Book contents
- The Worlds of the Indian Ocean
- The Worlds of the Indian Ocean
- The Worlds of the Indian Ocean
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps and Charts (in Color Plates)
- Illustrations (in Color Plates)
- Figures
- Tables
- Abbreviations
- Part I The Indian Ocean between Tang China and the Muslim Empire (Seventh–Tenth Century)
- Part II Globalization during the Song and Mongol Periods (Tenth–Fourteenth Century), and the Downturn of the Fourteenth Century
- Introduction
- Chapter 7 China: The Golden Age of the Song, the Mongol Conquest, and the Ming Revival
- Chapter 8 India: From the Chola Empire to the Delhi Sultanate
- Chapter 9 Southeast Asia: From the Decline of Srīwijaya to the Rise of Mojopahit
- Chapter 10 Central and Western Asia: From the Seljuk Empire to the Ilkhanids
- Chapter 11 Egypt and Yemen: The Jewish and Kārimī Networks
- Chapter 12 East Africa: The Rise of the Swahili Culture and the Expansion of Islam
- Chapter 13 Madagascar: The Development of Trading Ports and the Interior
- Part III From the Globalization of the Afro-Eurasian Area to the Dawn of European Expansion (Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries)
- Bibliography
- Index of Geographical Names
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Chapter 12 - East Africa: The Rise of the Swahili Culture and the Expansion of Islam
from Part II - Globalization during the Song and Mongol Periods (Tenth–Fourteenth Century), and the Downturn of the Fourteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2019
- The Worlds of the Indian Ocean
- The Worlds of the Indian Ocean
- The Worlds of the Indian Ocean
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps and Charts (in Color Plates)
- Illustrations (in Color Plates)
- Figures
- Tables
- Abbreviations
- Part I The Indian Ocean between Tang China and the Muslim Empire (Seventh–Tenth Century)
- Part II Globalization during the Song and Mongol Periods (Tenth–Fourteenth Century), and the Downturn of the Fourteenth Century
- Introduction
- Chapter 7 China: The Golden Age of the Song, the Mongol Conquest, and the Ming Revival
- Chapter 8 India: From the Chola Empire to the Delhi Sultanate
- Chapter 9 Southeast Asia: From the Decline of Srīwijaya to the Rise of Mojopahit
- Chapter 10 Central and Western Asia: From the Seljuk Empire to the Ilkhanids
- Chapter 11 Egypt and Yemen: The Jewish and Kārimī Networks
- Chapter 12 East Africa: The Rise of the Swahili Culture and the Expansion of Islam
- Chapter 13 Madagascar: The Development of Trading Ports and the Interior
- Part III From the Globalization of the Afro-Eurasian Area to the Dawn of European Expansion (Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries)
- Bibliography
- Index of Geographical Names
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Summary
From the eleventh century onward, in connection with an expanding trade between regions and with countries abroad, the culture of the Swahili city-states asserted its status as one semi-periphery of the world-system, coevolving along with the system’s cores. Islam spread only along 1,500 kilometers of coastline – but not inland – a process clearly simultaneous, in time and space, with the development of towns and trade. As was the case in West Africa, Islam merged with African beliefs and practices (Insoll 2003: 172) (generally speaking, a semi-periphery exhibits politico-religious and economic organizational forms that derive from its dominant cores as well as from the peripheries from which it springs). Wright points out (1992) that Islam developed, not mainly in towns located near the Arabian heartland – in the north – but instead spread to the most significant trade centers, along the coast, and then on to secondary centers, along paths already traced by the networks. Hierarchized societies formed, based on both African and Arabo-Persian organizational principles.
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- The Worlds of the Indian OceanA Global History, pp. 329 - 370Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019