(part of) Pate Chronicle (Strigand version)

 

Taken from:

-FREEMAN-GRENVILLE G.S.P., The East African Coast (select documents from the first to the earlier nineteenth century), Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1962, 314 p.

-The Pate Chronicle edited by Marina Tolmacheva 2012

 

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The History of Pate, which begins in 1204 and continues to the end of the Nabhan dynasty in 1885, is incomparably the richest and most detailed of the Swahili traditional histories. It is said that the original composition was destroyed during the bombardment of Witu in 1890. Various versions of it are extant, but all apparently stem from the memory of a certain Bwana Kitini, a member of the Nabhan royal family. Printed versions are to be found in A. Werner, ‘A Swahili History of Pate’, Journal of the African Society, vol. xiv, 1913-14, A Voeltzkow, Reisen in Ost-Afrika in den Jahren 1903-1905, and M. Heepe, Suaheli Chronith von Pate, 1928.

Three unpublished versions are to be found in the Political Records in the Lamu District Office. By far the most detailed version only survives in English, forming Chapters ii, iii and iv of C. H. Stigand, The Land of Zing, 1913, PP- 29 to 102. The relations between the various versions have been studied by A. H. J. Prins, ‘On Swahili Historiography’, Journal of the East African Swahili Committee, July 1958. It is extremely difficult to judge between the merits of these various versions, and this is complicated by the local opinion that Bwana Kitini was of an inventive turn of mind and ready to sell tales.

However this may be, all the versions tell substantially the same story, even if there are variations of the order of the sultans and the omission of many details in the shorter versions. Stigand, an administrative officer, was able to cross-examine Bwans Kitini, and his work in other fields shows that he was not a man to accept statements lightly or without testing. For this reason, and because his version is far fuller than any of the others, it has been printed here. The footnotes are those of Stigand.

 

The following histories are culled from old Pate records. They were communicated to me by Bwana Kitini who is a direct descendant of the Pate Sultans, and looked on locally as the authority on historical matters. For some reason or other I was not allowed access to the original documents, except one relating to recent Zanzibar history and evidently not must prized. (1)

My informant, who, like most Orientals, had a prodigious memory for learning by rote (2), made notes and visited me daily for some months. I wrote the text down from his dictation and subsequently translated it as literally as possible.

The reader must please pardon the peculiar phrasing sometimes adopted so as to keep as near possible to the Swahili.

 

The beginning of these coast towns, (3) he who first made them was a

 

1 The Rev. W. E. Taylor, the greatest living authority oa Swahili, told me that be also heard of these documents, but was unable to obtain access to them.

2 Although learning is at a low ebb on the cast coast, the retentive memory which enables a literate Arab to become a Hafiz is evident. A Hafiz is one who can repeat the Koran by heart from cover to cover.

3 Ancient history only deals with the coast, as the interior was unknown.

 

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ruler called Abdul Malik bin Muriani. The date was the seventyseventh year of the Hejra. He heard of this country, and his soul longed to found a new kingdom. So he brought Syrians, and they built the cities of Pate, Malindi, Zanzibar, Mombasa, Lamu and Kilwa. (1)

After that Abdul Malik died, and his sons who reigned did not care for the work of founding towns, and so they left them. (2) Now Abdul Malik’s tribe was the Bani Omaiya, and of these fourteen kings reigned. After this the Bani Omaiya dynasty went out, and there ruled the Bani al Abbas. The third of this dynasty was Harun al Rashid, (3) who reigned in the year 170.

This Sultan heard that Abdul Malik had built in Africa, and he was pleased to call people and give them much wealth wherewith he sent them to build houses on the coast. The people he sent were Persians.

In the year 601 came the Nabahans to the coast coming forth from the Oman (Maskat). Now the origin of the Nabahans leaving the Oman is this. In the beginning at Maskat four tribes ruled. First reigned the tribe called the Kharusi. After that they were robbed of their kingdom by the Nabahans. A Nabehan Sultan called Iman (4) Muthafar took the kingdom and ruled over the whole of Oman. After him came his son Suleiman bin Muthafar, and then the latter’s son Suleiman bin Suleiman.

Then occurred a quarrel between the Arabs and the Nabahans amongst the two tribes of the Henawi and Ghafir. Then the Yorubi fought the Nabahans and they gained strength and defeated the ruling Nabahan. So he went forth and fled away and came to the Sawaheli (5) coast with some of his tribe, whilst others went to Jebel Riami; they are there at Riami until now. He who went to the Sawaheli coast was he who had been Sultan of Maskat.

He landed at Pate and the inhabitants of Pate were those people who had been sent by Khalif Abdul Malik bin Muriani.

So he remained in Pate with his people for he had arrived with many men and ships and much wealth. Presently they sent gifts to the chief of Pate and to every big man in Pate they made a present, and even to the small men of the town they gave goods. Then the people, both

 

1 The following towns are said to have been built or commenced by Abdul Malik. In each town or group of towns he had a Luwali (Governor), Mukadisho (mui wa mwisho - the end city), Marika, Berawa, Tula, Twavae, Koyama,Vumbi, Kismeyu, Omwi, Ndao, Kiwayu, Pate, Paza, Shanga, Emezi (now Wangi), Magagoni (Tukutu), Amu (Lamu), Manda, Taka, Kitao, Komana, Uziwa, Shaka (said to be named from Persian Shah), Mea, Ozi, Malindi, Watamu, Mvita, Wasini, Kilwa, Tungi, Ngazija (the Comoro Islands).

2 A legend on the coast says thar his son Jafari ruled and died at Kiwayu.

3 This was the Haroon al Rashid of the ‘Arabian Nights’, who ruled at Bagdad.

4 ‘Imam, the hereditary title of the Maskat rulers.’

