Early Kenya - The Kenya Coast
The coast of East Africa was mentioned in Greek accounts written in the first and second centuries AD, listing items of trade from the region that included ivory, tortoiseshell, and spices. Although archaeological evidence of sites dating from before the thirteenth century is lacking, references in medieval Arab documents indicate that Muslim traders had set up an outpost on Pate Island in the Lamu Archipelago some 500 years earlier and that other settlements founded along the coast by Arab and Persian (Shirazi) merchants probably date from the tenth and eleventh centuries. These towns, stretching from the Benadir Coast in Somalia to Sofala in Mozambique, became links in an extensive commercial network connecting East Africa with Southwest Asia and the Indies. Gold brought to the coast from the fields around Great Zimbabwe was shipped from Kilwa in present-day Tanzania, the most important of the Arab colonies. Those farther up the coast at Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu, and Pate in present-day Kenya exported slaves and ivory that had been exchanged by Africans from the interior for salt, cloth, beads, and metal goods.
A trading expedition from China is recorded as having reached Malindi about 1417. Zheng He’s first, second and third voyages focused on Southeast Asia, and the end goal was reaching Guli in South Asia. In the fourth and fifth voyages, the end point was moved westward to Hormuz in West Asia. In the sixth and seventh voyages, the destination was pushed to Malindi, Kenya in East Africa.
After Zheng He’s four trips to the western oceans, the Ming Dynasty’s influence in Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia and even Eastern Africa was on the rise. Many countries sent their envoys to China. In early 1417, envoys from 18 countries, including Calicut, Java, Champa, Ceylon, Brava, Aden, Sumatra, Malindi, Ra’s, Hormuz, Cochin, Indonesia, Singosari, and Pahang, along with envoys from the Palembang Pacification Commission, bid their goodbyes to Emperor Yongle. Emperor Yongle dispatched Zheng He to escort the envoys home and to present the kings of these countries with imperial edicts from the Ming Government. Therefore, Zheng He went on his fifth voyage to the western oceans in May of 1417, according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
Although the sultan of Kilwa exercised a loose hegemony over them, the larger Arab towns gradually developed as autonomous sultanates, competing fiercely for a larger share of the region's commerce. The fortunes of the sultanates rose and fell but, by the end of the fifteenth century, Malindi had established itself as the most prosperous trading center on the Kenyan coast, surpassing its rival, Mombasa.
Migration of Arab families to East Africa continued, particularly from the Hadramaut in southern Arabia. Over time a distinctive Islamic culture resulted in the coastal region from intermarriage between indigenous Bantu-speaking Africans and Arab settlers. Physical and cultural integration were accompanied by the development of the Swahili (from the Arabic for "coastal") language, which came to serve as the lingua franca of the East African littoral as well as the mother tongue of the mixed population
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