Page:The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema (1863).djvu/137

 summary of the more authentic history of these foreign colonists.--

"It is well known that the Muhammedan Arabs, during the first part of their history, for 150 years, overran a large section of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and that soon after the death of their prophet Muhammed they fell a prey to political and religious dissensions, and the defeated party resolved to abandon the land of their birth. Where was a better home to be found than the fruitful strand of Eastern Africa?  There they were already known, and would be safe from the pursuit of their fanatical conquerors.  It seems that the first settlements of the kind were made in various points of the East-African coast in the year 740 by the Emosaids, or adherents of Said, a great grandson of Ali, the prophet's cousin and son-in-law.  Said, proclaimed Caliph by the rebels, was defeated and slain, on which his adherents were obliged to seek safety in flight, and it was in east Africa that they found refuge. In the works of various Arabian historians and geographters, for several centuries afterwards, we find interesting notices of the Arab settlements. From all these notices it is to be gathered, that the Muhammedan Arabs founded political and religious states or towns in Eastern Africa, and that their migration to that country was sometimes voluntary, sometimes forced upon them. Among these Arabian states or towns the most prominent are: Mukdishu, Kilwah, Brava, malinda, and Mombasa. Mukdishu was supreme in the north, while Kilwah was queen of the south, from Zanzibar to Sofala. With the declining power of these two states and towns, Malindi and Mombasa, situated midway between them, appear to have increased in influence and importance. Mukdishu seems to have been founded between A.D. 909-951; and Kilwah between A.D. 960-1000. It is likely from the narrative of the famous Ibn Batuta