5 Swahili from Ar. Sawahil — coast.

 

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great and small, perceived the goodness of the Sultan who had come from Maskat.

After he went to Is-hak, the chief of Pate, and asked for his daughter in marriage, and Is-hak gave him his daughter and he married her, and he rested with her the seven days of the honeymoon. (1)

On the seventh day he came forth and went to see his father-in-law. When he came Is-hak said to him, ‘Your marriage portion is the kingdom of Pate.’

So Suleiman ruled, and he had a son by that woman and he called him Mubammad.

Till in the year 625 Suleiman bin Suleiman died, and his son Muhammad bin Suleiman ruled and took possession of all his people, his wealth and his soldiers. It was he who first took the name of Sultan of Pate, and this by right, for his father came forth from their country bearing the title of Sultan.

The people of Pate loved him much for his own goodness, and because he was a child of the town, for his mother was of their kin.

Now Sultan Muhammad remained with them twenty-five years, and then he died leaving three sons, Ahmad, Suleiman, and Ali.

It was Ahmad who took his father’s place. The townspeople, those people of Pate, wished to make trouble, and so they said to his brothers Suleiman and Ali, ‘Why does this one take the kingdom? Do not consent to it.

So rebellion was stirred up in the country and the townspeople then went to Sultan Ahmad and said, ‘These brothers of yours are makers of mischief.’

So discord arose between them, Suleiman and Ali on one side, and Sultan Ahmad on the other, but Sultan Ahmad was together with those people whom his grandfather had brought from Arabia. Now these people of Pate purposely egged them on one against the other, so that they should waste their strength and then they might get back their country, for they regretted the arrangement made by their elders giving the kingdom to the Nabahans.

Sultan Ahmad’s mother was a Pate woman, and she said to her son, ‘Understand that you must go and agree with your brothers. This is for your good, for my relations, the people of Pate, design to urge you on one against the other, until such time as you may expend your strength. Then they will turn you out and retake their country that its greatness may be restored to them.

So you, my son, take my advice, and come to an agreement with your brothers here today.’

 

1 On mariage the bridal couple remain indoors for a period of seven days, called Fungate.

 

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Sultan Ahmad called Ali bin Othman bin Sef bin Muthafar, an old man who had been with his father, and sent him to his brothers according to the advice his mother had given him.

So Ali bin Othman went to Suleiman and Ali, they took his advice, and he brought them secretly by night to their brother, and the Pate people had no knowledge of this.

Till in the morning when day broke they perceived that there was no longer war in the town.

They knew then that their plan had failed, and so they went to Sultan Ahmad and said to him, ‘We rejoice exceedingly that you are acting as a guardian to your younger brothers—it is indeed good news.’

Then they went to those brothers and said, ‘And for you to own allegiance to your elder brother is indeed proper.’

In those days lived a man who strung some verses symbolical of the wiles of the Pate people which began:

‘The Pate people weave discord, then it is unravelled and they ask, Who is it that began the quarrel?

So Sultan Ahmad lived in accord with his brothers, and placed many soldiers in the country, and enriched his subjects. The Pate people seeing this, gave allegiance to him, and peace came to the country and he made it prosper. He benefited that country much, making plantations, digging wells, building stone houses, and sending expeditons by land and sea, till that country flourished exceedingly.

In the year 690 Sultan Ahmad died, leaving two sons, Omar and Muhammad, and two daughters, Mwana Khadija, and Mwana Mimi (1). Muhammad bin Ahmad reigned, the third of the Nabehans (2) and this Sultan was the first who was called by the name of Bwana Fumomadi (3), and he was given the name of ‘The Great’.

This Sultan was a very fine man, both in appearance and disposition; he was moreover very generous, He still further established the country and conquered the whole island of Pate, and fought with the people of Shanga, a country near Pate on the side of the rising sun. This country (4)

which is even nearer to Siu, he conquered in war, plundering it and killing the males. The youths and the old women and maidens they made prisoners.

There was a maiden sitting on the ground grinding frankincense,

 

1 Mwana, meaning ‘child’ in present-day Swahili, also meant ‘Queen’ in old Swahili. When this child was born, it is said chat the grandmother clasped it, saying, rather ungrammatically, ‘Mwana mimi’ - my child.

2 The first was Muhammad bin Suleimani, Suleimani bin Suleimani, who came from Maskat, is not counted in the dynasty.

3 Bwana—master. Fumo = a chief (derived from old Swahili word meaning “a spear’ madi = abbreviation of ‘Muhammadi’ (Swahili for ‘Muhammed’).

4 The Swahili called every little town with a chief a ‘country’.

 

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and a soldier entered and seized her, intending to rob her of her goods and clothes and make her a captive.

This maiden said to the earth, ‘Open, that I may enter,’ and the earth opened and swallowed her up, leaving only the border of her upper robe above ground. Now this is the truth, which has been obtained correctly from the people of those days who beheld the miracle, for this maiden was a God-fearing person.

That soldier, when he saw that, gave up the profession of arms, for he perceived that this calling did not lead to great things, saying, ‘I am a soldier and I am unable to say to the ground—‘Open, that I may be swallowed up.’ Even my Sultan is unable to do this thing. This maiden is able to do this because she obeys her Master who created her. I also will obey him truly.’

So this soldier led a devout life until he died.

Sultan Muhammad when he heard the news about this damsel went to the place and there saw the border of her garment. He tried to dig her up but was unable, so he built a shrine over the spot to honour her as a sign to posterity.

