Kilwa Sultanate dominates East African gold trade

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The Swahili city-state of Kilwa, on an island off the Tanzanian coast, seized control of Sofala's gold exports from Great Zimbabwe. Its sultan minted the first sub-Saharan African coinage, copper and silver coins stamped in Arabic, and built the great domed mosque that Ibn Battuta would later admire. Kilwa's coral-stone merchant houses rivaled those of any Indian Ocean port in their elegance.