The Mazrui Dynasty Serving Islam in East Africa
Main Article Content
Keywords
Islam, Arabia, Oman, East Africa, Mazrui Dynasty
Abstract
The Islamic presence in East Africa goes back to the Umayyad Caliphate, when the Omani al-Julandi family moved from Oman to East Africa for political and economic reasons. This movement was followed by other migrations from Southern Arabia. This led to the appearance of Muslim settlements and dynasties along the East African coastal region, which played a pivotal role in preaching Islam and introducing Arabian culture to the local communities. One of the Omani dynasties that established themselves along the East African coast was the Mazrui Dynasty, which ruled East Africa between 1741 and 1837. Though a number of studies have been conducted on the history of Islam in East Africa, the Swahili people, the Mazrui Dynasty and its descendants’ prominent scholars, there is still a further need to discuss the Mazrui Dynasty in particular and their efforts on spreading Islam in East Africa. This study demonstrates the contributions of the Mazrui Dynasty to the spreading of Islam in East Africa by shedding light on the origins of Mazrui family, why they immigrated to East Africa, how the Dynasty was established in Mombasa while also examining some of the most important aspects of the promotion Islam in East Africa. The study demonstrates the significant interactions between Islamic
civilization and East African societies throughout the era of the Mazrui Dynasty, which promoted the expansion of Islam and Arabian culture across the region.
References
Endnotes
1 Mahmud al-Huwayri, Sāḥil Sharq Ifrīqiyā (Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, 1986), 22; Jamal Zakariya, Dawlat al-Būsa‘īd fī ‘Ummān wa-Sharq Ifrīqiyā (al-‘Ayn: Markaz Zāyed li-al-Turāth wa-al-Tārīkh, 2000), 27.
2 Muhammad Saeed al-Beidh was a famous scholar and preacher in Kenyan coastal areas who wrote several books on Arabic, Islamic studies and Swahili history, using both Arabic and Swahili languages. He died in 2013. See his biography at https://www.islamicpluralism.org/2172/a-loss-of-one-of-the-great-sons-of-east-africa, accessed May 21, 2023.
3 Muhammad Saeed Al-Beidh, Ṭayy al-Marāḥil fī Tārīkh al-Sawāḥil (Lamu: Dār al-Mīrāth al-Nabawī, n.d.), 12.
4 Ibid., 12.
5 Ibn Batutah, Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah, Riḥlat Ibn Baṭūṭah (Beirut: Dāru Iḥyāʾ al-‘Ulūm al-‘Arabī, 1987), 257.
6 David B. Barrett et al., Kenya Churches Handbook (Kisumu: Evangelical Publishing House, 1973), 21.
7 Mark Cartwright, “The Portuguese in East Africa,” World History Encyclopedia, July 15, 2021, accessed March 20, 2023, https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1798/the-portuguese-in-east-africa/
8 The Ya‘rubi Dynasty was an imamate dynasty which existed in Oman between 1624 and 1741. It was established initially in Oman but extended later to the Arabian Gulf, parts of Persia and East Africa. See ‘Abdallah Ibn Muhammad al-Tai, Tārīkh ‘Ummān al-Siyāsī (Kuwait: Maktabat al-Rubai‘ān li-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘, 2008), 47.
9 Al-Amin Bin ‘Ali Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty of Mombasa, Translated and annotated by J. M. Ritchie (London: The British Academy, Oxford University Press, 1995), 29-30.
10 Ibid., 29-122.
11 The al-Busa‘idi Dynasty was an imamate state which established in Oman in 1741 after the fall of the Ya‘rubi Dynasty. It was originally established in Muscat, but extended later to parts of the Arabian Gulf and East Africa. See al-Tai, Tārīkh ‘Ummān, 87.
12 Jamila ‘Abdu Ma‘shi, Juhūd al-Mazāri‘a fī Nashr al-Islām fī Sharq Ifrīqiyā: Dirāsa Tārīkhiyya Ḥaḍāriyya (Mecca: Umm al-Qura University, M.A. Thesis, 2014), 11-346.
