzibari history: Dr. John Kirk. Originally assigned as Surgeon-General at the British Consulate in Zanzibar, he quickly became Acting Consul soon afterwards. Through the offices of the UMCA’s Dr. Steere, he would become well acquainted with Sayyid Barghash, but particularly more so with Abdulaziz who was always by far the most anglophone of the elites on the island. Under the auspices of Sultan Barghash and with a healthy endowment provided not only by the Mission but as well as donations from the ladies of the Muscati Arab aristocracy, Dr. Steere opened the mission’s first school in the same year in 1866.



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There are a few butterflies and handwaves that have made this plausible, primarily those being we assume an earliest possible birth of Msiri to allow "Abdulaziz" (OTL: Mwanda Bantu) to be born circa 1840, in order to coincide with the actually dates comings and goings we have with the sultanate in Zanzibar. His rivalry with his father's wife Luso-Angloan wife is historically accurate. Finally, as the first update is quite an intimate and local change in the social history of a few characters and elites on Zanzibar proper, we will assume the expansion of Msiri and Tippu Tip as well as European and explorations go as planned. It will be at the point of the introduction (or possibly not) of Germans that things will have to majorly diverge. I'm not sure yet whether or not to: 1) Handwave away the German colonial society up-start altogether; or 2) Have them present, but a more centralized Zanzibari empire in cohorts and close to Britain become a protectorate of the British Empire. Comments, suggestions, critiques, etc. of the TL so far and future ideas, especially re: the Germans are greatly welcome

Very original idea! I'm interested to see where you take this!

Cheers,
Ganesha

This is very well written and quite interesting. Subscribed.

rebeu said:

There are a few butterflies and handwaves that have made this plausible, primarily those being we assume an earliest possible birth of Msiri to allow "Abdulaziz" (OTL: Mwanda Bantu) to be born circa 1840, in order to coincide with the actually dates comings and goings we have with the sultanate in Zanzibar. His rivalry with his father's wife Luso-Angloan wife is historically accurate. Finally, as the first update is quite an intimate and local change in the social history of a few characters and elites on Zanzibar proper, we will assume the expansion of Msiri and Tippu Tip as well as European and explorations go as planned.

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Wow, this is some good stuff. There will be butterflies eventually - the changes thus far may be intimate, but they took place among the ruling circle - but it seems reasonable that they wouldn't have spread far beyond Zanzibar at this stage. Tippu Tip is almost 30 at this stage, if not already in his thirties, so he will still mount his expeditions into the interior. Once the plan to abolish slavery bears fruit, though, his career will have to become very different - either he'll become a warlord in the interior or he'll take up a different line of work on behalf of Zanzibar.

Can't wait to see how father and son Msiri get along once the son becomes powerful. I really like the proto-feminist angle as well.

rebeu said:

It will be at the point of the introduction (or possibly not) of Germans that things will have to majorly diverge. I'm not sure yet whether or not to: 1) Handwave away the German colonial society up-start altogether; or 2) Have them present, but a more centralized Zanzibari empire in cohorts and close to Britain become a protectorate of the British Empire.

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The Germans didn't show up until late in the game, so with a POD as early as this, there's time for Zanzibar to become strong enough that its coastal empire won't be picked off so easily. A British protectorate/alliance is one possibility; another one is a deal with the Germans themselves, where the Germans get transit rights across the Swahili coast, use of the ports, and the right to develop that part of the interior that the Zanzibaris haven't yet conquered. Maybe there would even be some kind of joint-sovereignty arrangement over the interior similar to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, although the part controlled by the Germans - most likely up north, possibly even pre-empting the British in Kenya - would be a de facto German colony.

I'm looking forward to more. One thing, though - the walls of text can be hard to read, so you might want to use paragraphs more often.

Ganesha said:

Very original idea! I'm interested to see where you take this!

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Thank you! Hope to create a timeline, although internationally not drastically different, regionally very different. We'll see. I'm not too into idealistic or utopic timelines, but I've always been a bit interested in the Omani sultanate at Zanzibar and even after the first write-up I'm a bit attached to my characters.

Inspiration for the companionship comes from a Turkish TV series called "Magnificent Century" I'm currently watching dubbed in Arabic as "Hareem Sultan." About Suleiman the Magnificent and his grand vizier Ibrahim Pacha. Just to properly cite some inspirations off the top of my head.

[QUOTE='Ezana]This is very well written and quite interesting. Subscribed.
[/QUOTE]

Overly positive compliment but thank you very much. Hoping to keep it interesting, which leads me to the Tippu Tip topic...