The soldier he put in the shrine to live there performing the services and to light the lamps at night, and pluck up the grass growing in the doorway.

When their father died, his sons tended the mausoleum, and their tribe was the Watui, but now there are no more of that tribe.

After Sultan Muhammad had conquered the country of Shanga, trouble arose between him and the people of the country originally called Rasini, but which is now called Faza.

So he made war against them and they fought together for many days. And it came to pass that the people of Pate were unable to go outside the town to drew water after the sun had risen for fear of those people of Rasini. (1)

For it was the custom of those people to arrive daily as the sun commenced to mount in the heavens. (2) Till the women in their houses used to tell their slaves, ‘Go quickly and draw water before the sun mounts and those of the mounting sun have come.’

So the people of Faza (or Paza) were called ‘those of the mounting sun’, This is the origin of the word ‘Wapaza’, for after a while the word ‘sun’ was dropped out, and they were called ‘those of the mounting’ (=‘Wapatha’ in Pate Swahili). After many days had passed the name of Wapaza stuck to them.

Later on when the country of Rasini had been taken by the Sultan of Pate, it remained uninhabited till the Watikuu came asking for a

 

1 ‘Rasini’, meaning ‘cape’ or ‘promontory’. Arabic ‘Ras’.

2 Their town being four hours’ distant from Pate.

 

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place in which to settle. The sultan of that date told them that they could have the place of the Wapatha, That is why they are now called Paza (or Faza).

Now after the Sultan of Pate and the Sulten of Faza had warred together many days they made peace with each other and agreed each one to remain in his own country.

 

Then Bwana Shakwa, the Faza Sultan, married his daughter to Omar, the son of the Sultan of Pate, and they lived together at Faza for many days.

After that Omar took his wife and brought her to Pate secretly. When the girl’s father heard in the morning he was very angry, and his son followed after his sister with a big expedition and came to Pate.

Omar said to his brother-in-law, ‘There is no need for you and me to quarrel, for your sister herself wished to accompany me, her husband. So you go your way and she will rest here seven days and then I shall send her home.’

The Sultan of Faza’s son returned home to await the agreement made with Omar, but after seven days his sister had not come back, and he was very angry and swore to conquer the country of Pate.

So he warred again against Pate going and returning daily for many days, and every day as the sun mounted the heavens at nine o'clock, the people of Faza had come, and the people of Pate were no longer able to leave the city to draw water.

So they fought for many days, the people of Faza coming to Pate, and at other times the people of Pate going to Rasini, Then the Sultan of Faza’s son registered a vow not to shave his head (1) till he had entered the town of Pate. So he went many times to fight at Pate till one day fortune favoured him, and he entered the city of Pate, seizing a whole quarter of the town. Then he had a chair placed outside the mosque and there his head was shaved, and so he consummated his vow.

Meanwhile they were still fighting and the people of Pate held out in one side of the town, and they took counsel of a sage who said to them, ‘Do not go now into the fight, but wait till two o’clock has passed, If you fight then you will drive them out of your country, but you must follow them and kill of their number in the way, and retake your property which they have looted till they reach their home, when you will take their town also.’

Now the Rasini people when they had captured part of the town were content to rest and loot, thinking that they would tke the rest of the city when the sun had declined.

When two o'clock was past the people of Pate fought them and

 

1 Arabs and Swahilis do not cut their hair, but shave their heads when the hair is too Jong.

 

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turned them out of the town, for they were carrying much loot and were unable to fight. So the Pate people followed them till they reached the town of Paza. The Rasini people entered the city and barricaded the gates while the Pate people besieged them closely, so that a man might not come out or enter in.

They besieged them for seven days, and each day they were losing strength by reason of lacking water to drink. (1) Now in the town of Faza was one of the captains of the troops called Haji Mwetha, and he said to the others, ‘My fellow captains, if I tell you my plan will you follow it? They answered, ‘We will follow it.’

Then Haji Mwetha said, “The reason that the Pate people drove us out of their town was that we found ourselves amongst their wealth, and they fell upon us when we were unable to fight because of the loot we had taken.

‘Now my plan is to make a small breach in the wall and leave one part of the town for them to loot. When they see our property there together with the things we have taken from them, they will leave off fighting and remain there.

‘We shall remain without women and children in the other part of the town, and when they withdraw with their loot we will fall upon them. The way out will be narrow so we shall kill and capture them and retake our property.’

So the people of the town took his advice and they broke part of the wall.

When the Pate people saw this the chiefs and ameers said to the captains and soldiers, ‘Do you perceive this matter? It is a ruse, so now everyone who enters the town must seize neither thing nor person. Everyone he meets he must smite whether it be man, woman, or child, and when we have finished conquering the town we will obtain all their property. Any people who are then left we will make our slaves.’ So they acted on this advice and entered the town smiting all they met with.

When the people of Faza looked on the faces of those who had been killed, they ran away and wished to open the gates and fly, but the Pate men had surrounded the whole town so there was no way out.

They then desired quarter, but the people of Pate refused to give quarter except to those of them who had friends amongst the people of Faza each man seized his friend and the remainder they killed or made slaves. The town and the houses they broke up leaving neither thing nor person.

