Chapter 4 Religion, Ethnicity and Identity in the Zanzibar Sultanate
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20073964 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Valerie J Hoffman (0000-0002-5519-1049, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Pages | 73-90 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-31 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Muslim Cultures in the Indian Ocean (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1515/9781474486514-006 |
| OpenAlex | W4327584852 |
| ISBN | 9781474486514 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 4 |
Memories of the Zanzibar SultanateThe Zanzibar sultanate (1832-1964) ruled a singularly cosmopolitan but highly stratified population, including Arabs of Omani background (usually members of the Ibadi sect), Sunni Muslim scholars and labourers of Hadrami descent, Indians of diverse origins and religions, and Baluchi and Persian mercenaries, in addition to locals who self-identified as 'Shirazi', natives of the Mrima and Banadir coasts, and large numbers of African slaves.African history is a politically charged subject.College textbooks on the history of Africa in the 1980s presented the continent as largely free of conflict until the advent of the Europeans.Although the violence of the Atlantic slave trade and the European colonialist project in Africa cannot be denied, the image of an idyllic, peaceful pre-colonial Africa is a product of wishful imagination.The reasons for such a presentation are self-evident: no one, especially a Western scholar, wishes to understate the violence of European imperialism.But if such problems exist in scholarship on Africa, they are doubly so for scholarship on the Zanzibar sultanate.Should the Omani sultanate on the Swahili coast be seen as a colonial project, or was the sultanate a haven of racial, ethnic and religious equality, where Omanis were so well integrated into Swahili society over the course of generations that they were no longer alien to it?Was the East African slave trade as horrible as its depictions in the writings of David Livingstone, or was slavery in East Africa so benign that slaves were treated as part of the family, owning their own property and even their own slaves, and frequently manumitted upon the death of the master?Was the lot of slaves in East Africa better than that of those who lived in grinding poverty
Aesthetics · Ancient history · Ethnic group · Genealogy · Geography · Identity (music) · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · African history and culture studies · Anthropology · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |