Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania. It is composed of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja and Pemba Island. The capital is Zanzibars City, located on the island of UngUja. Its main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism.
About Zanzibar in brief
Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania. It is composed of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja and Pemba Island. The capital is Zanzibars City, located on the island of UngUja. Its main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism. The name came from Arabic zanjibār, which is in turn from Persian zangbâr. It means ‘land of the blacks’ or similar meanings, in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants. The islands produce cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper. They are sometimes referred to locally as the ‘Spice Islands’ The presence of microliths suggests that Zanzibia has been home to humans for at least 20,000 years, which was the beginning of the Later Stone Age. A Greco-Roman text between the 1st and 3rd centuries, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, mentioned the Island of Menuthias, which is probably Ungujan. The island, like the nearby coast, was settled by Bantu-speakers at the outset of the first millennium. Archaeological finds at Fukuchani indicate a settled agricultural and fishing community from the 6th century CE at the latest. There is evidence of limited engagement in long-distance trade: a small amount of imported pottery has been found, less than 1% of total pottery finds, mostly from the Gulf and dated to the 5th to 8th century. By the 13th century, houses were built with stone, and bonded with mud, and the 14th century saw the use of lime to bond stone.
The majority of the population lived in single-story thatched houses similar to those from the 11th and 12th centuries. The architecture of these stone houses have no Arab or Persian elements, and should be viewed as an entirely indigenous development of local vernacular architecture. From the 9th century on, Swahili merchants operated as brokers for long distance traders from both the Indian Ocean and East African hinterland to acquire gold, ivory, amber, and ambergris, and then shipped them overseas. These towns grew in wealth in the Swahilian littoral states that dotted the East African littorals. The northern town of Tumbatu was one of the dominant centers of exchange between East African and the Great Lakes. The southern towns of Ukuu Ukuu and Kizimkazi were the dominant centres of exchange for gold, amber and amber, then shipped out to Asia. Before the arrival of the Portuguese, the southern town of Uku Ukuu was the dominant center of trade for imported Indian cloth, especially Indian cloth and cloth. It was just one of many autonomous city-states that dotted East Africa that grew in the swahili littorships that grew as Swahillian towns grew as wealth grew.
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This page is based on the article Zanzibar published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