Jonathan Edelstein said:

Wow, this is some good stuff. There will be butterflies eventually - the changes thus far may be intimate, but they took place among the ruling circle - but it seems reasonable that they wouldn't have spread far beyond Zanzibar at this stage. Tippu Tip is almost 30 at this stage, if not already in his thirties, so he will still mount his expeditions into the interior. Once the plan to abolish slavery bears fruit, though, his career will have to become very different - either he'll become a warlord in the interior or he'll take up a different line of work on behalf of Zanzibar.

Can't wait to see how father and son Msiri get along once the son becomes powerful. I really like the proto-feminist angle as well.

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From what I can read, Tippu Tip as embarked on his first trip circa 1859/1860, a second in 1865, and a third in 1867-69. It's then in 1870 he sets out with his huge 4,000 man caravan to really carve out his empire, all the while claiming he is doing it in the name of his sultan (Barghash.)

Now here is the tough part. Do I butterfly away his initial conquests and convert him to the "good" guys of the pact early on? But that doesn't account for the economic benefits of him in slave-trading, and that is a big factor probably in his military successes.

Option 2 is we make the Sultan and Abdulaziz son of Msiri convert and bribe Tippu Tip to their side after his first raids make him rich, and his 4,000 man caravan is actually for establishing a permanent presence of Zanzibar in the eastern Congo. Going so far as some dynastic marriage and guarantees of his clove plantations (making much more money given the abolition-minded sultanate ITTL) I think the anti-slave angle of the Sultan and his #2 give them British backing in case of a conflict with Belgian scouts, non?

Option 3 (and probably most historically accurate) the Sultan and Zanzibar play a game of chance and secretly tolerate Tippu Tip to expand Zanzibari power inland, while using him as a bargaining chip with the colonial powers. Not sure how it would flesh out. I actually like Option 2...

Jonathan Edelstein said:

The Germans didn't show up until late in the game, so with a POD as early as this, there's time for Zanzibar to become strong enough that its coastal empire won't be picked off so easily. A British protectorate/alliance is one possibility; another one is a deal with the Germans themselves, where the Germans get transit rights across the Swahili coast, use of the ports, and the right to develop that part of the interior that the Zanzibaris haven't yet conquered. Maybe there would even be some kind of joint-sovereignty arrangement over the interior similar to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, although the part controlled by the Germans - most likely up north, possibly even pre-empting the British in Kenya - would be a de facto German colony.

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This is an option. A lot of what we "assume" about the region (i.e. spread of Swahili language for one) is a direct influence of the Germans. Without them, Swahili might not get as widespread as modernization may lead to the predominance of Arabic and English. Was actually going for an Afro-Arab state in my original thoughts on the timeline, so that might be a deciding factor. We will see.

Jonathan Edelstein said:

I'm looking forward to more. One thing, though - the walls of text can be hard to read, so you might want to use paragraphs more often.

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Thank you. I don't know how it appears on your screen, but on mine there are paragraphs? Please let me know.

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Another issue I am facing is Cecil Rhodes (who should make an appearance circa 1890 on cue as per OTL with the Belgians, except with Abdulaziz inheriting from Msiri a year earlier, I assume he will accept the offer of British development.)

Would his dreams of a Cairo-Capetown Railway/British imperial designs get in the way of an internal Great Lakes region ruled by a protectorate/client-state? My idea at the moment is to get at its lowest point Zanzibar with its mainland empire a princely-state sort of status, perhaps with a condominium within the Great Lakes themselves, but come out after independence (perhaps in the 1930's? Or perhaps later as per OTL) fully intact...Before the Cold War and modern conflict cause its own chaos, of course.

A timeline such as this, assuming all else goes as planned, does it still lead to a similar world? Not nearly qualified to rewrite world history as an ATL, but very enthusiastic to carry this one through the modern era and beyond perhaps?

All feedback is very welcome.

Inland, Msiri continued expanding his power. He had known access to guns were the key to power and from the parts of the Katanga he controlled, he had copper and ivory to trade for them. While in his early years he feared rivalry from other self-proclaimed African warlords acting autonomously in the name of the sultan, when he became aware of his son’s rise in Zanzibar, he was assured of a steady trade. This did not stop him, however, from sending his nephew, Molenga, to the Ovimbundu tribes and Portuguese traders around Benguela in Portuguese Angola for a second supply. The Luba Kingdom had controlled the trade with the west coast, but Msiri not only took it over, he halted Luba expansion southwards. Where the Portuguese had failed, Msiri had succeeded: he now commanded trade across southern Africa from the Portuguese in the west, to the Zanzibaris and their Muslim and British associates in the east. When David Livingstone met Mwata Kazembe VIII in 1867, the mwata was already fighting a loosing battle. Not only did his adversary in Msiri dominate the west-east trade flow, he had begun to fear the rapprochement and friendly border between Msiri and another warlord who had a grudge to bear against the mwata for killing six of his men: Tippu Tip.

