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Comoros Early Visitors and Settlers
Little is known of the first inhabitants of the
archipelago,
although a sixth-century settlement has been uncovered on
Nzwani
by archaeologists. Historians speculated that Indonesian
immigrants used the islands as stepping stones on the way
to
Madagascar prior to A.D. 1000. Because Comoros lay at the
juncture of African, Malayo-Indonesian, and Arab spheres
of
influence, the present population reflects a blend of
these
elements in its physical characteristics, language,
culture,
social structure, and religion. Local legend cites the
first
settlement of the archipelago by two families from Arabia
after
the death of Solomon. Legend also tells of a Persian king,
Husain
ibn Ali, who established a settlement on Comoros around
the
beginning of the eleventh century. Bantu peoples
apparently moved
to Comoros before the fourteenth century, principally from
the
coast of what is now southern Mozambique; on the island of
Nzwani
they apparently encountered an earlier group of
inhabitants, a
Malayo-Indonesian people. A number of chieftains bearing
African
titles established settlements on Njazidja and Nzwani, and
by the
fifteenth century they probably had contact with Arab
merchants
and traders who brought the Islamic faith to the islands.
A watershed in the history of the islands was the
arrival of
the Shirazi Arabs in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. The
Shirazi, who originated from the city of Shiraz in what is
now
Iran, were
Sunni (see Glossary)
Muslims adhering to the
legal
school of Muhammad ibn Idris ash Shafii, an eighth-century
Meccan
scholar who followed a middle path in combining tradition
and
independent judgment in legal matters. The Shirazi Arabs
traveled
and traded up and down the East African coast and as far
east as
India and Maldives. A legend is recounted on Comoros and
on the
East African coast of seven Shirazi brothers who set sail
in
seven ships, landed on the coast of northwest Madagascar
and on
Njazidja and Nzwani, and established colonies in the
fifteenth
century. The Shirazi, who divided Njazidja into eleven
sultanates
and Nzwani into two, extended their rule to Mahoré and
Mwali,
although the latter in the nineteenth century came under
the
control of Malagasy rulers. The Shirazi built mosques and
established Islam as the religion of the islands. They
also
introduced stone architecture, carpentry, cotton weaving,
the
cultivation of a number of fruits, and the Persian solar
calendar. By the sixteenth century, the Comoros had become
a
center of regional trade, exporting rice, ambergris,
spices, and
slaves to ports in East Africa and the Middle East in
exchange
for opium, cotton cloth, and other items.
The first Europeans to visit the islands were the
Portuguese,
who landed on Njazidja around 1505. The islands first
appear on a
European map in 1527, that of Portuguese cartographer
Diogo
Roberos. Dutch sixteenth-century accounts describe the
Comoros
sultanates as prosperous trade centers with the African
coast and
Madagascar. Intense competition for this trade, and,
increasingly, for European commerce, resulted in constant
warfare
among the sultanates, a situation that persisted until the
French
occupation. The sultans of Njazidja only occasionally
recognized
the supremacy of one of their number as tibe, or
supreme
ruler.
By the early seventeenth century, slaves had become
Comoros'
most important export commodity, although the market for
the
islands' other products also continued to expand, mainly
in
response to the growing European presence in the region.
To meet
this increased demand, the sultans began using slave labor
themselves, following common practice along the East
African
coast.
Beginning in 1785, the Sakalava of the west coast of
Madagascar began slaving raids on Comoros. They captured
thousands of inhabitants and carried them off in outrigger
canoes
to be sold in French-occupied Madagascar, Mauritius, or
Reunion
to work on the sugar plantations, many of which French
investors
owned. The island of Mahoré, closest of the group to
Madagascar,
was virtually depopulated. Comoran pleas for aid from the
French
and the other European powers went unanswered, and the
raids
ceased only after the Sakalava kingdoms were conquered by
the
Merina of Madagascar's central highlands. After the Merina
conquest, groups of Sakalava and Betsimisaraka peoples
left
Madagascar and settled on Mahoré and Mwali.
Prosperity was restored as Comoran traders again became
involved in transporting slaves from the East African
coast to
Reunion and Madagascar. Dhows carrying slaves brought in
huge
profits for their investors. On Comoros, it was estimated
in 1865
that as much as 40 percent of the population consisted of
slaves.
For the elite, owning a large number of slaves to perform
fieldwork and household service was a mark of status. On
the eve
of the French occupation, Comoran society consisted of
three
classes: the elite of the Shirazi sultans and their
families, a
middle class of free persons or commoners, and a slave
class
consisting of those who had been brought from the African
coast
or their descendants.
Data as of August 1994
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