Lamu old Town
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Maqrizi (1441) writes: Muhammad bin Ishaq bin Muhammad, judge of Lamu city. Namely one of the cities of the Zanj on the coast of the Sea of Berbera. It is located west (sic) of the city of Mogadishu for about twenty stages. Those who penetrated the south did not see a plant for several years, but the sand rose on some of their lands many fathoms. (The only other medieval writer to mention Lamu is Ibn Majid (1470).)
Today it is covered by a sand dune called Hedabu hill situated between Shela and present day Lamu. Strigand in his book: The Land of Zinj made a picture of the sand hills.
Pwani Mosque: taken from: Lamu Case Study of the Swahili Town. Thesis of Usam Isa Ghaidan Nairobi 1974.
Immediately north of the fort is the Pwani mosque which claimed the old foundation date of the equivalent of A.D. 1370. The name Pwani (Swahili = coast) is evidence that the town's edge used to run fifty meters west of its present position. When the fort was built it faced the sea and its bastions covered the harbor. (Centuries of dumping rubble in the channel made the town 50m wider). The mihrab of the jamia or Friday Mosque, in the northern part of the town, incorporates an inscription reading the equivalent of A.D. 1511 which may belong to the mihrab of the older Friday Mosque on the site of which the present one stands.
Pwani old Mosque.
According to the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) Curator in charge of Lamu Museums and World Heritage site, Mohamed Mwenje, there are at least three historical tombs that exist within Lamu Old Town.
First: of Mwenye Mui Zahid Mngumi (19th century) in Langoni area in Lamu Old Town. Zahid Ngumi is famously known for building the Lamu Fort between 1813 and 1821.
Tomb of Zahid Ngumi
Domed Tomb of Mwana Hadie Famau
Two: Of Mwana Hadie Famau between 300 to 400 years old, according to NMK. (Late 15th century according to: Swahili Funerary Architecture of the North Kenya Coast by Thomas H. Wilson.) It is located in Mkomani area, Lamu Old Town. Mwana Hadie Famau is referred to as the ‘Saint of Lamu’ due to the strong religious beliefs that she portrayed during her lifetime in Lamu. The sketch shows the north side of this Lamu domed tomb ( by Thomas H. Wilson)
Three: a national monument in Lamu Old Town is the 14th Century Fluted Pillar Tomb in Gadeni area within Lamu Old Town. Of which I did not find a picture only the following sketch showing the south facade of the Lamu fluted pillar tomb white pasted Persian bowls set in the pillar suggest a 14-15th century date, ( by Thomas H. Wilson).
In the Book: The Rough Guide to Kenya by Richard Trillo (2002) mentions on p566: After Lamu fort, the only other national monument in Lamu (though you may not believe it when you see it) is the fluted pillar tomb behind Riyadha Mosque. This may date back as far as the fourteenth century, and the occasional visit by a tourist might persuade the families in the neighborhood that it is worth preserving; it can only be a matter of time before it leans too far and collapses …..
The pillar tomb is now buried to the height of the top of the walls, but excavations there revealed two doubly recessed horizontal panels on the south wall (Wilson 1979b). Recessed on top of the wall are much-ruined step-ends, while on the east side rises the fluted pillar (Ghaidan 1976).
The 14th Century Fluted Pillar Tomb in Gadeni are.
Taken from: Swahili Monumental Architecture and Archaeology North of the Tana River. By Thomas H. Wilson.
The archaeology of Lamu: Chittick (1967) conducted minor archaeological excavations. Sherds from the northern excavation ranged from the thirteenth century or before to the eighteenth century. Another excavation south of the present town near Hidabu Hill, the supposed area of old Lamu, produced sherds that ranged from the thirteenth century or earlier to the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. Sherds could be found eroding out of the ground in both these areas in 1978, and the Lamu Museum has a surface collection of these. The northern area from the cemetery to the old butchery and jetty was particularly productive. There, we found, in addition to four pieces of sgrafiato pottery, which date from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, two pieces of Sasanian-Islamic ware, usually assumed characteristic of the ninth-tenth centuries. Of the later pieces, we recovered one sherd of black on yellow, numerous examples of celadon, Chinese blue and white porcelains and Islamic Monochromes.
In the Hidabu Hill area we collected several pieces of Sasanian-Islamic ware. These were found with a single black on yellow sherd of the fourteenth century. By 1980, the Lamu Museum had collected 14 pieces of Sasanian-Islamic pottery from the Lamu Ginners site. These sherds from three different locations provide a clue that incipient Lamu, while in no way as prosperous as ninth to twelfth century Manda, Shanga or Pate, might be about as old as the earliest known settlements on the coast. In the surface collections we also found two examples of white-glazed and color splashed (“tin-glazed”) Islamic ceramics, which date from the earliest phase at Shanga (Horton 1996:271-78), and simple and late green sgrafiato, from the end of the sgrafiato sequence, perhaps thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Taken from : Revoil G., Voyage chez les Bénadirs, les Somalis et les Bayouns en 1882 et 1883 ; Le Tour du Monde, 1888, tome 2, Paris, pp. 385-416.
P412-413
At daybreak, we entered the harbor of Lamu. From a distance Lamu resembles Zanzibar, and this is the first impression that this city produces on the traveler who knows the capital of Said Bargach.
The city extends along the shore, backed by a hill of sand. The old city appears to the south, half buried under the invading sands; one can distinguish ruined mosques and a few hovels. A large fort commands the city, and a battery is installed on the square where the livestock market is held and where a motley multitude of varied colors and languages bustles about: Indians, Arabs, Bayouns, Swahilis, Somalis meet there, for Lamu is the most important city on the coast after Moguedouchou. The governor, Soud ben Hamed, received us very cordially; We also visited Mr. Haggard, the English Consul, who had just been installed by Sir John Kirk, the English Consul-General in Zanzibar, and we went to stay with Sheikh Pate.
I immediately began my search for archaeological documents, and for this purpose I visited the battlefield of Cheila, south of Lamu. It was there that a terrible fight took place between the troops of the Sultan of Mombase, Ackmed Mohammed, and the Swahili and Arabs of Lamu, Fasa and Siyu united. I was able to collect twenty-two superb skulls of Ouanikas, Nyassa, Miaou and Swahili.
At Lamu I found, as at Fasa, the custom of leading the women, in the evening, in the middle of stretched veils, shouting "Chira! chira!." In Lamu we find many Chinese porcelains which were brought there a few years ago by two ships sent by Sultan Seyd Said. Many of these Chinese porcelains, of great value, were made after models from Saxony or Sevres.
End of the Middle-Ages View of Lamu by the Portfuguese.
Taken from: A general history and collection of voyages and travels, arranged in systematic order [microform]: forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time by Kerr, Robert, 1755-1813 Vol 6.
Taken from: Portuguese Asia, by Manuel de Faria y Sousa (1646).
(in 1507)
On being informed of what had happened at Oja the sheikh of Lamo, fifteen leagues (15*5.5km) distant, came to make his submission, and to render himself more acceptable offered to pay a tribute of 600 meticals (4.25gr) of gold yearly, about equal to as many ducats, and paid the first year in advance.
Taken from: Chronica d'el-rei D. Manuel by Góis, Damião de, 1502-1574; Pereira, Gabriel, d. 1911 (1909) Vol 4
This ended when he (Tristram da Cunha in 1506) went to the city of Lamo, fifteen leagues further, which was found in peace, and was made a tribute to the Kings of Portugal with six hundred mithqals (=4.25gr*600) of gold each year, of which the Sheikh soon paid the first, in silver Marcellos, Venetian currency.