For this reason the Swahilis say to anyone who gives advice which is not good, ‘Your advice is like the advice of Haji Mwetha,’

From the day that the town of Faza was destroyed no man lived there

 

1 The principal wells of these towns are generally outside the city.

 

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Till the coming of the Watikuu (1), and the only inhabitants left alive were those who were made captive and men who were not present at the fight such as fisherman and those on a journey. Even today there are descendants of these at Siu, Amu, the Mrima, Zanzibar, and other places and they call their tribe the Mafazii. Later on the Sultan Muhammad of Pate pardoned the captives and they were scattered abroad, every man living where he pleased. Sultan Muhammad conquered the island of Pate from Yaya and Shanga as far as Mtangawanda-that is the length and breadth of the people of Kiwayu, when they saw the strength of Pate, did not fight with them but declared alliance to them and paid tribute to them. When the people of Kiwayu made allegiance to Pate they became soldiers of the Sultan, and the Sultan fought and conquered all the countries beyond Kiwayu, viz. Kiunga, Tula, Koyama, Kismayu, Barawa, Marika, and Mukadisho. He installed a governor at Mukadisho (2) for in those days this was an important place.

After conquering all these places Sultan Muhammad died in the year 740, and his son Sultan Omar (Fumomari) (3) reigned. It was he who fought the towns of the coast, Manda, Uthiwa, Komwana, Malindi, and the Mrima and Kilwa till he came to Kirimba. (4) Now the Sultan of Manda,(5) when he saw that the kingdom of Pate had become great, wished to place a governor over them, for before the coming of the Nabahans Pate used to be under his rule.

The people of Pate did not agree to this and so trouble arose between them. Till during north-monsoon if a man was building a vessel in Pate harbour, when he hammered a nail to drive in into a plank, an order used to come from Manda. The master is sleeping; do not make a noise (6) It came about that a person was unable to work at boat-building save morning and evening. To this the Pate people did not agree, so war arose between them and they fought together many days.

 

1 When the Watikuu came to Faza they still found some houses inhabitable.

2 All these places are to the north of Pate in order.

3 Mari abbreviation for Swahili Omari = Omar in the same way as (Fuma)madi is an abbreviation for Muhammadi.

4 These are all South of Pate is succession.

5 Manda was a much older place than Pate.

6 Manda is south-west of Pate, but to far to hear any sound. The order was given presumably to impress the people with his importance. A very rare tense is used here in the original. Ulele meaning ‘he is in the act of sleeping’ as opposed to analala or yualala= he is sleeping.

 

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Till after a space of time had elapsed one day the elders of Manda were sitting in council, all the big men of the town, every tribe with its representative. However, one of their head men, Bakiumbe, was not present, for he had gone to sea fishing and they had not told him that there was to be a meeting.

So all the elders assembled except Bakiumbe and someone said. Let us wait,’ but others said, ‘There is no necessity to wait for him; these words are not for fisher-folk but for elders.’

So they transacted their business, and when Bakiumbe returned from the sea he was told of this matter by his relations, for he was the chief of the fisher-clan. Then he spoke and said to his clan, ‘These men have treated us fishermen as lowly folk like unto slaves, and we are all as well bred as they, save that everyone follows his calling. This one hoes, another is a smith, and another a palm-tapper. This is our town and everyone has his house, his property and his dependants. I will make a plan that I may pay back this insult that has been offered us till even those who come after us will not be able to scorn a man again.’

Even today if there is an assembly people will speak together, and if one man is left out they say, ‘Do not leave out one man from amongst our people for he is our brother even though he is a lowly person. Did not Bakiumbe break up Manda for this reason, choosing to leave his property and his children without leaving even his name to the end of the world. (1)

Now this is the story of Bakiumbe and what he did. After having heard about the council he took his canoe and went over to Pate and demanded private audience of the Sultan. Then he said to him, ‘I want to give you the country of Manda without trouble or war and with but little expense. Will you follow my advice ?’ The Sultan said to him, ‘I will follow it; tell me what it is.’ Bakiumbe said, ‘Whenever I ask for ambergris I want you to give me the amount I ask for. About the third or fourth time I will give you the town of Manda.’

The Sultan of Pate said to him, I have agreed, but you, for what reason do you desire to break up your country in which are your children and your property? Tell me your reason that I may recognize for myself whether it be true or false.

Bakiumbe related to the Sultan the whole story of how he had been treated by the elders of Manda. At that time the Sultan knew truly that he would do as he said, for he was seized with anger, and if a man is seized with anger he loses all wisdom.

 

1 Meaning that he did not leave his name through his descendants.

 

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So he consented and gave him the ambergris that he required.

Bakiumbe set out and when he arrived at Manda it was late at night. He knocked at the gate, but the officer would not open it; because of the war with Pate all the gates of the city were closed at night. So he slept there outside, and the ambergris he put in his fish basket and poured water over it.

In the morning he was permitted to enter and he went to the Sultan of Manda and gave him the ambergris.

The Sultan said, “Why did you leave the ambergris to get wet and why did you put it in your fish basket?"

Bakiumbe said, "I came last night and when I knocked at the gate your officer would not open it for me. This is my reason, for I slept on the shore and did not get a receptacle to put it in, so I poured out my fish and put this ambergris in my fish basket."

So the Sultan said to him, “If you get any more bring it to me and I will treat you very well."

Bakiumbe said, "I want permission to enter the gates at what so ever time. I shall come and you must tell your door-keeper to open to me. So if I get any at any time I will it to you, for you are my master and my Sultan, and at

 

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whatever you give me I will rejoice exceedingly.” (1)

So the Sultan agreed, and Bakiumbe was glad in his heart, saying, "I have already attained my desires."

Then he remained for the space of one month and again he brought him ambergris bigger than the first. After that he remained more than a month and brought him some again.

Then he waited more than three months and again he brought him a piece.

After this he went to the Sultan of Pate and said to him, "Make ready—the work is finished. Tomorrow night at two o’clock I will come to fetch you. Have soldiers ready, a few I shall take myself and many must follow behind me."