Hamed bin Mohammed El Murjebi, also known as “Tippu Tip” from the sound his men’s firearms made to the indigenous tribes of the Great Lakes region, was born into a Zanzibar merchant dynasty. In fact, the El Murjebi family today remain an established member of Zanzibari elite, heavily involved in that country’s private sector as well as its foreign service and other governmental departments. El Mujerbi’s Zanzibari campaigns complimented those of Belgians in the name of the Congo Free State as well as the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes to reach into the last remnants of Black Africa which had yet to be discovered, mapped, and more importantly, claimed.

The First Expedition of El Mujerbi, “Tippu Tip” around the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika and into northern Katanga between 1859 and 1860 was followed by the Second Expedition in 1865, and the Third Expedition between 1867 and 1869. Upon his return to Zanzibar proper (which, along with Unguja Island nearby, had just been saved a cholera epidemic thanks to the support the British acting consul and surgeon-general Dr. John Kirk had received from the sultanic heir) after the Third Expedition, El Mujerbi attended celebrations of the ascension of Sayyid Barghash as Sultan of Zanzibar. It was here he would fatefully encounter Abdulaziz bin Msiri, who had become something of a celebrity among the Muscati Arab and African elite of the island. The son of the autonomous African warlord nominally loyal to the sultanate, Abdulaziz spoke fluent Arabic as well as having a decent command of the English language. He often interpreted between the Arabic-speaking nobles and the European missionaries. Having only earlier in the year formed an alliance with Msiri against the territory of the Mwata Kazembe VIII on the west bank of the Luapula River. While Abdulaziz’s father had consolidated control of south-east Katanga (and with that her copper resources used to trade for gunpowder,) Tippu Tip worried over Msiri’s alliance lest he grow too powerful. Learning of Msiri’s heirs allegiance and involvement with Zanzibar pleased Tippu Tip greatly. His admiration for the young heir would prove convenient for the plans the new Sultan Barghash and his Grand Vizier had for the interior of the Zanzibari mainland.


Women’s influence over early modern states before enfranchisement in the past century is often left undocumented and forgotten. However as literacy climbed amongst the ladies of the Muscati Arab elite (and their African counterparts amongst the African elite of Zanzibar-proper as well), something encouraged by Sayyida Salma, they began to exchange friendly letters, words of encouragement, gossip from the courts and harems, etc. It is from a cordial letter amongst ladies of the harems of Zanzibar that we learn of how Sultan Barghash and his grand vizier, Abdulaziz bin Msiri came to approach Tippu Tip for what would become El Mujerbi’s Fourth Expedition, the commencement of what is now known as the Consolidation of the Zanzibari State:

Msiri was well known for using his wives as spies via-à-vis their families and courts of origins. In particular, those princesses of the Luba royal family he had married into to maintain control over his dominions. On a fateful state visit, a Muscati Arab dignitary from Zanzibar with household, including a concubine whom history knows only as “Barakah bint Kabale,” but who appears from her letters to Sayyida Salma to have been a daughter of a high-ranking Luba, purchased by a Muscati Arab noble and a contemporary of the ladies the sultanic Al-Busaid women would socialize with. As Msiri received the dignitary from Zanzibar, in her letter to Salma, the concubine reveals the gossip in Msiri’s harem amongst his Luba wives indicated he was aware of Tippu Tip’s plan to raise a massive caravan of men one final time and accumulate mass wealth to retire as a plantation owner on Zanzibar proper.


This in mind, Abdulaziz approached El Mujerbi with a proposition. A proposition from the grand vizier would already be worth contemplating, but a grand vizier who was due to inherit from a quasi-ally, and Tippu Tip needed not much more persuasion. However, what Abdulaziz proposed would be more than he could imagine. In return for a large land grant from the sultanic property on Zanzibar as well as position in the Sultan’s Divan as a military advisor and healthy stipend, Tippu Tip would make his fourth and greatest expedition not as a feared slave-trader, but rather in the name of the sultanate of Zanzibar and firmly pacify the region under Zanzibari control. Learning of increasing European encroachment in the distant parts of Africa from missionaries and town-talk, Sultan Barghash realized the need for Tippu Tip as an ally; Abdulaziz realized the need for Tippu Tip for any struggle he would face to inherit his father Msiri. Tippu Tip realized he had just received the offer of a lifetime.

