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Chapter 102: Petty-Rajas of the Kinari Coast
The Eastern African seaboard had been dotted by a network of cities and city-states, with these gradually developing, with the earliest having been set up by the Himyari and Suqutri in the Horn of Africa as trading emporia. Gradually, however the network of these states along the Azanian coast grows southwards and expands up until the Angoche cape.
View attachment 530890
The polities of the Kinara Coast. Notice Great Zimbabwe in, well, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda in Rwanda
The earliest colonies established in the area were thus established by South Semitic groups –Himyarites, Mazounis and Suqutris. However, south of the Horn of Africa these cities were out of reach of the realms that had originally founded them. Rather, these colonies had become independent city states, dotting the coastal landscape.
The early Arabian colonists were soon joined by much more numerous merchants arriving from the western coast of India. Sailing between India and the East African Coast was favoured by the ocean currents and prevailing winds: reaching the Azanian coast from India has been directly aided by the trade winds, blowing from a northeastern direction. Thus a solid ship would be driven by the winds directly to the Eastern African Coast; the journey back on the other hand, is going to require to follow the ocean currents in a clockwise direction around Suqutra.
View attachment 530892
Ruins of a Msadeqi Manichean temple found inthe Kinara Coast
This geographic pattern thus enabled arrival of Indian merchants into the area. Most of them arrive from the region of Kathiawar, also known to some as Gujarat, although a minority of them arrived also from Kerala. The incoming Indians outnumbered the already established Mazouni community in the region, and the region has become known as the Kinara Coast (1)., as such was the name in the tongue of the Kathiawar, from where the majority of the new merchant-colonists arrived.
While the Mazounis had established a truly parallel society on the coasts, mostly restricting their own settlements to the well protected islands such as Zanzibar, Rhapta, Mafia, Kilwa and Lamu, while the mainland was mostly sparsely settled, although covered in plantations, exploting slave labour.
Slaves had become the major commodity that the established islanders bought from the native tribes. For most of the islanders, the hinterland of the continent remained a big unknown, and they had reserved their interactions only to the nearest clans.
View attachment 530903
The Msadeqi religion has mostly given ground to Hinduism, although pockets of the Mazouni- derived faith remain on the islands.
However, the Indian merchants, throughout the 13th century, have established permanent settlements even on the mainland. The Hindu religion, being a polytheistic system, allows greater religious syncretism and through cultural interactions, the Indian merchants co-opt native chieftains into this religion (2).
The Indian merchants have thus allowed the progression of more advanced culture further into the coastal strip and soon the tribes that used to supply the Mazounis with slaves had themselves become the controller of the slave trade. Slaves were especially demanded by the realms along the Persian Gulf to work at plantations, but some were also shipped to India.
These coastal cities, rivalling one another were daring to explore more of the hinterland. They seem to have raided the east African savannah, the plains of the Serengeti and have dealt with the Maasai tribesmen. How far they have gotten remains unknown. However, they appear to have not expanded much from the narrow coastal strip, although smaller settlements appear to exist a few miles deeper inland along larger rivers.
View attachment 530899
The dhow is the typical type of vessel being used in Kinara coast.
Thus we have the Kinara Coast, whose rulers seek to emulate the Indian style and title themselves as petty Rajas. And so, we have the raja of Mombasa, the raja of Malindi, the raja of Imhambane the raja of Quellimane and the Raja of Sofala. The island cities retain some sort of republican oligarchic governance, with their head of state being titled as the Dapir (3). What may or may not surprise us, is that the Comoros archipelago at this time is settled as well from Kilwa. And it may not surprise us that much, if the Comorans resort to piracy, but they may establish trade posts on the north of Madagascar, and try conceal this secret, and take the benefit of having the monopoly on the trade with Madagascar.
