Swahili cities prosper along East Africa
1255
Mogadishu, Kilwa, and Mombasa continued their rise as cosmopolitan stone towns where Arab dhows met Bantu caravans. Gold, ivory, ambergris, and slaves flowed out; cotton, ceramics, and Islam flowed in. Swahili, a Bantu language infused with Arabic, crystallized as the trade tongue. The coral-stone mosques and multi-story merchant houses of these ports rivaled anything built along the Arabian coast.
In context
Also in 1255 (3 other events on record)
- Hulagu's army crosses the Oxus · Central Asia · War
- Mosaic pavements laid at Westminster Abbey · Europe · Culture
- Mongols capture Hasan-i Sabbah's library · Central Asia · Culture
Before and after in Africa
Before and after in Culture
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.