In 1870, at the head of a 6,000-man caravan, Hamed “Tippu Tip” bin Mohammed El-Mujerbi marched under the flag of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, armed with dated Ottoman weaponry as well as supplies from the British Acting Consul who, sure of the Sultan’s abolitionist vindications and aware of various explorations in the region gave his encouragement, Tippu Tip returned to the eastern Congo region, and over the following decade expanded formidably the presence of the Zanzibari empire, centering his regional control in the Maniema region between the Lualaba and Lomami rivers. In the process, he established Zanzibari ascendancy over a number of African chiefs who agreed to serve as his auxiliaries. Armed with an official proclamation by the Sultan for his cause of empire and, officially, spreading Islam, a number of Zanzibari traders who had preceded him on the Upper Congo and had established an entrepôt at Nyangwe, accepted his paramouncy.

I don't know a single thing about Zanzibar save for it being an independent state before its forced union with what would become Tanzania but this is cool; we need more love for Africa in this forum. Good luck with this. This has a lot of promise and well when in doubt, go to Jonathan Edelstein.

This is great, and I'm really excited to see where you take this.

Re: the Germans, perhaps it's feasible for the Zanzibaris to create a sort of joint sovereignty agreement in exchange for the Germans developing infrastructure for them? In the long run, this would serve to centralise the Sultanate, though I'm not sure how you would get either party to agree to something which in the short term, seems bad to both sides.

This is getting good

Hmm, a Zanzibari Wank TL you say? And one that is well written, and seemingly well researched? We really do need more of this on AH.com. Consider me subscribed.

I'll echo the above statements and keep my eye on this, its great!

For anyone interested, I've drawn inspiration (and will continue to) on the comings and goings of the Zanzibari-branch of the Omani ruling dynasty as well as details about news and the region from the real life Sayyida Salma bint Said, later known in life as Emily Ruete. She wrote a book I read almost two years ago, published in 1907, called Memoirs of an Arabian Princess, I assume originally in German. It's a real gold-mine of knowledge and "lucky" source for writing the TL. If anyone is interested, the hyperlink should be most of the book! (The picture of the ruin of her house is from this site.)

Anyhow, much to look forward to. Msri Sr. vs Jr., Dynastic struggles, Brits, Germans, Indians, Islam, communists, Freddie Mercury, and more!

Part III


The ascension of Sultan Barghash I bin Said bin Sultan Al Busaid is a major turning point in modern Zanzibari history. His patronage for development projects on Zanzibar as well as on the mainland (lands to the east of the Mountains of the Moon) set a precedent for sultans to come, as well as cemented the sultanic dynasty as patrons of development, transportation and education in the sultanate. In his first year, Sultan Barghash I ordered the construction of an aqueduct from a freshwater spring at Chem Chem to bring a supply of clean water to the city. In public honour of his brother, the late Sultan Majid, beginning in 1871 the sultan would place a ship in the harbour of Zanzibar at the disposal of those Muslim faithful who wished to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Upon his ascension, however, tensions immediately rose between Sultan Barghash and his brother, Sayyid Khalifa. From the diaries of their sister, Sayyida Salma, we learn of the sultan’s desire to imprison his brother and heir upon ascending the throne, something their sister and her husband appear to have played a role in stopping:


-From the diaries of Sayyida Salma bint Said bin Sultan Al Busaid, 1287 hegræ/1857 Christian

Oblivious to the internal reasons for his wife’s suggestions but a faithful and devout husband, Abdulaziz recommends to the sultan that he send Sayyid Khalifa, not to reinforce Tippu Tip lest the latter two get in cohorts, but to pacify the region of the Rovuma River region from slaving tribes who sold to the Portuguese further south in Mozambique. From every corner of his empire the sultan wanted to begin to squeeze the poison of slavery from his dominions.The sultan views it as a sort of a preemptive Bombay for his younger brother, without interference of the British, and gladly accepts. In the spring of 1871, Sayyid Khalifa and 2,000 men, including for the first time poor Indian conscripts from the city in addition to the war hardened African troops, set off for the continental interior. The chaplain of the group was none other than the Somali scholar, cleric, and part-time diplomat al-Amawi, the pestering Shafi’I counselor of his father and brother who’s debates far too often ended with Ibadi members of the elite commencing to practice as per Shafi’i proscriptions. For Sultan Barghash, he hit two birds with a stone, as the Arabic proverb goes.

Abdulaziz Al Amawi was a Shafi’i scholar and sheikh, as well as a member of the Sufi Qadiryyah order, of which he would later go on to establish his own branch. Born in Somalia and sent in his teens to study under the Chief Shafi’i qadi or judge of Zanzibar, Muhyiadeen Al Qahtani. At 16 years of age, the sultan’s father, Sultan Said bin Sultan, appointed al Amawi as qadi of Kilwa. A short return to Somalia was followed by al Amawi’s permanent relocation until old age. While he was well liked by his father and brother, Sultan Barghash was perhaps too proud of his origins to proscribe to a jurisprudence that recognized a far off Turk as caliph. His dynasty had solely protected and save the Ibadite rite and spread it Africa. Free of the superfluous debates argued amongst the various jurisprudences in the Arab lands and Islamic world beyond, Barghash’s provincialism would not allow him to view Al Amawi with much delight. Sultan Barghash had plans to not only free the slaves, but to bring them to Islam, properly. Lest he prove to be a thorn in the sultan’s side, the sultan was of the opinion he should accompany his good friend and companion, the young Sayyid Khalifa. Yes, a slick-tongued and competent Shafi’i scholar had once place in Zanzibar for Sultan Bargash, the jungle. Bishop Steere of the UMCA was saddened to learn of al Amawi’s voyage as the two had grown close over religious debates. The Sultan and grand vizier reassured him he would soon return after liberating untamed regions of the interior.


Meanwhile, nearly a month after Zanzibar proper celebrated the new sultan’s first year on the throne alongside Lake Tanganyika, the American explorer Henry Morgan Stanley and his expedition arrived in Ujiji and were welcomed by the town’s Arab governor Snay bin Amir, who had arrived in the region almost 14 years earlier with another foreigner, Richard Burton. Bin Amir had been appointed military governor of the region between Kaveh (Tabora) and Lake Tanganyika, Ujiji being his westernmost base. Stanley was impressed with the town’s fortifications and its governor explained he was appointed to implement the curb of the slave trade in the name of the Sultan of Zanzibar and his deputy beyond the lake in the lands unknown, Hamed “Tippu Tip” bin Mohammed El Mujerbi. More interesting to Stanley, however, was Bin Amir’s revelation that the governor was hosting another band of foreigners, a group in much worse conditions who had been wondering the jungle for years it appeared. Curious, Stanley inquired about meeting the other group’s leader. At nightfall at the governor’s residence, the two were introduced. The infamous words Stanley muttered: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”


Snay bin Arab was a Muscati Arab of the settlement at Kazeh. He was originally from Muscat, and started his career as a confectioner, but quickly turned to ivory and slave dealing in interior of the sultanate of Zanzibar. As his health began to forbid him from traveling, he become a general agent at Kazeh where he built a village.

Richard Burton’s expedition in 1858 remained in Kazeh was a month, and he befriended Snay bin Amir who had admired the Englishman his knowledge of the Arabic language and customs. Richard Burton would go on to say about Bin Amir:



Taken from First Footsteps in East Africa; or, An Exploration of Harar. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1856. From the library of N. M. Penzer, author of the Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Burton, K. C. M. G. (1923)


Confirming Burton’s suspicious that there was more than one lake; Bin Amir related that he himself had been to Lake Tanganyika, due west of Kazeh. He also told that an even larger lake lay to the north, but advised them against going there directly, as the route was too dangerous. Burton eventually returned to Europe with great and formidable tales of the unknown regions. An Arabist “gone Turk” as his European companion Sneeke always jeered, he had been impressed by Snay bin Amir’s natural inclination against the conditions of slavery in the region despite formerly being a trader himself. Slavery, Snay would explain to Burton, was a necessary evil for the economy of the region. It could only be stopped from above. Years later, Snay bin Amir found himself again in the remote regions first as a commandeer of Tippu Tip during his Second and Third Expeditions, and finally as a deputy and military governor. Between expeditions, Bin Amir had become a hajji, like his dear friend Burton, and experienced a call to convert Africans he felt enslaved not only by slavery but by paganism. This change of heart, as well as riches promised by Tippu Tip, led him to gladly accept a position from the latter as General Deputy for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice against the Lands of Mirambo,” not only to curb the slave trade as per sultanic orders, but to pacify the dominions of the Nyamwezi warland Mtyela Kasanda, better known as Mirambo.