13 The term Kadhi is a word derived from the Arabic word Qāḍī, which refers to Islamic legal judge. A Chief Kadhi, in the British colonial and Kenyan judicial systems. It is effectively the equivalent of the position of Grand Mufti or Shaykh al-Islam in some Muslim countries.
14 See, for example, Ahmed Idha Salim, The Swahili-Speaking Communities of the Kenya Coast, 1895-1965 (University of London: PhD Thesis, 1968), 19-418; Susan F. Hirsch, Pronouncing and Persevering: Gender and the Discourses of Disputing in an African Islamic Court (Chicago: The university of Chicago press, 1998), 16-240; Nehemia Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels, eds. The History of Islam in Africa (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000), 251-302; Twalib Bwana Abbas, The Kadhi Courts in Kenya judiciary, History, Procedure and Practice (Mombasa: 2006) 1-70; Roman Loimeier and Rüdiger Seesemann, eds. The Global Worlds of the Swahili: Interfaces of Islam, Identity and Space in 19th and 20th-century East Africa (Berlin: Lit; 2006), 1-363; Kai Kresse, Philosophing in Mombasa: Knowledge, Islam and Intellectual Practice on the Swahili Coast (Edinburgh: Edinburg University Press, 2007) 11-287; Shamil Jeppie, Ebrahim Moos and Richard Roberts, eds. Muslim Family Law in Sub-Saharan Africa; Colonial Legacies and Post-Colonial Challenges, (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010), 10-388; John Chesworth, “Kadhi’s Courts in Kenya: Reactions and Responses,” in Constitutional Review in Kenya and Kadhis Courts, eds. A. Tayob and J. Wandera (Cape Town: University of Cape Town, 2011), 3-17; Roman Loimeier, Muslim Societies in Africa: A Historical Anthropology (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013), 210-247; Kevin Wanyonyi, The Kadhi Courts in Kenya, Towards Enhancing Access to Justice for Muslim Women (Lund University: M.A. thesis, 2016), 13-73.
15 Hamad al-Jasir, Mu‘jam Qabāʾil al-Mamlaka (Riyadh: Manshūrāt al-Nādi al-Adabī, 1981), 748.
16 For this reason, I have preferred the term “Mazrui” throughout this study.
17 Midad ibn Sulayman al-Hanaʾi, al-Tārīkh wa-al-Bayān fī Qabā’il ‘Ummān (London: Dār al-Ḥikma, 2010), 280.
18 Mazru‘i, History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty,15-20.
19 ‘Abdallah Muhammad al-‘Alawi, Nashr al-Nafaḥāt al-Miskiyya fī Akhbār al-Shajara al-Muḥammadiyya (Manuscript) (Tarim: Maktabat al-Aḥqāf), Vol.1, 6-7.
20 Mazru‘i, History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty, 20; Salim Hammud al-Sayyabi, Is‘āf al-A‘yān fī Ansāb Ahl ‘Ummān (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmi, 1965), 79.
21 Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty, 21
22 The Ibāḍi sect is one of the offshoots of the Khawārij theological sect which appeared during early days of Islam. The sect has had a historical presence in Oman and in some areas of North Africa, and arrived in Zanzibar with Ibāḍi immigrants from Oman. See Mani‘ ibn Hammad al-Juhani et al, al-Mawsū‘a al-Muyassara fī al-Adyān wa-al-Madhāhib wa-al-Aḥzab al-Mu‘āsira (Riyadh: Dār al-Nadwa al-‘Ālamiyya, 1998), Vol. 1, 62.
23 Abdullah Saleh Farsy, Baadhi ya Wanavyuoni wa Mashariki ya Afrika (Zanzibar: Book Room, 1972), 9-11; Ghalib Yusuf Tamim, Sh. Ali bin Abdalla bin Nafi Mazrui: The Pioneering Role Model of the East Africa Muslim Reformer, (Nairobi: Signal Press Limited, 2013), 10.
