
Zanj (, adj. , ''Zanjī''; from )
is a term used by medieval
Muslim geographers to refer to both a certain portion of
Southeast Africa (primarily the
Swahili Coast
The Swahili coast () is a coastal area of East Africa, bordered by the Indian Ocean and inhabited by the Swahili people. It includes Sofala (located in Mozambique); Mombasa, Gede, Kenya, Gede, Pate Island, Lamu, and Malindi (in Kenya); and Dar es ...
) and to its
Bantu inhabitants.
It has also been used to refer to Africans collectively by Arab sources. This word is also the origin of the place-names
Zanzibar
Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...
("coast of the Zanji") and the
Sea of Zanj.
The
latinization Zingium serves as an archaic name for the coastal area in modern
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
and
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
in southern
East Africa
East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...
. The architecture of these commercial urban settlements is now a subject of study for
urban planning
Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...
.
For centuries the coastal settlements were a source of ivory, gold, and
slaves
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
, from sections of the conquered hinterland, to the
Indian Ocean world.
Etymology
''Zanj'' or ''Zang'' in Persian means the "country of the blacks". Other transliterations include ''Zenj'', ''Zinj'', and ''Zang''.
Anthony Christie argued that the word ''zanj'' or ''zang'' may not be Arabic in origin: a Chinese form (僧祇 ''sēngqí'') is recorded as early as 607 AD. Christie argued that the word is South East Asian in origin.
The
Javanese word ' means African people, specifically the people of Zanzibar.
It is known that the
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
n
Austronesian peoples
The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Southeast Asia, parts of mainland Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melan ...
reached Madagascar by ca. 50–500 CE.
As for their route, one possibility is that the Indonesian Austronesians came directly across the Indian Ocean from
Java
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
to
Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
. It is likely that they went through the
Maldives
The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in South Asia located in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, abou ...
, where evidence of old Indonesian boat design and fishing technology persists until the present.
Division of East Africa's coast
Geographers historically divided the eastern coast of Africa at large into several regions based on each region's respective inhabitants. Arab and
Chinese sources referred to the general area that was located to the south of the three regions of
Misr (
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
),
Al-Habasha (
Abyssinia) and
Barbara (
Somalia
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...
), as ''Zanj''.
Zanj was situated in the
Southeast Africa vicinity and was inhabited by
Bantu-speaking peoples called the ''Zanj''.
The core area of Zanj occupation stretched from the territory south of present-day
Ras Kamboni to
Pemba Island in
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
. South of Pemba lay
Sofala in modern
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...
, the northern boundary of which may have been
Pangani
Pangani (''Mji wa Pangani'', in Swahili language, Swahili) is a historic town and capital of Pangani District in the Tanga Region of Tanzania. The town lies south of the city of Tanga, Tanzania, Tanga, at the mouth of the Pangani River in whic ...
. Beyond Sofala was the obscure realm of
Waq-Waq, also in Mozambique. The 10th-century Arab historian and geographer
Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī describes Sofala as the furthest limit of Zanj settlement, and mentions its king's title as ''Mfalme'', a Bantu word.
Zanj territory
History
The Zanj traded with Persians, Arabs, and
Indians, but according to some sources, only locally, since they possessed no ocean-going ships.
The settlements in Zanzibar identified them as economically part of the cosmopolitan culture of the Indian Ocean Basin with trade links as far as
Arabia
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
Geographically, the ...
, Persia, and as far east as India and China.
The main source of Zanj slaves was likely the frontier between Eastern Cushitic language speakers and Bantu language speakers, where warlike Somali pastoralists were expanding southwards and subjecting the scattered colonies of Bantu agriculturalists.
Since Arab and Persian identity is patrilineal, elite
Swahili claimed, often correctly, prestigious Persian genealogy.
Modern conceptions of cultural fusion or Persian origins developed from the tendency of wealthy Swahili to claim Persian patrilineal origins (which has been supported by DNA studies) and the disproportionate 19th-century importation of Omani elements to Zanzibari and Swahili society. Standard
Swahili is the Zanzibari dialect and thus includes far more Arabic loanwords than the other, older Swahili dialects.
Prominent settlements of the Zanj coast included
Kilwa,
Kunduchi,
Mbuamaji,
Tongoni,
Kimbiji,
Kaole,
Malindi
Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Sabaki River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi was 119,859 as of the 2019 census. It is the largest urban centr ...
,
Gedi, and
Mombasa
Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...
. By the late medieval period, the area included at least 37 substantial Swahili trading towns, many of them quite wealthy.
The urban ruling and commercial classes of these Swahili settlements included male Arab, Persian, and Indian immigrants. However, Islamic culture prized familial origins from Persia or Arabia; consequently claims of Middle Eastern descent may be untrustworthy for modern genealogical research.
The richest and most powerful slave trader in all of recorded history is
Tippu Tip, a man born in Zanzibar with mixed Bantu and Omani ancestry.

The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by slave and ivory traders to all the countries bordering the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...
in the
Indian Ocean slave trade.
The
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...
and
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...
caliph
A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...
s recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as 696 AD, we learn of slave revolts of the Zanj in Iraq (see
below). Ancient Chinese texts also mention ambassadors from Java presenting the Chinese emperor with two ''Seng Chi'' (Zanji) slaves as gifts, and ''Seng Chi'' slaves reaching China from the
Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
kingdom of
Sri Vijaya in
Java
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
.
The sea off the south-eastern coast of Africa was known as the
Sea of Zanj, and included the
Mascarene islands and
Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
. During the anti-
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
struggle it was proposed that
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
should assume the name ''Azania'', to reflect ancient Zanj.