Mirambo was a Nyamwezi warlord and slavetrader in the Great Lakes region, and mainly obtained his weapons from Europeans for his army consisting mostly of teenage orphans from villages he had conquered. Arab and Afro-Muslim settlements south of his dominions referred to him as Iblis, or Satan. With his firearms, he conquered the traditional monarchy at Urambo and had himself crowned as Ntemi of Urambo, to the horror of the Nyamwezi nobles. Apart from the Nyamwezi aristocracy, Mirambo was also an enemy of the tradition community of Kaveh the dominions of Unyanyembe, a former kingdom vassalized and ever-more settled by Arabs and Muslims from Zanzibar proper and the Muslim mainland coast. The inhabitants of Kazeh were a majority, Arab however.

It was a time of doubt, horror and awe, as the Nyamwezi aristocrats and could not believe someone who was not royalty took over the religious ceremonial duties of ntemi. It was in this environment that Snay bin Amir and his Muscati Arab and convert armies began using both war tactics and soft-diplomacy via conversions amongst Nyamwezi nobles, who were rewarded with promises of leadership in the future, and plantations in the present in Zanzibari-controlled parts of Mirambo’s dominions. As tides and the economy of Zanzibar and Arab settlements began to favour settlements and plantations and restrictions against the slave trade began to increase, the Arabs along with the their powerful allies in Zanzibar on the coast as well as converted nobles from the interior, began to increasingly form a powerful enemy against Mirambo. Henry Morton Stanley would dub Mirambo “the African Bonaparte” for his military talents, but his effectiveness against the Zanzibari forces and their allies would eventually lead to his strangling at the hands of Nyamwezi aristocrats at the end of the 1870’s, who by and large had converted and preferred the stability and plantations rewarded to them as a result of Zanzibari encroachment and rule by deputies such as Tippu Tip and Bin Amir.

This is really great stuff, and I love the excerpt from Sayyida Salma's diary. Speaking of Indian conscripts, though, how does the Indian merchant community in Zanzibar figure into its development? Many of the Indian traders were rich and powerful at this time; they could provide foreign exchange for the Sultan and might also be a connection he could use to gain British patronage.

Jonathan Edelstein said:

This is really great stuff, and I love the excerpt from Sayyida Salma's diary. Speaking of Indian conscripts, though, how does the Indian merchant community in Zanzibar figure into its development? Many of the Indian traders were rich and powerful at this time; they could provide foreign exchange for the Sultan and might also be a connection he could use to gain British patronage.

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Great lead for my next, shorter update which was going to address the Indian diaspora. While the majority of East Africa's Indians arrived for the British railway projects at the end of the century in British Kenya, you're right there is a historically well-established South Asian community in Zanzibar that came to be the dominating merchant class. I'm assuming all that I don't mention continues as per OTL so far in this timeline. Really, the Helgioland-Zanzibar Treaty throws a lot of "big deal" OTL things around if I just handwave away the Germans. A dynastic dispute between a pro-German and pro-British sultan might help because it will return to British suzerainty after a few decades; but I cannot butterfly away German colonial mentality and military culture just like that. It takes a lot of thinking, planning and researching. So I'm going to more develop the pre-1884 part by discussing not only coastal and Zanzibar proper, but the comings and goings of the interior as well as mention a cultural mission of students and scholars being sent to either Cairo, Bombay or Europe or all three.

Very interesting. Zanzibar seems to be hot right now.

Part IV


December 14, celebrated today as Emancipation Day, actually celebrates the sultanic decree on the first day of Eid Al Fitr following the conclusion of 1871’s Ramadan which not only: 1) manumitted all the slaves of the sultanic household, 2) introduced a heavy head-tax per slave on slaveowners, 3) while current slaves would be tolerated in the immediate future, it ordered the immediate cessation of slave markets, 4) the conveyance of slaves by land under any conditions was prohibited and foreign slavers were forbidden from using Zanzibari mainland coast. The decree also provided the creation of a state fund to help manumitted slaves who converted to Islam to settle on homesteads and plantations on the mainland. Incomes from the conquered territories allowed the sultan to provide compensation for slave-owners who voluntarily manumitted and adopted their former domestics into their respective clans and tribes. It also declared definitively the future abolition of slavery altogether.