24 Ibid., 29-30.
25 Ibid., 21-22.
26 Timothy J. Stapleton, A Military History of Africa (Westport: Praeger Publishers,
2013), 114.
27 Mwaruvie, J.M. “The Ten Miles Coastal Strip: An Examination of the Intricate Nature
of Land Question at Kenyan Coast,” International Journal of Humanities and Social
Sciences 1, no. 20 (2011), 176-182.
28 Ghalib Yusuf Tamim, Bustani la Ma-Ulama (Nairobi: Signal Press, 2016), 93.
29 ‘Abdu, Juhūd al-Mazāri‘a, 15; Zakariya, Dawlat al-Busa‘id fī ‘Ummān, 42.
30 Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty, 30.
31 Ibid., 24-26.
32 ‘Abdu, Juhūd al-Mazāri‘a, 22-426.
33 Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty, 31-32.
34 This is how their names appeared in order on a hanging plaque in the “Mazrui
House,” within the Fort Jesus premises, Kenya, with the title “Omani Walis of
Al-Mazrui Family in Mombasa (1741-1837). This list, which was prepared by the
Omani National Documents and Archives Authority, omitted the 1st and 10th governors
in the list because the 1st governor was under the authority of the Ya‘rubi
Dynasty in Oman, while the 10th governor was sacked after ruling for one year and
replaced with his successor in 1836.
35 Salim, The Swahili-Speaking Communities,43-44; Randall L. Pouwels, “Sh. al-Amin B.
Ali Mazrui and Islamic Modernism in East Africa, 1875-1947,” International Journal
of Middle East Studies 13, no. 3 (1981), 329-345.
36 Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty,22-24.
37 Ibid., 22-24.
38 Owen, Capt. F.W., Narratives of Voyages to explore the shores of Africa, Arabia and
Madagascar (London: Richard Bentley, 1833), Vol.1, 367.
39 Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty, 24.
40 ‘Abdu, Juhūd al-Mazāri‘a, 233-303.
41 It is also called “Lake Malawi” and located between Malawi, Mozambique and
Tanzania. The Nyasa people are belong to African Nyasa tribe which is found
in South-Eastern Africa mainly in Malawi, South-Western Tanzania and parts of
Northern Mozambique. They are also referred as the Kimanda, Kinyasa and Manda.
See Muhammad Zuhdi Yakan, Almanac of African Peoples & Nations (Piscataway:
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42 Lake Tanganyika is an African great lake which is shared by Tanzania, DRC, Burundi
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43 ‘Abd al-Fattah Muqallid Ghunaim, al-Islām wa-al-muslimūn fī Sharq Ifrīqiyā (Cairo:
‘Alām al-Kutub, 1997), 196-199.
44 ‘Abd al-Rahman Ahmad ‘Uthman, “al-Dawr al-‘Ummānī fī Taqwiyat wa-Taʾsīl al-Islām
fī Sharq Ifrīqiyā,” Dirāsāt Ifrīqiyya, issue no. 14 (1996), 30.
45 Manswab Abdulrahman, “Quḍāt al-Mazāri‘a Qabl Istiqlāl Jamhuriyat Keenya
wa-ba‘d,” Proceedings of International Conference on Reformation and Renewal in
the light of Prof. Ali Mazrui’s Legacy and the Future of Reforms in the Muslim World
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46 John Chesworth, “Kadhi’s Courts in Kenya: Reactions and Responses,” 3-17.
47 Farsy, Baadhi ya wanavyuoni, 9-11; Salim, The Swahili-Speaking Communities, 288-
289; Abdulrahman, “Quḍāt al-Mazāri‘a,” 121-154.
