Taken from: Early Islam, Oceanic Trade and Town Development on Nzwani: The Comorian Archipelago in the XIth-XVth Centuries AD Henry T. Wright

-Early seafarers of the VIIIth-Xth centuries A D whose material remains comprise a cultural phase--termed the ‘Dembeni Phase’.

-There appears to have been at least one large Dembeni Phase community of 3-6 ha on each island, some with traces of rectangular pole houses with mud-plastered walls. In contrast to these larger communities were smaller beach sites (Ngazidja) and hill-slope sites (Mwali and Maore) which may have been camps for fishing or gardening.

-On one of the beach sites on Ngazidja, revealed burials of Dembeni Phase people. The physical features of one well-preserved adult male are clearly East African and the removal of his incisors is a custom frequently attested in that area. This custom, plus the orientation of the burials with the head south rather than east, indicate that the people of this hamlet were not Muslims.

-Estimating from site sizes and modern village densities, few Dembeni communities would have exceeded 500 people. The population of the archipelago as a whole probably exceeded one thousand inhabitants.

-The ceramics of the Dembeni Phase resemble, or are identical to, ceramics from Chibuene in southern Mozambique (Sinclair, 1982) to Manda in northern Kenya (Chittick, 1984), so there must have been some interaction between Comorians and peoples on the coasts of eastern Africa.

-The presence of chlorite-schist fragments on some sites demonstrates contact with Madagascar.

-In brief, by the IXth-Xth centuries AD, Comorians were actively and profitably interacting with traders from the Islamic world.

Imported Ceramics in the Comores

-Large sandy-ware jars with a blue-green glaze over incising and with a speckled grey or grey-green glaze on the interior have been found on nearly all Dembeni Phase sites at the lowest levels.  At Siraf these jars appear in the late VIIIth century. Also at Manda in association with IXth-Xth century Chinese types (Chittick, 1967). So no Dembeni Phase site would seem to date before AD 750.

-Small fine ware bowls with an opaque white glaze, often deteriorated to a white crust, and frequently with coloured splashes on the interior, are the most common imports on Dembeni Phase sites. Examples occur on the floor of the Great Mosque of Siraf, a building from AD 800.

-The imported ceramics indicate that the Dembeni Phase communities started at AD 750, were flourishing by AD 800 and developed into communities of the Hanyundru Phase by AD 1000. (When sgraffiato sherds should start appearing). When the sgraffiato bowls do not occur, they were probably abandoned before AD I000. Imported sherds comprise four percent of the sherds in the Dembeni Phase sites this is greater than Kilwa with 0.2 percent (Chittick, 1974, p. 302), but less than the 30 percent of Manda.

-Both slag and iron fragments were common at Dembeni on Maore; some were also in evidence at Sima on Ndzuwani. Two beads are of a fine opaque black glass. Similar beads apparently occur at Manda.

-The plain vessels with shell-impressed decoration, are a substantial minority of the ceramics. These come from Madagascar, or from Majikavo Phase communities on Maore who were related to Madagascar. There is evidence that such visits were not friendly visits. While the settlements on the westerly isles were on open coasts in easily accessible places, those to the east on Maore and Ndzuwani are on high steep-sided ridges. This suggests a fear of intruders from the direction of Madagascar.

Taken from: Contact between China and Africa before Vasco da Gama: Archeology, Document and Historiography; by Li Anshan 2020.

Madagascar also imported pottery from the Comoros, whose nearest island, Mayotte, is only 300 km from the Malagasy coast. Despite this proximity, it turns out that Comorian pottery discovered in Madagascar (in the northwest) is rare but similar to that present in the Swahili area: it is pottery with keels from the Majikavo (8th-9th centuries) and Hanyundro (11th-13th centuries) phases. There is also Comorian pottery with “arca” type decorations, i.e. with serrated patterns obtained using shells applied by printing.

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-Pieces of chlorite-schist vessels are of the coarse greyish varieties common on Madagascar, and have been carved on a lathe as was usual, they were found in Sima, Domoni and several other sites.

