Kilwa Kisiwani Lindi Tanzania

Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi is one of seven sons of a ruler of Shiraz, Persia, his mother an enslaved Abyssinian woman.

Upon his father's death, Ali had been driven from inheritance by his brothers Setting sail out of Hormuz, Ali ibn al-Hassan, his household and a small group of followers had first made their way to Mogadishu, the main commercial city of the East African coast.

However, Ali failed to get along with the city's Somali elite and he was soon driven out of that city as well.

Steering down the African coast, Ali is said to have purchased the island of Kilwa from the local Bantu inhabitants.

According to one chronicle (Strong, 1895), Kilwa was originally owned by a mainland Bantu king 'Almuli' and connected by a small land bridge to the mainland that appeared in low tide.

The king agreed to sell it to Ali ibn al-Hassan for as much colored cloth as could cover the circumference of the island.

But when the king later changed his mind, and tried to take it back, the Persians had dug up the land bridge, and Kilwa was now an island.

Kilwa's fortuitous position makes it a much better East African trade center than Mogadishu.

It quickly begins to attract many merchants and immigrants from further north, including Persia and Arabia.

In just a few years, the colony is big enough to establish a satellite settlement at nearby Mafia Island.

Cabral's fleet reaches the city-state of Kilwa, the dominant city of the East African coast, which Gama had never visited.

Afonso Furtado, who had been appointed factor for Sofala back in Lisbon and and mercifully escaped death (Furtado had been aboard Bartolomeu Dias's ship, but moved to the flagship just before the Cape crossing), goes ashore on July 26 to open negotiations with the strongman ruler, Emir Ibrahim.

There is no current ruling Sultan of Kilwa, the last one, al-Fudail, having been deposed around 1495 in a coup by his minister, Emir Ibrahim, who has since ruled Kilwa with a vacant throne.

A meeting is arranged between Cabral and Emir Ibrahim, conducted on a couple of rowboats in Kilwa harbor.

Cabral presents a letter from King Manuel I proposing a treaty, but Emir Ibrahim is suspicious and, for all the formal pleasantries, resistant to the overtures.

Cabral, feeling there is nothing to be achieved here and worried about missing the monsoon winds to India, decides to break off the negotiations and sail on.

The Third Armada, traveling north along the East African coast, arrives at the Swahili citadel of Kilwa, where they are greeted on the beach (or on a rowboat) by a Portuguese degredado, who informs Nova of the state of affairs in Kilwa.

Nova is wary of approaching Kilwa, and refuses to go ashore, despite repeated invitations; he has the degredado negotiate the provision of some supplies (probably citrus fruit) from the city for his scurvy-sick crews, and hurriedly moves on.

Gama's large, menacing armada arrives on July 12, 1502, at the island-city of Kilwa, the formal overlord of Mozambique and Sofala.

If the fledgling Portuguese trade presence in those East African towns is to remain unmolested, then the Portuguese must secure Kilwa's consent.

Gama sends for the Kilwa ruler, Emir Ibrahim, inviting him aboard the São Jeronimo, to negotiate a treaty of peace and trade.

Sensing a trap, Emir Ibrahim first asks for a safe-conduct (which da Gama promptly gives him), but fearing treachery, the emir changes his mind, and refuses to go aboard.

However, after much discussion, one of his advisors, a certain wealthy nobleman Muhammad ibn Rukn ad Din, finally persuades the emir to take up the Portuguese offer.

Emir Ibrahim is ferried to the flagship and climbs aboard.

After minimal opening pleasantries, and ostentatious proclamations of friendship, Gama lays down his price: a treaty with Portugal has to be paid for with a hefty cash tribute to the King of Portugal.

The emir is dismayed.

Declaring tribute to be a dishonor, he refuses.

Gama threatens to level the city and lay it to fire and waste.

Emir Ibrahim, effectively captive on board, reluctantly agrees, and signs a treaty making Kilwa tributary to Portugal.

Leaving the Kilwan nobleman and advisor Muhammad Arcone aboard as a hostage, the emir returns to shore to make the arrangements.

After a few days of lingering in Kilwa harbor and with no sign of the emir's promised tribute, Gama dispatches a messenger to determine the cause of the delay.