48 Farsy, Baadhi ya wanavyuoni, 11-12; Manswab, “Quḍāt al-Mazāri‘a,”132-134.
49 Farsy, Baadhi ya wanavyuoni, 42-43; Manswab, “Quḍāt al-Mazāri‘a,” 135-138;
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50 Hassan Mwakimako, “Conflicts and Tensions in the Appointment of the Chief
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51 Farsy, Baadhi ya wanavyuoni, 43; Manswab, “Quḍāt al-Mazāri‘a,” 139-142.
52 Tamim, Bustani la Ma-Ulama, 45; Manswab, “Quḍāt al-Mazāri‘a,” 142-143.
53 Personal interview with Shaykh Hammad Muhammad Kassim Mazrui (Mombasa:
September 20, 2018); Hashim, “Qadhis’ Intellectual Legacy,” 206.
54 Sa‘id ibn ‘Ali al-Mughiri, Juhainat al-Akhbār fī Tārīkh Zanjbār (Cairo: ‘īssa al-Bābī
al-Halabī wa-Shurakāʾuh, n.d., 281
55 Personal interview with Ustadh Ghalib Yussuf Tamim (Nairobi: September 27, 2018).
56 Salim, The Swahili-Speaking Communities, 327-345; Hashim, “Qadhis’ Intellectual Legacy,” 204- 214; Manswab, “Quḍāt al-Mazāri‘a,” 134-142; Mohammed H. Abdulaziz, “The impact of Islam on Development of Swahili Culture,” Proceedings of the National Seminar on Contemporary Islam in Kenya, eds. Mohamed Bakari and Saad S Yahya (Mombasa: Mewa Publications, 1995), 172.
57 Winifred E. Akoda “The Contribution of Ali Mazrui to African Historical Scholarship,” International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education 2, no. 6 (2015), 65-69.
58 Salim, The Swahili-Speaking Communities, 327.
59 Mohammed H. Abdulaziz, “The impact of Islam on Development of Swahili Culture,” 172.
60 Pouwels, “Sh. al-Amin B. Ali,” 329-345.
61 Salim, The Swahili-Speaking Communities, 328; Hashim, “Qadhis’ Intellectual Legacy,” 205- 206; Manswab, “Quḍāt al-Mazāri‘a,” 135-138.
62 Pouwels, “Sh. al-Amin B. Ali,” 329-345.
63 Salim, The Swahili-Speaking Communities, 329; Pouwels, “Sh. al-Amin B. Ali,” 329-345.
64 Ghalib Yussuf Tamim, “Prof Ali A. Mazrui: In the Footsteps of His Forefathers,” www.academia.edu, July 2016, accessed April 11, 2023, https://www.academia.edu/26687861/
65 Muhammad Kasim Mazrui, Tafsiri Ya Qurani Tukufu by Sheik Al-Amin ibn Ali Al Mazrui (Nairobi: Shungwaya Publications Limited, 1980), xi; Ghalib Yussuf Tamim, “Sh. Al-Amin b. Ali Mazrui (1891-1947) - His Life and Times,” www.academia.edu, accessed March 30, 2023, https://www.academia.edu/9317317/
66 Abdullah Saleh Al-Farsy, Qurani Takatifu (Nairobi: The Islamic Foundation, 1991), xv-xvi; John Chesworth, “Holy Scriptures and their Use by Christians and Muslims in East Africa,” Transformation 30, no. 2, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, SAGE Publications, (2013), 82-89.