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-Bagamoyo; The site is stretching for 2500m and is on the island of Petite Terre (Pamanzi Keli) and is related to a large Muslim necropolis dating to the 10th- 13th centuries and sustaining a large population. It showed connections with the Shirazi period in Kilwa. Only the necropolis has been excavated (Allibert 1983; Courteau 1999), while the occupation site on the small island of Mirandol remains unstudied. On the western side of the small island of Mirandol, ceramics dating from the 9th–13th centuries were discovered in addition to walls comprised of perfectly-cut quadrangular ashlars arranged in horizontal courses; a masonry style characteristic of the 11th and 12th centuries (Pradines 2015, 136).

Bagamoyo with Mirandol

Excavations at the necropolis indicated that individuals identifying as both Austronesian and Bantu were interred there. It should be noted that the oldest Islamic burial on the Bagamoyo site is from the 9th century, and the typology of pottery is often consistent with that of Dembeni.

Left: reconstruction of the Bagamoyo lime kiln (10th-12th century), using Austronesian technology, ventilation was operated by four buried nozzles supplied with air by four vertically placed bamboo rods in which pistons were actuated. The top of the oven was made of upturned ceramic (32cm) whose bottom was pierced to allow a piece of bamboo to pass through to serve as a chimney to let the fumes escape. This kiln, whose function was to produce good quality lime – but in small quantities from the shell limestone was either intended for betel consumption or for caulking the hulls of ships.

Right: the Bagamoyo vase.

About a type of local large dish found at the cemetery: It's a pottery of good quality, solid, of regular thickness (9-1Omm), smoothed and decorated with care. The firing is also regular. The color beige, sometimes grey, can turn brick-red or even black in some places. This type appears in the 9^th century in Irodo and the African coast although we have to wait until the 11th century for them to appear clearly marked in Manda. We note above all a typological correspondence between Kilwa, Mombasa and Mayotte for the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which gives us an idea of a possible date for our site.

Imported potteries are: Sassanid-Islamic (800-1000AD); Sgraffiato (1200-1300AD); turned pottery without glaze from Siraf from tenth century; Celadon from 14^th century;

Many parts from soapstone cooking pots were found mostly big ones around 50cm.

A big piece of quartz of longer than 20 cm.

Some small pieces of glass same as the 10^th century pieces of Manda imported from Siraf.

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Taken from: Islamic Archaeology in the Comoros: The Swahili and the Rock Crystal Trade with the Abbasid and Fatimid Caliphates by Stéphane Pradines

-Dembeni (10 ha) is located on the east coast the administrative name of the site is ‘Ironi Be’.

Excavations yielded a few bases of walls made of marine coral (Porites) used in the foundations of the mud-and-thatch walls. This construction technique in Dembeni dates to the 9th-10th centuries and was later covered by basalt paving and tombstones. The use of fresh Porites in this manner is associated with the first phases of occupation in Swahili sites, as indicated by Horton for the 10th century (Horton 1996, 399–400).

-The second phase of occupation in the centre of the plateau dates to the 11th-12th centuries. This area was converted into a ritual and religious space, reserved for burials and was likely considered to be sacred space. The cemetery directly in the middle of the site was delimited by stones that were visible during survey (Pradines 2012, 71–75; Pradines et al. 2015, 133). In 2015 two skeletons were recovered here that had been buried in narrow graves facing towards Mecca, oriented east-west in a right lateral position (Pradines 2016, 44–46). They suggest some conversion to Islam between the 11th and 12th centuries. The increasing number of Muslim graves dating to the 11th and 12th centuries suggests large-scale conversion to Islam in Mayotte around the 12th century (Pauly 2014a, 73–81).

-Most of the two villages/neighbourhoods located on each side of the plateau has eroded away. Only some coral stone foundations of houses remain. There were no social or chronological differences between the two settlements. The local Mawuti pottery is 85% of all the ceramics with cooking pots and cups predominating.