As of 2023, the
Lemba people still refer to the populations of neighboring tribes as "Zenj."
Ancient DNA analysis
A study by Brielle et al in 2023 completed ancient DNA analysis of several samples from the ruins of Zanzibar. Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis was completed for 80 individuals from 6 medieval and early modern (AD 1250–1800) coastal towns and an inland town after AD 1650 in order to determine the proportions of "African-like, Persian-like, and Indian-like" DNA sequences. More than half of the DNA of many of the individuals from coastal towns originated from primarily female ancestors from Africa, with a large proportion — sometimes more than half—of the DNA coming from Asian ancestors. The Asian ancestry includes components associated with Persia and India, with 80–90% of the Asian DNA originating from Persian men. Peoples of African and Asian (predominantly Persian) origins began to mix by about AD 1000.
Samples were taken from two boxes of human remains located the in
British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) in Nairobi, originally excavated in the 1950s and 1960s by Chittick.
After AD 1500, the sources of male Asian DNA became increasingly Arabian, consistent with increased interactions with southern Arabia. From medieval times until the modern day, subsequent interactions with different Asian and African people have changed the ancestry of the present-day people living on the Swahili coast compared to the medieval individuals whose DNA was sequenced.
Potentially dating from 1300-1600 AD (more precise radiocarbon dating techniques were unable to be completed in time for these samples), analysis was completed of the individuals'
mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...
(mtDNA),
autosomal DNA,
Y chromosome DNA, and X chromosome DNA. Analysis of mtDNA in the individual, demonstrating maternal ancestry patterns, showed a L* haplotype. The L* haplotype is predominantly found in present-day Sub-Saharan African populations. Y chromosome analysis, demonstrating paternal ancestry patterns, showed that the individual was carrying the J2 haplotype, a DNA pattern found in Southwest Asian or Persian individuals. X chromosomes, containing larger maternal influence, were compared with the 22 autosomal chromosomes, which contain equal maternal and paternal influence. X chromosomes contained more indicators of African ancestry compared to the autosomal DNA, further adding to evidence of African ancestry on the maternal side and Persian or Southeast Asian ancestry on the paternal side.
Contemporary descriptions
We know from Kwale-ware sites that starting in the Iron Age Bantu-speaking people were spreading into the area south of Ethiopia and Somalia and these people were referred to as Zanj and were being exported as slaves all along the Indian Ocean. Chinese sources from the 9th century make a clear distinction between "Somali (Barbar) pastoralists of Po-Pa-Li" and "savage blacks of Ma-Lin," which is probably to be identified with Malindi in Kenya.
A description of the Zanj is found in the following passage from ''Kitab al-Bad' wah-tarikh'', by the medieval Arab writer
al-Muqaddasī:
As for the Zanj, they are people of black color, flat noses, kinky hair, and little understanding or intelligence.
In 1331, the Arabic-speaking Berber scholar and explorer
Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...
visited the
Kilwa Sultanate in the Zanj.
Ibn Battuta recorded his visit to the city around 1331, and commented favorably on the generosity, humility, and religion of its ruler,
Sultan al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman. Ibn Battuta also describes how the sultan would go into the interior and raid the people taking slaves and other forms of wealth. He was also particularly impressed by the planning of the city and believed that it was the reason for Kilwa's success along the coast.
From this period, the construction of the
Palace of Husuni Kubwa and a significant extension to the
Great Mosque of Kilwa, which was made of
coral
Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...
stones, the largest mosque of its kind. Kilwa was an important and wealthy city for the trade of gold and ivory. Because of trade, some of the people who lived in Kilwa had a higher standard of living, but many others were poor. The wealthy enjoyed indoor plumbing in their stone homes and the poor lived in mud huts with thatched roofs.
Ibn Battuta characterized the enslaved Zanj people as "jet-black in color, and with scarification on their faces."
Kilwa is one of the most beautiful and well-constructed towns in the world. The whole of it is elegantly built. The roofs are built with mangrove pole. There is very much rain. The people are engaged in a holy war, for their country lies beside the pagan Zanj. Their chief qualities are devotion and piety: they follow the Shafi'i sect. When I arrived, the Sultan was Abu al-Muzaffar Hasan surnamed Abu al-Mawahib oosely translated, "The Giver of Gifts"... on account of his numerous charitable gifts. He frequently makes raids into the Zanj country eighboring mainland attacks them and carries off booty, of which he reserves a fifth, using it in the manner prescribed by the Koran ur'an
Zanj Rebellion
The
Zanj Rebellion was a series of uprisings that took place between 869 and 883 AD near the city of
Basra
Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...
in present-day
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
during
slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate. Many Zanj were taken as
slave soldiers, but many had earned their freedom and chose to stay in Iraq as free persons and make Iraq their home living amongst the
Marsh Arabs, however the term ''Zanj'' here is thought to refer to Africans in general due to the lack of a prolific slave trade on the
Swahili coast
The Swahili coast () is a coastal area of East Africa, bordered by the Indian Ocean and inhabited by the Swahili people. It includes Sofala (located in Mozambique); Mombasa, Gede, Kenya, Gede, Pate Island, Lamu, and Malindi (in Kenya); and Dar es ...
during this period and genetic studies.
See also
*
Saqaliba
References
External links
African Revolts
{{Authority control
Historical regions of Africa
Southeast Africa
Ethno-cultural designations
Exonyms
Zanzibar slave trade