67 Kai Kresse, Philoshphing in Mombasa, 94.
68 Muhammad Kassim Mazrui, Hukumu za Sharia, Sehemu Tatu (Mombasa: H.O. Adam & Sons 1970), 15.
69 Hashim, “Qadhis’ Intellectual Legacy,” 208-209.
70 Manswab, “Quḍāt al-Mazāri‘a,” 140-141.
71 Kresse, Philoshphing in Mombasa, 94-95; Hashim, “Qadhis’ Intellectual Legacy,” 208-209.
72 Now: Technical University of Mombasa (TUM). See: https://tum.ac.ke/about/history
73 Mohamed Hyder, Ali Mazrui: Early Years: A contribution to a tribute to Ali Mazrui 1933-2014 (Mombasa: n.p., 2014).
74 Makarere University, “Prof. Ali Mazrui Biography,” accessed April 12, 2023, https://
chuss.mak.ac.ug/news/sites/default/files/downloads/Prof.%20Ali%20Mazrui%20
biography.pdf
75 Winifred E. Akoda, “The Contribution of Ali Mazrui to African Historical
Scholarship,” 65-69
76 Ali Mazrui, “The African: The triple Heritage,” mww.imdb.com, accessed April 19,
2023, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4123444/?ref_=tt_mv_close
77 Ali Mazrui, “The African condition: A Political Diagnosis,” African Studies Review
24, no. 4 (1981), 204-205.
78 Martin Douglas, “Ali Mazrui, Scholar of Africa Who Divided U.S. Audiences, Dies
at 81,” Everettjenkinsbiographies.blogspot.com, accessed April 19, 2023, https://
everettjenkinsbiographies.blogspot.com/2014/10/a00258-ali-mazrui-controversial-
scholar.html,.
79 Ali Mazrui, Islam: Between Globalization & Counter-Terrorism (Oxford: James Currey
Ltd, 2006), xix.
80 Ali Mazrui, Resurgent Islam and the Politics of Identity (Newcastle: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2014), 7-9.
81 Tareq Ismael, “Ali al-Amin Mazrui, 1933-2014,” in A Giant Tree Has Fallen: Tribute
to Ali Al’Amin Mazrui, eds. Seifudein Adem, Jideofor Adibe, Abdul Karim Bangura
et. al. (South Africa, African Perspective Publishing, 2016), 74-78.
82 Akoda, “The Contribution of Ali Mazrui,” 65-69.
83 Clélia Coret, “Runaway Slaves and the Aftermath of Slavery on the Swahili Coast:
New Perspectives from Witu in the 19th Century,” Journal of Global Slavery no.
6 (2021), 275–313; Carol M. Eastman, “Service, Slavery (‘UTUMWA’) and Swahili
Social Reality,” AAP no. 37 (1994), 87-107.
84 Salim, The Swahili-Speaking Communities, 36-38.
85 Ibid, 36; Mark Hobbs, “Mombasa: Britain’s shortest-lived protectorate?,” Qatar
Digital Library, 14 Aug, 2014, accessed April 20, 2024, https://www.qdl.qa/en/
mombasa-britain%E2%80%99s-shortest-lived-protectorate
86 Mwakimako, “Conflicts and Tensions,” 109-134; Manswab, “Quḍāt al-Mazāri‘a,” 134.
87 Mwakimako, “Conflicts and Tensions,” 109-134.
1 Mahmud al-Huwayri, Sāḥil Sharq Ifrīqiyā (Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, 1986), 22; Jamal Zakariya, Dawlat al-Būsa‘īd fī ‘Ummān wa-Sharq Ifrīqiyā (al-‘Ayn: Markaz Zāyed li-al-Turāth wa-al-Tārīkh, 2000), 27.
2 Muhammad Saeed al-Beidh was a famous scholar and preacher in Kenyan coastal areas who wrote several books on Arabic, Islamic studies and Swahili history, using both Arabic and Swahili languages. He died in 2013. See his biography at https://www.islamicpluralism.org/2172/a-loss-of-one-of-the-great-sons-of-east-africa, accessed May 21, 2023.
3 Muhammad Saeed Al-Beidh, Ṭayy al-Marāḥil fī Tārīkh al-Sawāḥil (Lamu: Dār al-Mīrāth al-Nabawī, n.d.), 12.
4 Ibid., 12.
5 Ibn Batutah, Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah, Riḥlat Ibn Baṭūṭah (Beirut: Dāru Iḥyāʾ al-‘Ulūm al-‘Arabī, 1987), 257.
