Zanzibar: The Island Metropolis of Eastern Africa (Classic Reprint)

Although the name of Zanzibar that rich spice-island of the African seas is fairly familiar in theE nglish-speaking world, little has hitherto been written concerning it. Destiny and duty having led me to its shores, I have been presumptuous enough to write the following pages in the hope that they may engender some interest in the story of this romantic island kingdom. The first chapters deal with the historical past, and in them I have endeavoured to trace the close political association of A rabia with Zanzibar from the very earliest times :and the references to the Arab kingdom ofO min and its princes will do something, it is hoped, to save from total extinction the memories of A hmed, the founder of the A lbusaid Dynasty, and of Seyyid Said, the ruler ofO m4n and the maker of modern Zanzibar. Subsequent chapters recount the advent of Vasco daG amato theE st African seas in 1498, as well as the almost forgotten visit to Zanzibar, a century later, of that famous Elizabethan sea-captain Sir James Lancaster while on his way to the I ndies. The second portion of the book deals with the Zanzibar and Pemba of to-day, and not only gives some account of the A rab, Swahili, and Indian populations, but affords information concerning the clove industry on which the prosperity of theS ultanate so largely depends. The third and last part describes for the first time the ancient Persian and Arab ruins which lie hidden in the forests of Zanzibar and Pemba.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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