-The imports 10%–15% are extremely diverse of the 9th–12th centuries from Iran, Iraq, China, and, to a lesser extent, from Madagascar and India. High-quality imports suggests that Dembeni reached its height during the 10th century to the first quarter of the 11th century. The importation of ceramics ceased at the end of the 12^th century and the site was abandoned at the beginning of the 13th century. Imports in the 9th–10th centuries came from Basra in Iraq, and Khuzistan, Fars, and Siraf. Imports from the Makran to the south appeared at the end of the 10th century. The majority (60%) of the imported material is comprised of “hatched sgraffito” bowls and cups 10^th to 12^th century. Chinese imports 10^th to end 12^th century. The glass finds are similar to those discovered at Suse, Nishapur, Sharma, Shanga, and Manda.

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Taken from: THE COMOROS 1000–1350 CE Henry T. Wright in The Swahili World 2018

-Tsingoni: This larger site and the village of Hanyundru have ceramic assemblages similar to one another, dating to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Tsingoni has a fourteenth century (or earlier) mosque, early tombs and traces of walls and terraces in the eroded areas of the modern village. The scatter of sherds throughout its area of 8.5 ha is primarily fifteenth century or later, however Allibert (1992) has recorded a sherd with characteristic Hanyundru rectangular punctates. It seems likely that the shift of the major centre of Maore from Dembeni to Tsingoni, traditional seat of the first royal dynasty of Maore, took place in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries CE.

Taken from: La mosquée de Tsingoni (Mayotte) Premières investigations archéologiques ; Anne Jégouzo, Thomas Romon, Martial Pauly, Axel Daussy et Serge Dalle

The first mosque of Tsingoni, under the present mosque.  The observed foundations are mounted in large unsquared slabs or blocks of beach-rock (beach sandstone), edge mounted and bound with a medium-sand white lime mortar. This is the presence of a first smaller mosque. Interior floors in cream lime mortar, contemporary with the first state of the mosque, have also been identified. Outside the primitive building and in the immediate vicinity of its eastern wall, there is a work area with mortar residues related to the construction of the mosque. The ceramic furniture dates this event around the 14th century. Postholes that may indicate the presence of scaffolding are also visible to the west.

Further east, a domestic habitat zone, characterized by a superposition of floors in lime mortar or beaten earth. Their relatively fragile composition tends to identify them as interior spaces. The presence of masonry buildings in stone perhaps reveals the high status of the building. The ceramic furniture records these developments in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Phase 3 marks a total overhaul of the mosque with embellishment and expansion of the consecrated spaces. This vast architectural program probably responds to the installation of Sultan Ali in Tsingoni and the change in status of the city, which became the capital of the sultanate at the beginning of the 16th century. The inscriptions visible at the level of the mihrab indicate, that the sultan built it in 1538.

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Taken from: Acoua-Agnala M’kiri (Mayotte - 976) Archéologie d’une localité médiévale (11e au 15e siècles EC), entre Afrique et Madagascar; Martial Pauly 2013.

In Acoua, a Ki-bushi (Malagasy) village situated on the northwest coast of Mayotte Island (Comoro Archipelago). Between the 12th and the 15th centuries AD, Acoua Agnala Mkiri was a thriving place playing a part in the western Indian Ocean trade. It was a port of call for ships sailing from Madagascar to the Swahili Coast. Its central area including stone-town was 2.5ha and was built in the 15^th century but surrounded by a stone-wall from the 12^th century. It was not a Swahili settlement as till now the people speak a Malagasy dialect.

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Dzindani is on the seasonally arid northern extremity of Ngazidja, east of Mitsamouli

The site covered about a hectare, judging from the distribution of earlier ceramics amidst a more extensive distribution of later sherds. Nothing is known about structures or other features at the site.

M'Beni, one of many localities with this name, is at the extreme southern end of Ngazidja. It seems unlikely that the settlement was more than a single row of structures along the beach, covering about one hectare. No excavations were attempted here. Quarrying during 1984 revealed two burials lying on their backs with head to south, certainly not a proper Islamic practice.

Taken from: Archaeological Excavation of the Earliest Known Mosque in Comoros, and East Africa; Ibrahim Moustakim and Felix Chami

-Ntsaouéni: The oral tradition exists in the Stone town of Ntsaouéni, (North-western coast of Ngazidja island) that the known oldest mosque was built by Mtswa-Mwindza, a local king of the 7th century AD.