View attachment 530893
As can be seen, the coast remains dominated by plutocratic monarchies. The islands have "republic" as their form of government. Most of the hinterland remains tribal
The Kinari language (4) has thus formed in the coastal regions of the Kinara Coast, with a Bantu substrate and many terms from Mazouni, belonging to the South Semitic family, and from Gujarati and from Malay. Perhaps a creole language is the term that can be used to describe the language. The Kinari language starts using a wirtten abugida, based upon the Devanagari script used in Northern India, although slightly adapted to the Kinari phonology. The new writing system is named Barua (6)
Although the demand for slaves is not as large as it may have been thought to be (5), slave trade remains among the top three commodities that are trade along the Kinara Coast. It appears that Hinduism itself does allow the idea of slavery, and the idea of slavery appears to be perfectly compatible with the existing caste system. However, demand in the Subcontinent itself remains relatively low, as India itself is relatively densely populated. The Kinara Coast offers the Subcontinent another resource which is remains valuable in the area: ivory. The Kinara coast offers a relatively cheap supplier.
View attachment 530891
The Ruins of Great Zimbabwe
From Sofala upstream, arose the Bantu realm of Great Zimbabwe, on the southern banks of the lower Zambezi. Great Zimbabwe came to dominate the gold mines in the region and joins the global trade network and becoming one of the major gold suppliers in the Indian Ocean market.
The remaining hinterlands of Eastern Africa remain populated predominantly by Bantu farmers, although there remain pockets of original pre-Bantu populations, of whom the most famous are the Sandawe. It is very likely that there had existed numerous linguistic families, not related to the Khoi San languages of the Namib-Kalahari regions.
View attachment 530895
A linguistic map of East Africa. Malgasy speak a language of the Malayic group
As for the Great Lakes region, the area remains isolated from the world trade, although occasional contact with the Kinara Caost does exist, and the people in the area have heard rumours of a lake that is endless in the direction where the sun rises, very few if any of the Buganda or Rwandan people have seen the Indian Ocean; the shores of Lake Tanganyka or Lake Victoria might have been sighted by two or three slave-hunting , or ivory-searching expeditions.
View attachment 530890
The polities of the Kinara Coast. Notice Great Zimbabwe in, well, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda in Rwanda
The earliest colonies established in the area were thus established by South Semitic groups –Himyarites, Mazounis and Suqutris. However, south of the Horn of Africa these cities were out of reach of the realms that had originally founded them. Rather, these colonies had become independent city states, dotting the coastal landscape.
The early Arabian colonists were soon joined by much more numerous merchants arriving from the western coast of India. Sailing between India and the East African Coast was favoured by the ocean currents and prevailing winds: reaching the Azanian coast from India has been directly aided by the trade winds, blowing from a northeastern direction. Thus a solid ship would be driven by the winds directly to the Eastern African Coast; the journey back on the other hand, is going to require to follow the ocean currents in a clockwise direction around Suqutra.
View attachment 530892
Ruins of a Msadeqi Manichean temple found inthe Kinara Coast
This geographic pattern thus enabled arrival of Indian merchants into the area. Most of them arrive from the region of Kathiawar, also known to some as Gujarat, although a minority of them arrived also from Kerala. The incoming Indians outnumbered the already established Mazouni community in the region, and the region has become known as the Kinara Coast (1)., as such was the name in the tongue of the Kathiawar, from where the majority of the new merchant-colonists arrived.
While the Mazounis had established a truly parallel society on the coasts, mostly restricting their own settlements to the well protected islands such as Zanzibar, Rhapta, Mafia, Kilwa and Lamu, while the mainland was mostly sparsely settled, although covered in plantations, exploting slave labour.
Slaves had become the major commodity that the established islanders bought from the native tribes. For most of the islanders, the hinterland of the continent remained a big unknown, and they had reserved their interactions only to the nearest clans.
View attachment 530903
The Msadeqi religion has mostly given ground to Hinduism, although pockets of the Mazouni- derived faith remain on the islands.
However, the Indian merchants, throughout the 13th century, have established permanent settlements even on the mainland. The Hindu religion, being a polytheistic system, allows greater religious syncretism and through cultural interactions, the Indian merchants co-opt native chieftains into this religion (2).
