The Swahili: The Social Landscape of a Mercantile Society

The Swahili are one of the best known of the peoples of Africa. Living along the East African coast, they acted as commercial middlemen, exchanging the commodities of continental Africa, such as gold, copper, slaves, ivory, skins and timber with the luxury items of the classical, oriental and Islamic worlds. They were central participants in a global economy, long before the era of European expansion. This book is one of the first to draw on recent archaeological findings and a re–assessment of the historical and anthropological evidence to provide an account of this remarkable African civilization covering some two thousand years. This book is essential reading not only for Africanists, but also for those dealing with the history of Islam, Mediterranean history, and Indian Ocean studies, and for those who wish to understand how trading societies organize their landscape, society, governance and belief systems.

Introduction. 1. The Swahili Coast. 2. Origins. 3. The Acceptance of Islam. 4. The Swahili Coast and the Indian Ocean World. 5. The Trading System of the Swahili Coast. 6. The Urban Landscape. 7. The Social Landscape. 8. Governance and Politics. 9. The Swahili in a Changing World. 10. Constructing the Mercantile Landscape. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

Mark Horton is a Reader in Archaeology at the University of Bristol. He has conducted research in both Kenya and Tanzania since 1980, and directed excavations at Shanga in the Lamu archipelago and on the islands of Pemba, Zanzibar and Tumbatu. Between 1984 and 1987 he was a Research Fellow at St Hugh′s College, Oxford, and from 1987 to 1992 directed a project that investigated the origins of East African Islam for the British Institute in Eastern Africa. John Middleton retired in 1991 as Professor of Anthropology and Religious Studies at Yale University, after also teaching at the University of London, New York University, and elsewhere. He has carried out anthropological research in Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana. He worked in Zanzibar in 1958 on land tenure among the central Swahili (published as Land Tenure in Zanzibar, 1961) and later in the 1980s among the northern Swahili of the town of Lamu in Kenya to make a general ethnography that was published in 1992 as The World of the Swahili. His other books include Lugbara Religion (1960) and he was editor–in–chief of the Encyclopaedia of Africa South of the Sahara (1997).

"[Horton and Middleton′s] portrait of the Swahili is drawn from multiple sources of data, including archival records, ethnographic fieldwork, and recent archaeological finds expertly providing comprehensive, up–to–date accounts if African peoples that are both scholarly and accessible." CHOICE <!––end––> "Despite their high profile, the identity of the Swahili has been elusive to define. The sensible discussion of this issue by Horton & Middleton should finally put this question to rest ... The Swahili is a fine addition to the series on the peoples of Africa published by Blackwell. South African Archaeological Bulletin "Well supplied with maps and plates depicting locales, excavations, and architecture, the book will be useful to a general readership, as well as to younger scholars interested in the African littoral. The archeological chapters are very informative." Greg Cameron, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute