A proposal for the establishment of the Mombasa Islamic University

Abstract

The earliest concrete evidence of Moslem presence in East Africa is the foundation of a mosque in Shanga on Pate Island where gold, silver and copper coins dated AD 830 were found during an excavation in the 1980's. The oldest intact building in East Africa is a functioning mosque at Kizimkazi in southern Zanzibar dated AD 1007. It appears that Islam was widespread in the Indian Ocean area by the 14th century. When Ibn Battuta from Maghreb visited the East African littoral in 1332 he reported that he felt at home because of Islam in the area. The coastal population was largely Moslem, and Arabic was the language of literature and trade. The whole of the Indian Ocean seemed to be a "Moslem sea". Moslems controlled the trade and established coastal settlements in South East Asia, India and East Africa.

Islam was spread mainly through trade activities along the East African coast, not through conquest and territorial expansion as was partly the case in West Africa, but remained an urban littoral phenomenon for a long time. When the violent Portuguese intrusions in the coastal areas occurred in the 16th century, Islam was already well established there and almost all the ruling families had ties of kinship with Arabia, Persia, India and even South East Asia owing to their maritime contacts and political connections with the northern and eastern parts of the Indian Ocean. In the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries the coastal Moslems managed to oust the Portuguese with the help of Omani Arabs. These Arabs gradually increased their political influence until the end of the 19th century when European conquerors arrived at the coast of East Africa.