Everything about Zanj totally explained
Zanj (
Arabic and
Persian زنج, "Land of the Blacks") was a name used by
medieval Arab geographers to refer to a portion of the
East African coast. The geographers divided the coast into several regions and Zanj (also transliterated as
Zenj or
Zinj) covered the coast from roughly
Mogadishu in the north to
Pemba Island in the south. (To the north of Zanj lay the Somali coast, termed the Land of
Berber, extending as far south as
Webi Sebeli; to the south lay the Land of
Sofala the northern limit of which may have been
Pangani, opposite Pemba Island; beyond Sofala was the obscure realm of
Waq-Waq. It was from Zanj that most of the Arab trade with East Africa was conducted.
History of the Zanj
Arab writers described the inhabitants of Zanj (the "Zanji") as Black, primarily East African. The inhabitants of East Africa (zanj) were considered by medieval Arabic writers to be the least advanced of the black African regions long known to them (in comparison in particular with
Nubia nuba in modern Sudan and southern Egypt, and Ethiopia
ħabaš [=Abyssinia], now divided into Ethiopia and Eritrea). One important trade commodity from this region was Zanji
slaves, who were captured and taken to the
Middle East and
India for sale; East Africa served as a source of slaves for the eastern Middle East for many centuries. The ninth century revolt of the Zanj against the Arab slavers was termed the
Zanj Revolt.
Over the centuries, Arab, Persian and Indian traders settled along the Zanj coast and intermarried with the local population, which lead to the development of a
Swahili culture and
language which incorporated these along with
Bantu elements. Prominent settlements of the Zanj coast included the legendary
Shungwaya (
Bur Gao), as well as
Malindi,
Gedi, and
Mombasa. By the late medieval period the area included at least 37 substantial Swahili trading towns, many of them quite wealthy. However, these communities never consolidated into a single political entity (the "Zanj Empire" being a late nineteenth century fiction).
The term "Zanj" apparently fell out of use in the tenth century, but after 1861, when the area controlled by the Sultan of
Zanzibar was forced by the
British to split with the parent country of
Oman, it was often referred to as Zanj.
Zanj Revolt
See
Zanj Revolt
The Zanj Revolt refers to a series of uprisings which took place in Basara (also known as Basra) in modern day Iraq.
Conditions for the Zanj
The Zanj taken as slaves to the Middle East were often used in hard agricultural and related outdoor labor. In particular, it appears slaves from the Zanj region were used in labor-intensive plantation crops like
sugarcane in the lower Mesopotamia of basin, in the south of modern Iraq, a relatively unusual development in the Islamic world that generally used slave labor in household settings and as slave soldiers. Harsh circumstances apparently motivated, between the seventh and ninth centuries, three rebellions, the largest of which occurred between 868 and 883.
Applications of the Name:
- Although many scholars have argued that "the Zanj" were slaves from East Africa since the term Zanj describes the East African coast. There were large numbers of people imported from East Africa via Somali and Ethiopian ports from interior as far as Southern Sudan. The slaves were mainly used to work on the massive irrigation projects of the area. Bedouins, Arab mercenaries, and others from the region joined ˤAlī's fight against the central government.
- The name "Zanj" may have associations with the ancient name for the same region, Azania. (During the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, nationalists often referred to South Africa as "Azania", intending to eventually rename the country, but in the event this name was less favoured than simple retention of the previous name, South Africa, after the abolition of apartheid.)
- The name "Zanj" is also connected with the name of the island of Zanzibar.
- "Zanj" has also been used to refer to East Africa in general, and the Sea of Zanj was a name for that part of the Indian Ocean adjacent to East Africa. It included several islands, including Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion.
- In the twentieth century, the name supplied the world with Zinjanthropus boisei (nicknamed "Zinj"), a famous hominin fossil, now more properly termed Paranthropus boisei.
Popular culture references
In Michael Crichton's 1980 novel Congo (and the 1995 film of the same name), the legendary lost "City of Zinj", where killer gorillas guard diamond fields, is rediscovered. This fictional "Zinj", however, is in the center of the African continent, rather than on the coast.Further Information
Get more info on 'Zanj'.
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