They arranged after this manner till, when night had come and two o'clock was passed, Bakiumbe went to the Sultan of Pate and found soldiers ready as he had desired.

He took them and came with them to Manda and coming to the gate he knocked. The officer of the watch thought that this was Bakiumbe coming according to his custom with ambergris for the Sultan.

He unfastened the gate, and Bakiumbe entering with the soldiers seized the guard and killed them and straightway went to the Sultan’s palace while other soldiers seized the gates of the city.

The Sultan, when he heard Bakiumbe’s voice, descended from upstairs and said to the door-keeper, "Open quickly, for this is Bakiumbe,"” and his heart was exceeding glad.

 

1 Ambergris has always been royal property wherever found.

 

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When the door was opened Bakiumbe entered together with the Pate soldiers with naked swords held ready. When the Sultan saw the swords he wanted to run away, but there was no way in which he might run.

The soldiers struck him and killed him together with those of his people who were there in the house. The people of the town heard shouts so they came to the house of the ruler of the city. When they came, they met the people of Pate who had already seized the house.

Other people went to the gates, but the Pate men had already seized them.

So when dawn came, the townspeople had made no plan for assembling together or fighting because wherever they went they found Pate men already in possession. Thus it was that Pate conquered the country of Manda in one day, and when it dawned they seized as prisoners both the men and women, and all their property, silver and gold.

Now the Manda people had many gold ornaments, for which reason they were called "Wavaa ng’andu" (1) (the wearers of gold).

So Pate obtained much wealth, and they took both property and prisoners back with them to their city.” Half of the Pate troops went on to Taka and broke into the city. (2)

The people of Kitao, when they heard that both Manda and Taka had fallen, sent their elders to Pate to sue for peace.

The ruler of Kitao was a woman called Mwana Inali. When she heard

 

1 Old Swahili.

2 Another story relates that Bakiumbe, the fisherman, came to the Sultan of Pate for a reward. The Sultan said that he was too clever to be allowed to live, for he might one day betray Pate as he had betrayed Manda, so he was executed.

 

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that her elders, fearing war, had gone off to sue for peace with Pate, she said, "It will not do for me to live any longer. There is no cause that I should await the arrival of the Pate people, for they will kill me or make me captive, and treat me with every kind of abasement. Therefore it is better to die first."

So she arose and put on her gold ornaments, pearl buttons and ancient jewellery, and went out behind Cape Kitao, and threw herself into the sea.

When the people heard that their Queen was going down to the shore, they followed after her, but did not see her again; even a sign of her clothes or body they saw not.

This is the story of Kitao, Take, and Manda, and the people of Pate took prisoners of the two countries Manda and Taka, but the people of Kitao got peace because they made allegiance of Pate before the war reached their country.(1)

So they were left in their country, but everyone who cultivated land had to pay three loads of produce for every gang of slaves.

 

1 Taka may have had its old power broken at this time, but, unlike Manda, it was still inhabited, and not finally abandoned till a much later date. There were people living at Taka as late as 1094 Hejra [1682-3]. Kitao was probably abandoned before this. Another story of the breaking up of Kitao attributed to the same date is that on a Friday a chicken came rushing into the congregational mosque at Kitao. A man rushed in after it and tried to seize it, saying that it was his. Another man rushed up and said it was his. They began fighting about it, and others joined in. It being a Friday, all the inhabitants of the town were coming to the mosque, so finally nearly everybody in the town was engaged in the fight.

After this the conflicting parties would not be reconciled, and so they split up; some went to Amu, some to Pate, and some to Ngoji (Bukini). Those that went to Amu and Pate afterwards came to Shela. Mwana Inali, the Queen of Kitao (said in above story to have drowned herself), went to Pate, and the Sultan of that place honoured her greatly, and gave her a house to live in. The ruins of this house are still pointed out at Pate, and called Nyumba ya Kitao (the house of Kitao).

Another legend says that Taka was not broken up by Pate, but that the Pate troops came to attack it and could not find it, as it had been made invisible by the Waanachuoni (Seers or Soothsayers).

 

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Since that time the Sultan of the Nabahans taxed their subjects a kikanda (about 180 Ibs.) for every gang of slaves, (1) and who first made this tax was Sultan Omar.

Now the captives of Manda were taken to Pate and put on the east side of the city, and a wall was built round making it one with the city of Pate.

This quarter was called "Weng’andu”(2) by reason of those people, “the wearers of gold," being there.

Now at the time of the building of the wall of this quarter the captives, both men and women, were made to carry the stones.

There was one woman of the people of Manda who refused to carry stones, so a soldier beat her and that woman wept.

There was a second Manda woman there and she said to her, "Friend, do not weep," and then she said the following couplet: -

 

"Tuli kwetu Manda twali tukitenda

Yeo tukitendwa twakataa kwani?

Hutupa ukuta wathipetapeta

Kutwa ni kuteta hatuna amani."

 

(When we were at our home in Manda it was we who were doing—

today if we are done to, why should we refuse?

They give us the wall to build winding hither and thither;

all day it is quarrelling — we get no respite.)

 

So the people of Manda lived in the quarter of Weng’andu; this is the account of them till at last they were sent to Shela by Sultan Abubakr; its

 

1 A curious word is used here in the original, "cha," meaning ‘a group of slaves more than two in number’.

2 The ruins of the Weng’andu quarter are still pointed out in the ruined city of Pate.

 

P56

history will be related further on.

So Sultan Omar reigned on the coast, it was he who was the Sultan to conquer Manda, Taka, Kitao, and Emezi on the mainland and Tukutu. After this he fought Mea, Kiongwe, and Komwana and seven towns between Komwana and Shaka.(1)

The Sultan of these latter towns was called Liongo, (2) and he subdued the country from Mpokomoni to Malindi, and this district was called Ozi.