6 David B. Barrett et al., Kenya Churches Handbook (Kisumu: Evangelical Publishing House, 1973), 21.
7 Mark Cartwright, “The Portuguese in East Africa,” World History Encyclopedia, July 15, 2021, accessed March 20, 2023, https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1798/the-portuguese-in-east-africa/
8 The Ya‘rubi Dynasty was an imamate dynasty which existed in Oman between 1624 and 1741. It was established initially in Oman but extended later to the Arabian Gulf, parts of Persia and East Africa. See ‘Abdallah Ibn Muhammad al-Tai, Tārīkh ‘Ummān al-Siyāsī (Kuwait: Maktabat al-Rubai‘ān li-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘, 2008), 47.
9 Al-Amin Bin ‘Ali Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty of Mombasa, Translated and annotated by J. M. Ritchie (London: The British Academy, Oxford University Press, 1995), 29-30.
10 Ibid., 29-122.
11 The al-Busa‘idi Dynasty was an imamate state which established in Oman in 1741 after the fall of the Ya‘rubi Dynasty. It was originally established in Muscat, but extended later to parts of the Arabian Gulf and East Africa. See al-Tai, Tārīkh ‘Ummān, 87.
12 Jamila ‘Abdu Ma‘shi, Juhūd al-Mazāri‘a fī Nashr al-Islām fī Sharq Ifrīqiyā: Dirāsa Tārīkhiyya Ḥaḍāriyya (Mecca: Umm al-Qura University, M.A. Thesis, 2014), 11-346.
13 The term Kadhi is a word derived from the Arabic word Qāḍī, which refers to Islamic legal judge. A Chief Kadhi, in the British colonial and Kenyan judicial systems. It is effectively the equivalent of the position of Grand Mufti or Shaykh al-Islam in some Muslim countries.
14 See, for example, Ahmed Idha Salim, The Swahili-Speaking Communities of the Kenya Coast, 1895-1965 (University of London: PhD Thesis, 1968), 19-418; Susan F. Hirsch, Pronouncing and Persevering: Gender and the Discourses of Disputing in an African Islamic Court (Chicago: The university of Chicago press, 1998), 16-240; Nehemia Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels, eds. The History of Islam in Africa (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000), 251-302; Twalib Bwana Abbas, The Kadhi Courts in Kenya judiciary, History, Procedure and Practice (Mombasa: 2006) 1-70; Roman Loimeier and Rüdiger Seesemann, eds. The Global Worlds of the Swahili: Interfaces of Islam, Identity and Space in 19th and 20th-century East Africa (Berlin: Lit; 2006), 1-363; Kai Kresse, Philosophing in Mombasa: Knowledge, Islam and Intellectual Practice on the Swahili Coast (Edinburgh: Edinburg University Press, 2007) 11-287; Shamil Jeppie, Ebrahim Moos and Richard Roberts, eds. Muslim Family Law in Sub-Saharan Africa; Colonial Legacies and Post-Colonial Challenges, (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010), 10-388; John Chesworth, “Kadhi’s Courts in Kenya: Reactions and Responses,” in Constitutional Review in Kenya and Kadhis Courts, eds. A. Tayob and J. Wandera (Cape Town: University of Cape Town, 2011), 3-17; Roman Loimeier, Muslim Societies in Africa: A Historical Anthropology (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013), 210-247; Kevin Wanyonyi, The Kadhi Courts in Kenya, Towards Enhancing Access to Justice for Muslim Women (Lund University: M.A. thesis, 2016), 13-73.
15 Hamad al-Jasir, Mu‘jam Qabāʾil al-Mamlaka (Riyadh: Manshūrāt al-Nādi al-Adabī, 1981), 748.
16 For this reason, I have preferred the term “Mazrui” throughout this study.
17 Midad ibn Sulayman al-Hanaʾi, al-Tārīkh wa-al-Bayān fī Qabā’il ‘Ummān (London: Dār al-Ḥikma, 2010), 280.
18 Mazru‘i, History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty,15-20.
19 ‘Abdallah Muhammad al-‘Alawi, Nashr al-Nafaḥāt al-Miskiyya fī Akhbār al-Shajara al-Muḥammadiyya (Manuscript) (Tarim: Maktabat al-Aḥqāf), Vol.1, 6-7.