While many reacted negatively amongst the Arab merchants of the island, ideas of abolition had become in fashion amongst many Muscati Arab and African elites thanks in no little part to the personal attachment of the sultan and ruling family to the issue. Much is credited to the Acting British Consul as well as missionaries who believed the enlightened Sultan could be persuaded to monopolize the rubber and ivory trade for the Sultanate in the interior to provide a steady income for development. The relationship between the Sultan, his grand vizier and the Acting Consul remained close and the men continued their agenda of eradicating slavery. Reports came in more frequently of Tippu Tip’s success in the Congo beyond Lake Tanganyika and more settlements by Swahili and Muscati Arabs began to appear west of the Mountains of the Moon toward the Great Lakes territories of Tippu Tip and the dominions of Msiri, who, for the time being, continued to ignore sultanic messenger’s attempts to dissuade the traditional leader from partaking in the slave trade outside beyond the sultan’s domains.


The early part of 1872 witnessed the most terrible cyclone in its history, destroying in its path many of the cove trees, a fundamental of the island empire’s economy. Fortunately, Pemba escaped the worst and the clove industry was saved thanks to the plantations on Pemba. As a result of land-grants readily available to prospective plantation owners on the Zanzibari mainland coast, many new plantations spring up east of the Mountains of the Moon. Rapid dispensations of land-grants for pepper, ranges, copper, millet, beans, cooking bananas, sweet bananas, maize, cassava, pawpaw, legumes and citrus fruits sprang up as new products from the dominions of Tippu Tip began to arrive and sell for high-prices amongst the elite of Zanzibar, ending the centuries of domination of the clove.

The same year, 1872, which began so awfully, would end permanently connecting Zanzibar to the outside and ever-modernizing world: the first regular steamship service to Zanzibar began with the British Steam Navigation Company started a regular monthly mail service between Aden and Zanzibar. On the steamships quickly came impoverished Muslims and Hindus from the Raj, who, for low wages, would quickly fill the void of slaves on Zanzibar proper. Even before the indentured Indian workers of the British arrived in decades later, Indian traders had followed the Arab trading routes inland from the coast of modern-day Zanzibar. Indian and Shirazi merchants came to hold a virtual lack, as Sultan Barghash began to favour working with them in order to break the remaining sectors of Muscati Arab society attached to slavery. Like his father, who had also encouraged Indian settlement in Zanzibar, Sultan Barghash who had spent three years of exile in Bombary held Indians in high-esteem, and granted generous plantations and trades to Indians willing to continue to settle in the Arab frontier settlements further inland.


Another trade which Indian merchants excelled at was their investments in bets and loans on the part of various sayyids, Muscati Arab nobles and merchants as well as Afro-Muslim and Swahili traders who maintained residence on the island. For most of the 19th century, Indian merchants like Jairam Seuge of the Seuge dynasty of Zanzibari millionaires and financiers, and Tarya Topan a latter Zanzibari minister, would offer the banking and financial services in Zanzibar. Indian merchants followed the Sultan in heavily subsidizing and funding the settlement for freed slaves created by the Universities’ Mission in Central Africa called Mbweni. In 1872, the UMCA built a school at the settlement funded by Sultan Bargash for teaching freed slaves Arabic. While relations remained friendly at Mbweni as well as the mission’s Saint Andrew School at Kiugani, Islamic and Arabic language teachers remained suspicious and off-put by the missionaries’ emphasis on English and were not taken to the acceptance of the Sultan for the missionaries to convert freed slaves formerly owned by Muslims.


In 1873, John Kirk was made the first British Agent and Consul-General at Zanzibar, a post he would hold for nearly two decades. Shortly thereafter, Sir Bartle Frere arrived in Zanzibar from Britain to review the slavery situation. Frere was impressed with the indigenous actions taken towards abolition in the sultanate and offered British support and importantly, arms, to assist the sultan’s forces in suppressing the trade. In June, the Sultan of Zanzibar signed an instrument of Perpetual Truce and Cessation of the Slave Trade with British agents. In exchange for permanent British alliance and support, the Sultan agreed to enforce the cessation of the slave trade in his territories, as well as the planned abolition of slavery to come into force at the end of 1866 at the Islamic new year. The Sultan would enforce cessation of the export of slaves from the mainland east coast with British assistance, and citizens of Indian Princely States under British protection were ordered simultaneously by the Sultan the British Raj to manumit their slaves and were prohibited from acquiring new ones. As part of the instrument, the Sultan also agreed to halt any expansion of Tippu Tip north of Lake Victoria, as Anglo-Egyptian in the forces had begun to question the intentions of the ever-present and ever fortified Zanzibari troops in the Nile Basin.