Emir Ibrahim sends a message back declining to dispatch the tribute, and telling the Portuguese captain-major that he can do whatever he will with the hostage Muhammad Arcone, given that his poor counsel had proven him unworthy.

The angry Gama throws Arcone into a longboat, without water or shade, to die of heat and exposure.

Nonetheless, Muhammad Arcone is a wealthy man in his own right, and servants from his household offer Gama a substantial ransom to release him.

Knowing the hostage is otherwise worthless to him, Gama consents.

His vengeance on Muhammad Arcone's bad counsel satisfied, the Emir Ibrahim of Kilwa finally decides on July 20 to send some tribute—some fifteen hundred gold meticals—to satisfy the Portuguese captain-major.

Vasco da Gama, anxious not to miss the monsoon winds to India, takes what he can get.

The extorted gold coins of Kilwa will be used by the goldsmith Gil Vicente in 1506 to make the famous gold pyx or monstrance known as the Custódia de Belém, for the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém.

It is considered by many to be one of the most magnificent treasure pieces of the Portuguese crown.

Correia reports that several dozen Kilwan women who had been abducted and taken aboard the ships by bored Portuguese sailors refused to return ashore.

Although Emir Ibrahim promises that they will be unharmed, he cannot guarantee that those who allow themselves to be baptized Christian by enthusiastic chaplains on the ships will be taken back by their families.

Much to the delight of the crew, Gama reluctantly allows these women to come with them.

Meanwhile, part of the third squadron, the trio that holds with Estêvão da Gama (Gama, Dias, Carmona) arrives at Mozambique Island, half-famished and heavily damaged.

At the same time, the remaining pair (Vasconcellos, Buonagrazia) alight at the Sofala banks.

The two squads do not reconnect with each other.

Estêvão da Gama's trio, following the itinerary left in Mozambique by his cousin, heads off to Kilwa.

Alone idling before Sofala, Vasconcellos and Buonagrazia proceed north to the mouth of the Rio de Bons Sinaes (Zambezi River), where they put in for repairs and recuperation.

Part of the third squadron (Estêvão da Gama, Lopo Dias and Thomas de Carmona) arrives in Kilwa on July 23, 1502, just in time to reconnect the main armada of Vasco da Gama, preparing to depart from Kilwa harbor.

The day before, the remaining two ships of the third squadron (Vasconcellos, Buonagrazia) had finally arrived in Mozambique Island.

Taking note of the notes and itinerary left behind, they set sail for Malindi, hoping to catch the main fleet there.

António de Saldanha is still stuck in South Africa (he leaves his own note at the watering hole in Mossel Bay in in October.

Rui Lourenço Ravasco had meanwhile left Mozambique Island and moored his ship in Kilwa, waiting for his captain.

The summer monsoon winds are long gone, so there is no hope of an Indian Ocean crossing this year.

The captains of the third squadron, stuck in Africa until the next summer, content themselves with plucking prizes.

Rui Lourenço Ravasco has quickly made a nuisance of himself.

He had grabbed a few ships off Kilwa, before being reminded that Vasco da Gama had already extorted 'tribute' from Kilwa and thus the city is protected.

Sailing up to Zanzibar to find more prey, ...

The Portuguese crown engages Francisco de Almeida in 1505 to improve Portuguese trade with the Far East.

Accordingly, he sails to East Africa.

Several small Islamic states along the coast of Mozambique—Kilwa, …

The armada arrives on February 10 at Kilwa, where Lopo Soares announces his intention to collect the yearly tribute from the city due to King Manuel I of Portugal, imposed in 1502 by Vasco da Gama.

The ruling Emir Ibrahim refuses.

Lopo Soares, his ships too loaded to risk damage in a confrontation, decides to sail on.

Almeida rounds the Cape of Good Hope and enters African coastal waters again at Sofala and the Island of Mozambique, whence they proceeded northwards to the coastal settlement of Kilwa.

In July 1505 they employ eight ships to attack and conquer the roughly four thousand strong population of this harbor town.

Because of the good harbor that the town provides, sufficient for anchoring ships up to five hundred tons, the Portuguese decide to build a fort here.

For this purpose Pêro Ferreira and a crew of eighty soldiers remain in the town.

...Kilwa.