20 Mazru‘i, History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty, 20; Salim Hammud al-Sayyabi, Is‘āf al-A‘yān fī Ansāb Ahl ‘Ummān (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmi, 1965), 79.
21 Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty, 21
22 The Ibāḍi sect is one of the offshoots of the Khawārij theological sect which appeared during early days of Islam. The sect has had a historical presence in Oman and in some areas of North Africa, and arrived in Zanzibar with Ibāḍi immigrants from Oman. See Mani‘ ibn Hammad al-Juhani et al, al-Mawsū‘a al-Muyassara fī al-Adyān wa-al-Madhāhib wa-al-Aḥzab al-Mu‘āsira (Riyadh: Dār al-Nadwa al-‘Ālamiyya, 1998), Vol. 1, 62.
23 Abdullah Saleh Farsy, Baadhi ya Wanavyuoni wa Mashariki ya Afrika (Zanzibar: Book Room, 1972), 9-11; Ghalib Yusuf Tamim, Sh. Ali bin Abdalla bin Nafi Mazrui: The Pioneering Role Model of the East Africa Muslim Reformer, (Nairobi: Signal Press Limited, 2013), 10.
24 Ibid., 29-30.
25 Ibid., 21-22.
26 Timothy J. Stapleton, A Military History of Africa (Westport: Praeger Publishers,
2013), 114.
27 Mwaruvie, J.M. “The Ten Miles Coastal Strip: An Examination of the Intricate Nature
of Land Question at Kenyan Coast,” International Journal of Humanities and Social
Sciences 1, no. 20 (2011), 176-182.
28 Ghalib Yusuf Tamim, Bustani la Ma-Ulama (Nairobi: Signal Press, 2016), 93.
29 ‘Abdu, Juhūd al-Mazāri‘a, 15; Zakariya, Dawlat al-Busa‘id fī ‘Ummān, 42.
30 Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty, 30.
31 Ibid., 24-26.
32 ‘Abdu, Juhūd al-Mazāri‘a, 22-426.
33 Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty, 31-32.
34 This is how their names appeared in order on a hanging plaque in the “Mazrui
House,” within the Fort Jesus premises, Kenya, with the title “Omani Walis of
Al-Mazrui Family in Mombasa (1741-1837). This list, which was prepared by the
Omani National Documents and Archives Authority, omitted the 1st and 10th governors
in the list because the 1st governor was under the authority of the Ya‘rubi
Dynasty in Oman, while the 10th governor was sacked after ruling for one year and
replaced with his successor in 1836.
35 Salim, The Swahili-Speaking Communities,43-44; Randall L. Pouwels, “Sh. al-Amin B.
Ali Mazrui and Islamic Modernism in East Africa, 1875-1947,” International Journal
of Middle East Studies 13, no. 3 (1981), 329-345.
36 Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty,22-24.
37 Ibid., 22-24.
38 Owen, Capt. F.W., Narratives of Voyages to explore the shores of Africa, Arabia and
Madagascar (London: Richard Bentley, 1833), Vol.1, 367.
39 Mazru‘i, The History of the Mazru‘i Dynasty, 24.
40 ‘Abdu, Juhūd al-Mazāri‘a, 233-303.
41 It is also called “Lake Malawi” and located between Malawi, Mozambique and
Tanzania. The Nyasa people are belong to African Nyasa tribe which is found
in South-Eastern Africa mainly in Malawi, South-Western Tanzania and parts of
Northern Mozambique. They are also referred as the Kimanda, Kinyasa and Manda.
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Dec 23, 2024
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Alio, M. (2024). The Mazrui Dynasty: Serving Islam in East Africa. American Journal of Islam and Society, 41(3-4), 126–156. https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v41i3-4.3322
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