Shortly after the treaty, Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Ahmed El-Alawi died childless, bequeathing the traditional African chieftaincy and title of Mwinyu Mkuu of Zanzibar to his companion and friend Sultan Barghash. Near the end of the 1873, Abdulaziz bin Msiri the Grand Vizier laid the foundation stone of the Al Bilaliyah Mosque in the capital city on the grounds of the old slave market at Mkunazi; the mihreb (the semicircular niche in the wall of the mosque that indicates the qibla, that is, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca and hence the directions that Muslims should face whilst praying) lay just behind the site of the whipping post.


In 1874, a wife of Sultan Barghash bore him a firstborn son Sayyid Khalid bin Barghash bin Said Al Busaidi. In honour of this and with the encouragement of the British Consul-General, the Sultan establishes an endowment and begins preparations for a university to be named in his sons honour. Khaldia University is born. Later that year, the mail ship that had set sail in March for English with Livingstone’s body (which was delivered in Zanzibar to the British consul and proceeded to be buried in Westminster Abbey) returned to Zanzibar with an invitation from Queen Victoria for a state visit to Windsor. Preparations were set for 1875.

Having effectively suffocated the slave trade from Mirambo’s territory, the warlord signs a treaty in 1874 with the Sultan of Zanzibar establishing his dominions as a client state, to be inherited by the sultan upon his death. The increasing conversions to Islam amongst the Nyamwezi aristocrats, as well as his inability to pay his orphan conscripts would eventually lead to his suffocation (he traditional method of extinguishing the life of an ineffective king amongst the Nyamwezi) in 1879 at the hands of his lieutenants who had been bribed by agents of Tippu Tip acting under orders from Snay bin Amir in Kazeh.


Also in 1874, Dr. Steere, the longtime companion and advisor the Sultan and his grand vizier, succeeded as bishop of the entire Universities’ Mission in Central Africa. Having come to respect and admire the Sultan’s insistence to bring religion and freedom to his region, he decides to pursue the mission’s aim of establishing a presence at Lake Nyasa. His continued correspondence with Sheikh Al-Amawi, further south of Zanzibari territory but north of the Portuguese and British, led him to learn the tribes of the interior had neither been exposed to Islam nor Christianity. Rather than attempting the arduous river navigation that had doomed a prior UMCA mission to Lake Nyasa, Dr. Steere at the UMCA mission set out for Lake Malawi along the supply route of Sayyid Khalifa and his men in region of the Rovuma River.

It was only after they passed Khalifa’s territory, then, that he began developing a network of mission stations towards the lake. Prominent among these was Nanyumbu, the mission settlement and headquarters. Out of respect for Sheikh Al-Amawi, Bishop Steere rules out the committee’s selection at Vuga, the capital of the Kilindi people, as news had reached him the hereditary chief had recently converted to Islam shortly after the Bishop Steere and Sheikh Al-Amawi met briefly in the prior’s journey towards Lake Malawi. The site for the mission village at Nanyumbu is thought to have been chosen by African converts whom the UMCA were attempting to lead back to the homes from which they had been captured by slavers; though sure that the site was to their original home, the converts said t resembled it enough to settle.

Rebeu, Is Zanzibar still part of Oman?

Can Zamzibar keep the Italians out of Somalia? And if so, establish a protectorate over Hadramut and contiguity and control over Oman, becoming an important ally and force for progress and moderation on the Arabian Peninsula as the Century changes?
I could see Whitehall liking the idea of Zanzibar and Oman remerging. The only people whose nose would be out of joint would be the British Indian Colonial Office in Calcutta. But there have to be some limits to Indian expansion. Even Balochistan, moderate Muslims as they are, would be better off under Oman-Zanzibar than British India. As would the Trucial States and Bahrain and Qatar, long before the oil is even thought of. As the Aborignal Australians say:" Out of little things, big things grow".

erich von changstein said:

Rebeu, Is Zanzibar still part of Oman?

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No, the dynastic split of the Al Busaid into separate sultanates for Muscat and Oman on the Arabian Peninsula for one brother and Zanzibar and the East African mainland for the other happened before the point of divergence. As per OTL, though, the centuries-established Arab elite in Zanzibar do speak Arabic, mix normally amongst themselves and Afro-Arab families, and consider themselves "Omani" Arabs. The historical term for this elite and sector of society when discussing Zanzibar is Muscati Arabs, that's why I use. Sorry if it is a bit confusing, but we are solely discussing Zanzibar, it's Arabs, it's Afro-Arabs, its Swahilis (whom I have termed Afro-Muslim for the time being in the timeline) as well as its African tribes, etc. Nothing to due with the peninsular residents of Oman.