The Indian merchants have thus allowed the progression of more advanced culture further into the coastal strip and soon the tribes that used to supply the Mazounis with slaves had themselves become the controller of the slave trade. Slaves were especially demanded by the realms along the Persian Gulf to work at plantations, but some were also shipped to India.
These coastal cities, rivalling one another were daring to explore more of the hinterland. They seem to have raided the east African savannah, the plains of the Serengeti and have dealt with the Maasai tribesmen. How far they have gotten remains unknown. However, they appear to have not expanded much from the narrow coastal strip, although smaller settlements appear to exist a few miles deeper inland along larger rivers.
View attachment 530899
The dhow is the typical type of vessel being used in Kinara coast.
Thus we have the Kinara Coast, whose rulers seek to emulate the Indian style and title themselves as petty Rajas. And so, we have the raja of Mombasa, the raja of Malindi, the raja of Imhambane the raja of Quellimane and the Raja of Sofala. The island cities retain some sort of republican oligarchic governance, with their head of state being titled as the Dapir (3). What may or may not surprise us, is that the Comoros archipelago at this time is settled as well from Kilwa. And it may not surprise us that much, if the Comorans resort to piracy, but they may establish trade posts on the north of Madagascar, and try conceal this secret, and take the benefit of having the monopoly on the trade with Madagascar.
View attachment 530893
As can be seen, the coast remains dominated by plutocratic monarchies. The islands have "republic" as their form of government. Most of the hinterland remains tribal
The Kinari language (4) has thus formed in the coastal regions of the Kinara Coast, with a Bantu substrate and many terms from Mazouni, belonging to the South Semitic family, and from Gujarati and from Malay. Perhaps a creole language is the term that can be used to describe the language. The Kinari language starts using a wirtten abugida, based upon the Devanagari script used in Northern India, although slightly adapted to the Kinari phonology. The new writing system is named Barua (6)
Although the demand for slaves is not as large as it may have been thought to be (5), slave trade remains among the top three commodities that are trade along the Kinara Coast. It appears that Hinduism itself does allow the idea of slavery, and the idea of slavery appears to be perfectly compatible with the existing caste system. However, demand in the Subcontinent itself remains relatively low, as India itself is relatively densely populated. The Kinara Coast offers the Subcontinent another resource which is remains valuable in the area: ivory. The Kinara coast offers a relatively cheap supplier.
View attachment 530891
The Ruins of Great Zimbabwe
From Sofala upstream, arose the Bantu realm of Great Zimbabwe, on the southern banks of the lower Zambezi. Great Zimbabwe came to dominate the gold mines in the region and joins the global trade network and becoming one of the major gold suppliers in the Indian Ocean market.
The remaining hinterlands of Eastern Africa remain populated predominantly by Bantu farmers, although there remain pockets of original pre-Bantu populations, of whom the most famous are the Sandawe. It is very likely that there had existed numerous linguistic families, not related to the Khoi San languages of the Namib-Kalahari regions.
View attachment 530895
A linguistic map of East Africa. Malgasy speak a language of the Malayic group
As for the Great Lakes region, the area remains isolated from the world trade, although occasional contact with the Kinara Caost does exist, and the people in the area have heard rumours of a lake that is endless in the direction where the sun rises, very few if any of the Buganda or Rwandan people have seen the Indian Ocean; the shores of Lake Tanganyka or Lake Victoria might have been sighted by two or three slave-hunting , or ivory-searching expeditions.
- In OTL, the area was known as the Swahili coast; the word Sahil itself meaning coast in the Arabic language. I can imagine a similar naming pattern among the Gujaratis, who will just label this area as “shore”, in Gujarati Kinara
- Similarly as had happened in Southeast Asia
- Taking inspiration from Mazoun.
- ATL Swahili
- Read: as happened in OTL
- Meaning Letters according to Google translate to Swahili. Not that creative
- Tomislav Addai
- Word Count: 1.2k