Now Sultan Omar fought with these towns for many days, and when he perceived the difficulty of taking them, he went to Magogoni, the harbour of Tukutu, and stayed there.

Every hour he sent out an expedition and he remained at Magogoni fifteen years till he got a son called Ahmad.

It was this son who finally overcame the towns of Ozi, and then sent the news to his father. So his father returned to Pate and then he went and fought Malindi.

When he and his troops reached Malindi there was a God-fearing man who invoked Allah against them so that the Pate soldiers became sick.

So they returned to Pate and Omar said to his son, "Now rest till we have seen about the sickness."

 

1 This town is supposed to have been founded by Persians, and is called after Persian Shah.

2 The famous Liongo, poet and bowman, of whom many tales are told. I have in my possession copies of some of his poems. [Editor's note: Already in Stigand’s time a story of Liongo’s as well as poetry ascribed to him were available in print. See Edward Steere, Swahili Tales, as Told by Natives of Zanzibar (London: Bell and Daldy, 1870). More poems are still to be found in manuscript collections, including that of the University Library, Dar es Salaam. For innovative interpretations of Liongo’s historicity the reader is referred to works by James de Vere Allen and V.M. Misiugin, among others.]

 

p57

So they rested, and after that the people of Malindi came to offer allegiance to the Sultan of Pate, and so they remained seven years without war.

Afterwards Sultan Omar collected many troops and made many ameers, and passed over to the mainland to go and fight against the towns there.

They passed on to Malindi and traversed the country in peace and then came to Mombasa.

The Mombasa people hid themselves in the interior and that is the origin of the place being called Mvita, (1) from “mfita" (one who hides).

Afterwards this place prospered exceedingly and became a very important place at the time the Portuguese came, for many tribes lived there.

Then the Pate people passed on overland and fought the whole of the Mrima coast from Wasini and Pangani to Saadani, Tanga, Kilwa, and Kilwa Island and the Mgao coast. They passed on, and in every place they took they put a chief.

That was the origin of the Jumbes of the Mrima coast, so called because they were slaves of the Yumbe (2) (the Sultan of Pate’s palace).

So the Pate troops proceeded till they reached Kirimba; these were the ends of the Nabahan kingdom, Mukadisho and Kirimba, so Sultan Omar conquered the whole of the Swahili coast except only Zanzibar he did not get because at this time this town had no fame.

In the year seven hundred and ninety-five [1392-3. Editor’s note: this date varies from that given in other versions.] Sultan Omar died and his son

 

1 Mvita is the native name for Mombasa.

2 A small chief is even now called Jumbe on the Mrima coast. The ruins of the Yumbe are still to be seen at Pate.

 

P58

Muhammad bin Omar (Fumomadi the Great) reigned.

The sons left by Sultan Omar were this Muhammad and that Ahmad, who had been a soldier, and Abubakr. Sultan Muhammad lived in the country of Pate and made it prosper, making plantations and building vessels called Gharabs which are now called Jahazis.(1)

Now in those days Arab and Indian vessels used to come to Pate harbour.

Sultan Omar had a nephew who was very fond of travelling. On his first journey he set out for India, but was completely lost and his ship sank, and he himself, after meeting with great hardships and difficulties and losing everything, returned home. He remained at home for a year, but the next year he wished to travel abroad again. His mother said, "Ah, my son, do not travel again. You have been greatly afflicted, why do you want to travel? Money to spend is here; if you want anything or any matter, tell me.”

He said to her, "I want neither thing nor matter. My soul longs to travel, and if I do not get leave from you, my father and my mother, I will travel away as best I can."

As they were unable to stop him they made up a fleet of seven ships for him, and he voyaged away and wrecked all his ships. He returned alone, and he had nothing and no one with him.

His father and mother said to him, “Now you will not be able to travel any more." So that youth stopped at home a year, and by the second year he had no more desire to travel by reason of the trials through which he had

 

1 Gharab (from Arabic for ‘raven’) is a craft which appears in the Persian Gulf. Jahazi from the Hindustani for a ship = Jahaz. [Editor’s note: From the Arabic jahaza ‘outfit’, Jihaz ‘apparatus’ .]

 

P59

passed.

Till one day he went to the bathroom at night and saw a cockroach climbing the wall. When it had climbed a little it slipped down, then it rose up again, and again it slipped down. But it rose a third time and climbed up till it reached the top and passed out of sight.

That youth said, "I have been outdone by that cockroach, for it fell twice and tried a third time. I was not able to try a third time. God has sent it to teach me a lesson. I must set forth again."

In the morning he said to his parents, “I must set out again, and this time I want much wealth with me. If you do not give me a fleet according to my wishes you will not see me again."

His parents and relations and friends all besought him not to travel again, but he did not agree. When his parents found that they were unable to prevent him, they gave him a fleet according to his wishes.

So he set out and arrived in India where he traded and made much profit. During the return they were lost at sea for many days till from the vessel on board of which he was they saw an island near them.

So they disembarked as they were in need of water, and that youth wished to rest from the discomforts he had suffered. He lay under a tree and told his servants to cook his food and bring it him there.

They sat down to cook, and when the fire blazed up they saw the sand of that place melt and run away. When it had gone a little from the fire it cooled in separate little pieces.

The cooks told this to their master and he came to look at it and recognized what it was. However, he only said, "Cook food quickly," till after he had finished eating he called the captain and sailors and said to them, “Do

 

P60

you recognize here that our home is near?" They said, "We do not know this place, we have now come to this island for the first time, nor have we before even heard tell of it."