The trenches produced imported and local materials, pottery including Triangular Incised Ware (TIW), Plain Ware (PW), Swahili and Mohoro tradition and a Tang dynasty potsherd. Several ornamental objects such as local and imported beads made out of mollusk, coral, glass and cornelian materials. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the lowest layer, the layer in which the earliest lime floor (mosque) was found, had pottery of TIW dated elsewhere from the 7th to 9th centuries AD (Chami 1994 and 1998). The mosque had a major reconstruction in the period between the 12th and the 14th century at the time of Swahili tradition. The top most floor is of 19th century and was made of cement. While the three floors made of coral lime discovered  below the first one dated from the 7th to the 14th c AD.

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Mwali Mdjini comprises two partially overlapping units relating to two successive occupation sequences. Outside the enclosure, the initial site is remarkable for the absence of any visible housing structure. The author thinks that it was a scale, a meeting point between East African and Oriental traders with a population that was probably Bantu-fishermen but of whom it is not possible to say whether they were already Islamized or not. Inside the enclosure are observed the stone structures and a remarkable arrangement in terraces. The predominance of shards of blue and white Chinese porcelain correlates this habitat to the 'classical' period: 15th-end 18th century. This time it is a distinctly urban population of Muslim inspiration.

The ruins of Mwali Mdjini consist of; Ruins of a palace; Cemeteries; Ruins of a house with engraving of a dhow; Foundations of the city walls ….

The Mwali Mdjini site, occupying an area of 8ha. The whole site of Mwali Mdjini is dotted with ruins which allow us to understand the extent of this ancient city. There are few interesting remains left on the architectural level. The foundations and piles of stones mixed with plants do not allow the reading of an urban structure. The cemeteries of Mwali Mdjini consist of two typologies of graves. The first are very sober burials, signified by half-buried pebbles. The seconds are more worked with a raised frame accompanied by triangular tops areas.

Mro Dewa 9th-15th century; Occupies an area of 3 hectares.

The site of Mro Dewa, is installed on the edge of a mountain ridge at an altitude of 600m. Its wall is 300m long and has low towers on its main salient.

Sasso-Islamic pottery ceramics, large jars with handles were found. Also Shards of pottery from Fujian or Guangxi (twelfth–thirteenth century) have been excavated at Mro Dewa, a site which has also yielded remnants of a bronze mirror and of blue or green glass vessels (Chanudet and Vérin 1983: 48). And the habitat soil was intensely cultivated.

End of the Middle-Ages View of the Comoros Islands by the Portuguese.

Taken from: Friar João dos Santos (1622) Ethiopia Oriental (Vária historia de cousas notaveis do Oriente), Lisbon, His book is about 1580-1600.

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CHAPTER IX

From the island of Comoro.

Between Cabo Delgado and the island of S. Lourenço, the island of Comoro is located in two and a half degrees of the southern coast. It is sixteen leagues (1) long and lies closer to the island of S. Lourenço than to the mainland of Africa a mountainous island full of mountains so high that they reach the very cool clouds and with many cattle, goats and sheep and populated by gentile Kaffirs and brave Moors who are the main lords of it. It trades with the Moors of the Strait of Meca and the coast of Malindi. Among these great mountains they say that there is one so high that most of the year it is covered with clouds and filled with fog, so that you cannot see its summit and these fogs cause so much distillation of dew that

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a lot of water always flows from the top of it and waters it down to the valleys. For which respect, it is very fresh and fertile. ……… It seems that God wanted to provide this island with this wonderful water because in all of it there is no other source or fresh water to drink. So it is very clear that it is less wonderful to have a cloud over the Comoro mountain range ……

p290

…… Near this island are also other large towns of Moors and gentiles with curly hair and dull complexion. The kings and lords of them are Moors, very bad and betrayed people, as some ships that there have experienced. ……

(1) leagues: Portuguese Maritime League = 5,555.56 meters.