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Swahili Sailors in Early China
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Chinese sculpture of an African merchant from Zanzibar.
This piece dates back to China's Tang Dynasty 618 A.D - 907 A.D.
When we turn our attention to some of the more ancient
Chinese writings we find a few hints suggesting Swahili
sailors arrived on Chinese shores. An interesting passage can
be found in the Ch'en-han-shu. This document discusses
China's maritime trade links with other countries during the
early Han Dynasty. It states:
- Going again by boat about four months, there is
the country of Yi-li-mo. Going by land about ten
days, there is the country of Fu-kan-tu-lu, two
months beyond again, there was Huang-chih; and
from Huang-chih Emperor P'ing received an envoy
who brought a rhinoceros as a present.
Bear in mind rhinos are indigenous to Africa.
In the past, a Swahili trading center existed on the
island of Zanzibar. This is a small island located just off
the coast of East Africa. "Zanj" or "Zaniji" was the term
medieval Arabs used for east African peoples. The name still
survives today. It can be seen in the island named
"Zanzibar". The term "Zanzibar" derived from "zanj-bahr".
"Zanj-bahr" merely means "coast of the Zanj". Interestingly,
the term "zanj" resurfaced in an Arab writing of 1154 AD. The
passage speaks about India and China establishing trade links
with one another. It stated India fell into a state of
confusion and as a result the Chinese had to withdraw their
trading post and establish them on the islands of a place it
called "Zanedji".
- And it was said that when there were rebellions
in China and injustice and excesses prevailed in
India, the Chinese transferred their commerce to
Zanzibar and the dependent islands nearby. They
entered into relations with the inhabitants and
felt very comfortable with them because of their
fairness, the pleasantness of their conduct, and
the ease with which they transacted business.
And so it is for that reason that the island
prospered and travelers to it were many.
Documents from China's Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD) have
also provided some details. The Sung records of 1083 AD
speak of another foreign envoy visiting the imperial
court. The last three characters in this envoy's name
translate as "the zanj". The document stated since the
envoy traveled such a long distance, the emperor decided
to do something special for him:
- ...besides giving him the same presents for which
he formerly bestowed on him, added thereto two
thousand ounces of silver.
Several contemporary writers on east African culture
have noted in ancient times the Swahili possessed the
capability to build and navigate large ships. For
example, in one of his more recent books, historian Basil
Davidson notes:
- All this reflected the Swahili role as market
middleman, linking the caravans of the interior
with the ships from overseas. Their own
entrepreneurs traveled far in both
directions,
sharing in the caravan trade with the kingdoms
of the Zimbabwe culture, and also sharing in
the maritime skills of the region. Like the
Arabs and Indians, the Swahili had the sailing
and navigating expertise...to voyage out of sight
of land for long distances; and they possessed
these skills many years before such things were
learned in the Atlantic waters.
Davidson has actually discovered Chinese testimonials of
Swahili sailors visiting their country. He writes:
- A Chinese commissioner of foreign trade in Fukien
province of southern China recorded in 1226 that
the East African cities imported 'white cotton
cloth, porcelain, copper, and red cottons' by way
of ships that came every year...
Substantial findings have been yielded by archaeological
excavations in East Africa. Researchers have uncovered
several plates and bowls in East Africa with Chinese
characters written on them. Research has also turned up
thousands of ancient coins found at various sites in the
region. During the 1950s G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville began work
on systematically classifying the ancient coins
discovered. By 1959 he had classified a total of 19,600
coins. In 1960 Freeman-Grenville published his results in the
Journal of African History. This journal presented a few
details about the coins he examined. His study revealed a
lot of the coins discovered were not from East Africa. It
was discovered 233 of the coins came from China. Five of
the coins dated back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) in
China, 212 from the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD), six from
the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) and ten were from the Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911 AD).
The study of ancient Chinese artwork has also provided
evidence to us. The Chinese made small sculptures of the
Swahili merchants visiting their country. In his book,
Black Jade: The African Presence in the Ancient East, art
historian James E. Brunson displays a miniature clay figure of
a Swahili sailor. This clay figure was actually unearthed in
China. It was made in the likeness of a merchant from the
east African island of Zanzibar. The piece dates back to
China's Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).
One of many types of East African trading ships.
These ships were used to sail northward to Arabia
and eastward to India, Indonesia, Malaysia and China.
There also exist a record of an eyewitness account of
Swahili merchants in the Far East. The Portuguese trader
Tome Pires lived in Malaysia from 1512 to 1515 AD. In his
memoir he reported seeing in Malaysia peoples from the east
African cities of Kilwa, Mombosa and Malindi.
The most famed and well documented Swahili visits to
China center around the trade links Chinese and African people
established during the 1400s. On September 20, 1414 sailors
from the east African city of Malindi had presented a very
extraordinary present to the emperor of China. The ruler
of Malindi ordered his ambassadors to tranship a giraffe to
China. Louis Levathes in her book, When China Ruled the Seas,
tells us the Chinese:
- ...had never seen the creature before and mistook
it for the mythical qilin, one of the four sacred
animals in China, along with the dragon, the
phoenix, and the tortoise. The qilin was believed
to make its appearance only in times of great
peace and prosperity. It was said to have the
body of a musk deer, the tail of an ox, the
forehead of a wolf, the hooves of a horse, and a
fleshy horn like a unicorn. Other descriptions
noted that the male animal, called simply lin,
sometimes had two or three horns. The
qilin did
not eat meat and avoided treading on any living
thing, even grass, and thus became for the
Chinese a symbol of goodness, appearing only in
a land well governed or when a sage was born.
Confucius' mother was thought to have become
pregnant by a qilin when she stepped on the
footprint of the animal while walking in the
woods.
When the Malindi sailors unveiled this creature at the
imperial court the court officials gathered closer
"to gaze at it and their joy knew no end." The emperor was
so impressed with the gift that he ordered a calligrapher
named Shen Tu to paint the animal. This famous painting
now sits in the National Palace Museum of Taipei. The
painting contains classical Chinese characters retelling
the story of the giraffe being transported and presented to
the court by African ambassadors. Shen Tu also composed
a poem commemorating the animal:
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