He answered, "} have made a plan; will you follow it?” They said to him, “Whatever you desire, that will we do." So he said, “I want to unload our food and everything we have on board leaving food and water for fifteen days only. Whatever is over and above this let us leave behind and let us load up our ship with this sand till she can carry no more, for this sand is silver ore, and we cannot help getting from it a return greater than from these other things we are carrying."

So they took his advice and unloaded all their goods and filled up with sand for three days till the ship could carry no more. They sailed away, and on the third day they met a bad storm and lost all hope of escape. The sailors jettisoned the sand till, when the boat was half empty, that youth stopped them, saying, "Have patience first."

Afterwards they got a safe and favourable wind and arrived home. When they arrived they found that those other vessels of his had arrived first, and on shore was a mourning for him.

He said to the captain and sailors, “I want you to hide the news about this sand till I know truly if it be silver ore, for if it is not so people will think me a fool, throwing away wheat and food and loading sand." They said to him, "Very good."

So the youth landed with great joy and his parents were overjoyed to see him.

He rested for three days, and then at dead of night he brought some of that sand and put it in a store in his house.

 

P61

Then he called skilled workmen and showed them a little, and when they made an ornament out of it they found that it was very pure silver.

Now it was at this time that the Portuguese arrived in Pate, and first they came in friendship.

Afterwards he showed the ore to the Portuguese and they asked him where he got it. He told them the story from first to last because of his joy when he knew that it was real ore.

Those Portuguese wanted him to show them the spot, and they went together with the captain and searched for six months and returned again without finding it.

When he arrived back in Pate he found that Sultan Muhammad had died, and that his father Abubakr was now Sultan. The name of that youth was Mwana Mkuu.

So Sultan Abubakr reigned in the year 825.

 

(1421-2. Editor’s note: this date differs from that given in other versions. The date is obviously incompatible with the chronology of the Portuguese presence on the coast.].

 

The Portuguese came and they stayed at Pate and Dondo and they were in friendship with Sultan Abu Bakari (Swahili for "Abubakr"). Their influence grew great in the town of Pate, and they taught people how to excavate wells in the rocks by means of gunpowder.

The Portuguese built houses on the rock and made an underground passage to Pongwa rock. (1)

For a long time they lived together in friendship and traded with goods

 

1 The Pate people believe that this underground way still exists, but they have been unable to find its entrance.

 

I only give the text up to the arrival of the Portuguese (the end of the Middle Ages); the rest can be found easily on the internet.

 

Former interpretations of the Pate Chronicle

 

The interpretation of the Pate Chronicle written down in the early 20^th century has always been nearly impossible. A big change came when new archaeological research showed the town was way older then originally thought. Stéphane Pradines in 2004 is the first author to be able find a link with archaeological results.

 

Taken from: The Medieval History of the Coast of Tanganyika by G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville; 1962.

 

There are, however, signs of decline and disintegration (in Kilwa). There are quarrels within the royal family. A sulṭan is forcibly deposed after only twenty days rule, and another is driven into exile. But these events are probably results of exterior political events beyond the control of the sulṭans, and which they were powerless to resist. They were the victims, it appears, of the sudden rise to power of the sulṭans of Pate who, most energetically, started to carve out an empire for themselves in the fourth decade of the 14th century. The evidence for this is most exiguous and hard to interpret, especially since the versions of the Chronicle of Pate are particularly weak in their dating of events. It seems that in 1339, or thereabouts — perhaps earlier – invaders came down the coast from Pate meeting with little or no resistance. They failed to consolidate their conquests, which stretched beyond Kilwa, and so, about 1392, invaded again, with more permanent results. If they did not succeed in overturning the monarchy of Kilwa, they weakened it, and in the event two of the most important offices in the state, that of Qadi and of the principal Amir, were given to settlers from Malindi, a petty sulṭanate under the suzerainty of Pate. Accompanying the political decline, as might be expected, was one of manual skill: when, somewhat after 1421, money was found to repair the mosque, there were no longer skilled masons capable of repairing it. It is not surprising that a worsening of political fortune should bring about a reduction of material prosperity, as well as of civilisation and skill. The major part of the evidence is the History of Pate, an island town similar to Kilwa Kisiwani in the Bajun group of islands, off the modern Kenya. The various versions published tell substantially the same story. In A. H. 601, A. D. 1204, the Nabhan Sultans of Muscat were expelled; they fled to Pate with many men and ships and much wealth. …………… At this time Pate was of little importance, and Sulaiman al - Nabhan had little difficulty in persuading Ishaq, Chief of Pate, to give him his daughter in marriage, and to allow his followers to settle. Not unnaturally, there were some initial difficulties, but by the time Sultan Muhammad ibn Ahmad died, c. 1339, the Nabhan power was thoroughly consolidated and ready for expansion. It is evident too that it was thoroughly Africanised, for he was known as Bwana Fumomadi  ……………… The Pate history concludes its notice of the reign of Muhammad ibn Ahmad with an account of a successful campaign in which he subdued all the towns from Pate northwards as far as Mogadishu, where he installed a Governor. ……………. On his death, in Stigand's version, the history continues: His son Omar (Fumomari) reigned. It was he who fought the towns of the coast, Manda, Uthiwa, Komwana, Malindi and the Mrima and Kilwa until he came to Kirimba (Quirimba islands in Mozambique).  Whether or not all these places were conquered in the year 1339, or whether the conquest was spread over several years is of no great matter. Da'ud ibn Sulaiman III reigned at Kilwa until 1356, and there is a sufficient margin for it to be reasonable to place the event in his reign. ……………………… As further evidence Freeman-Grenville mentions that one of the ruined mosques on Songo Mnara is called the Nabahani-Mosque.

 

Note: His interpretation of the Chronicle of Pate is not accepted by more recent authors.

 

Taken from: A New Look at the History of Pate by Neville Chittick 1969

 

From the (archaeological) evidence it is deduced that Pate was non-existent, or of negligible size before about 1300; that it was gradually growing in importance in the fifteenth century (or at least the latter part) and sixteenth century, though it was by no means a place of the first rank in 1500; and that it did not reach its greatest period of prosperity until the seventeenth century. …………………………………

……………………… What, now, of the Pate Chronicle? The traditions therein have survived, not because Pate was the earliest town of this region, but because (with the exception of the resurgent Lamu of the nineteenth century) it was the latest. At best, we must regard the early part of the Chronicle as an accretion of traditions and myths (with some truth embodied in their fairy-tale charm), set towards justifying the position of the Nabahani and glorifying their exploits, with a whole dynasty of Batawi submerged within it.

 

Taken from: LAMU CASE STUDY OF THE SWAHILI TOWN by Usam Isa Ghaidan 1974

 

Pate was a city state of importance during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The town's own history, the Pate Chronicle, claims that it was a place of consequence as early as the fourteenth century when the Nabahanis are supposed to have established their sultanate there (1). During this time the town is supposed to have commanded the large stretch of the coast between the Benadir in the north and Songo Mnara in the south. An examination by H.N.Chittick of the chronicle in the light of archaeological and external historical evidence however, shows that Pate was of little importance before the sixteenth century (2). In this study the establishment of the Nabahani dynasty at Pate is dated to the seventeenth century.

 

(1) The Nabahani (Arabic Nabhani) is a clan of an Arab tribe that ruled Oman for two and a half centuries until the beginning of the fifteenth century.

(2) Chittick, H.N. (1969), passim. 'A new look at the history of Pate', Journal of African History. Vol.X, N2 3, 1969.

 

Taken from: Swahili origins: Swahili culture and the Shungwaya phenomenon; Allen, James de Vere 1993

 

Guillain, for instance, indicated that the Nabahani dynasty first came to the throne in Pate in the early eighteenth century and not, as implied in the Pate Chronicle, five centuries earlier. It is quite likely that the Chronicle, itself essentially a Nabahani family document, included a story of the first Nabahani to reach Pate marrying the king's daughter and inheriting the kingdom solely in order to absorb all earlier recorded rulers into the Nabahani line and validate Nabahani claims 'always' to have ruled Pate.

 

Taken from: Archaeological Investigations at Pate by Thomas Wilson 1997

 

………… twelve centuries ago. At that time, the village of Pate probably was centred somewhere in the arc from north to south-east of the present Bwana Bakari Mosque. The sequence of deposits at the Bwana Bakari Mosque location indicates the proximity of structures with a mud component in the tenth century, supplanted by structures of coral by the twelfth century. From this nucleus, Pate expanded in all directions from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. Occupation reached the area of the Msikiti wa Nuru in east- central Pate by the late-thirteenth or fourteenth century (Test Pit 1) and soon thereafter in the far east in the vicinity of Chittick's Trench VI. Evidence from his Trench VII suggests approximately contemporaneous expansion towards the south, and perhaps slightly later to the west (Trench V) and later again towards the town wall in the north-west (Trenches I-IV).

 

Taken from: NAVIGATING THE EARLY MODERN WORLD; Swahili polities and the continental– oceanic interface by Jeremy Prestholdt 2018

 

The Nabahani of Pate, patrilineal descendants of Omani immigrants who arrived in East Africa as early as the fifteenth century, drew on their commercial success and social capital to gain control of the sultanate in the late seventeenth century. Under Nabahani leadership, Pateans extended their influence beyond the Lamu Archipelago as far as the central Swahili coast (Tolmacheva 1993; Pouwels 2000; Vernet 2005).

 

Taken from : Fortifications et urbanisation en Afrique orientale Stéphane Pradines 2004

 

P47-48

The political situation on the coast changed at the beginning of the 15th century. The city of Pate fought and took the cities of Shanga and Siyu. The city of Faza did not want to give up its independence and allied itself with the Bajun of Rasini. They entered through a breach in the wall and seized a district of the city of Pate. This victory was short-lived. The Sultan of Pate subdued the town and continued to expand his territories to the North. The city-state conquered Kiunga, Tula, Kismayu, Barawa, Merka and Mogadishu (We have doubts about the conquest of Mogadishu which was impregnable during the Portuguese era). Pate first took territories in the northern zone, less contested by other Swahili emporiums. Sultan Fumomari of Pate then attacked Manda and Malindi. The city of Manda refuses to be a vassal and pay a ransom. Despite its fortifications, Manda is taken because of a traitor who manages to open the city gates ………………… According to the Chronicles of Pate, the entire coast, except Zanzibar, was conquered. Kilwa and the Kerimba islands of Mozambique also fell into the hands of Pate. This is of course an exaggeration of the city's military victories in order to glorify the power of the sultan. On the other hand, the results of the Gedi excavations have shown that the Malindi region was certainly under the control of Pate. This influence must have stopped at Kilifi Creek, the northern limit of Mombasa's territory (1). These military conquests represent an attempt at nationalization on the part of the city of Pate, but the political processes triggered during the 15th century will be stopped dead by the arrival of the Portuguese.

 

(1) The conquests of the city of Pate have been questioned by historians who have studied the Chronicles, but our research in Gedi and our comparisons with Shanga or Manda show that this is a historical reality for certain parts of the coast.