The Mosques of Songo Mnara in their Urban Landscape
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.35272Keywords:
Songo Mnara, mosques, urbanism, architecture, religious identityAbstract
The 15th century Swahili town of Songo Mnara (Tanzania) had six mosques—an unusual quantity for a town of only 7 hectares and a population of 500–1000 people. Largescale archaeological investigations of two previously unstudied mosques, and detailed survey of the remaining four structures has suggested a complex pattern of Islamic practice in the town, including a dynamic relationship between mosques and burials, an emerging sense of social difference within the town, and the active signalling of Islamic faith to visitors through the construction of monuments intended to be seen on approach to the town. We commend a holistic approach in which mosques are studied not as isolated structures but as part of a wider urban landscape.
References
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2009. Intangible Heritage, Tourism and Raising Awareness on Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara. Paris: UNESCO.
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Chittick, H. N.
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1967. “Discoveries in the Lamu Archipelago.” Azania 2: 37–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/00672706709511439
1969. “A new look at the History of Pate.” Journal of African History 10: 375–391. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853700036331
1974. Kilwa. an Islamic trading city on the East African Coast. 2 volumes. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.
1984. Manda: Excavations at an Island Port on the Kenya Coast. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.
Christie, A.
2013. “Refining the chronology of Kua ruins: Radiocarbon dates from the Mafia Archipelago.” Azania: 48: 521–533. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2013.842666
Creswell, K.A.C.
1989. A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture. Revised edition, with J. W. Allan. Aldershot: Scholar Press.
Dorman, M. H.
1938. “The Kilwa civilisation and the Kilwa ruins.” Tanganyika Notes and Records 6: 61–69.
el-Zein, A. H. M.
1974. The Sacred Meadows: A Structural Analysis of Religious Symbolism in an East African Town. Chicago, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Fleisher, J. B.
2013. “Performance, monumentality and the ‘built exterior’ on the eastern African Swahili coast.” Azania 48(2): 263–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2013.788872
2014. “The complexity of public space at the Swahili town of Songo Mnara, Tanzania.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 35: 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2014.04.002
Fleisher, J. B. and S. Wynne-Jones.
2012. “Finding Meaning in ancient Swahili spatial practices.” African Archaeological Review 29: 171–207. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-012-9121-0
Fleisher, J. B., P. Lane, A. La Violette, M. Horton, E. Pollard, E. Quintana Morales, T. Vernet, A. Christie and S. Wynne-Jones.
2015. “When did the Swahili become maritime?” American Anthropologist 117: 100–115. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.12171
Flood, B.
2009. Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval Hindu-Muslim” Encounter. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P.
1962a. The East African coast. Select documents from the first to the earlier nineteenth century. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
1962b. The Medieval History of the Coast of Tanganyika, with special reference to recent archaeological discoveries. London: Oxford University Press.
1965. The French at Kilwa Island. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Garlake, P. S.
1966. The Early Islamic Architecture of the East African Coast. Nairobi and Oxford: British Institute in Eastern Africa.
2002. Early Art and Architecture of Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gensheimer, T.
1997. At the boundaries of the Dar al-Islam: Cities of the East African coast in the late Middle Ages. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley.
Ghaidan U.
1971. African Heritage: The Stone Houses of Lamu. Lamu: Lamu Museum.
1975. Lamu; A Study of the Swahili Town. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau.
Grabar, O.
2006a. “The architecture of the Middle Eastern city: The case of the mosque.” In Islamic Art and Beyond: Constructing the Study of Islamic Art, Volume III, 103–120. Aldershot: Ashgate.
2006b. “Cities and citizens: The growth and culture of urban Islam.” In Islamic Art and Beyond:
Constructing the Study of Islamic Art, Volume III, 155–174. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Horton, M.
1994. “Swahili architecture, space and social structure.” In Architecture and Order, edited by M. Parker-Pearson and C. Richards, 147–169. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203401484_chapter_7
1996. Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa.
2004. “Islam, archaeology and Swahili identity.” In Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam; Archaeological Perspectives, edited by D. Whitcomb, 67–88. Chicago, IL: Oriental Institute.
2017a. “East Africa and Oman c.600–1856.” In The Ports of Oman, edited by A. al-Salimi, and E. Staples, 255–282. Hildesheim: Georg Olms.
2017b. “Early Islam on the East African Coast (750–1200).” In A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, edited by F. Flood and G. Necipoglu, 250–274. New York: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119069218.ch10
2018. “Swahili Islam: Mosques and tombs.” In The Swahili World, edited by S. Wynne-Jones and
A. LaViolette, 487–499. London: Routledge.
Forthcoming. Zanzibar and Pemba: The Archaeology of an Indian Ocean Archipelago. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa.
Insoll, T.
2003. The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Johansen, B.
1998. Contingency in a Sacred Law: Legal and Ethical Norms in the Muslim Fiqh. Leiden: Brill.
King, D.
1995. “The orientation of medieval Islamic religious architecture and cities.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 26: 253–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/002182869502600305
Kirkman, J. S.
1958. “Kilwa: The Cutting behind the defensive wall.” Tanganyika Notes and Records 50: 94–101.
1964. Men and Monuments on the East African Coast. London: Lutterworth.
Lambourn, E.
2017. “Islam beyond empires: Mosques and Islamic landscapes in India and the Indian Ocean.” In
A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, edited by F. Flood and G. Necipoglu, 755–776. New York: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119069218.ch30
LaViolette, A. and J. B. Fleisher.
2009. “The urban history of a rural place: Swahili archaeology on Pemba Island, Tanzania, 700–1500 AD.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 42: 433–455.
Mathew, G.
1959. “Songo Mnara.” Tanganyika Notes and Records 53: 155–160.
Mitchell-Hedges, F. A.
1954. Danger is My Ally. London: Elek books.
Perkins, J., J. B. Fleisher and S. Wynne-Jones.
2014. “A deposit of Kilwa-type coins from Songo Mnara, Tanzania.” Azania 49: 102–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2013.871979
Pollard, E.
2008. “The maritime landscape of Kilwa Kisiwani and its region, Tanzania, 11th to 15th century AD.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27: 265–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2008.07.001
Pradines, S.
2009. “L’île de Sanjé ya Kati (Kilwa, Tanzanie): un mythe Shirâzi bien reel.” Azania 44: 49–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/00671990902795814
2010. Gedi, une cite portuaire swahilie: Islam medieval en Afrique orientale. Cairo: Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire.
Pradines S. and P. Blanchard.
2005. “Kilwa al-Mulûk. Premier bilan des travaux de conservation-restauration et des fouilles archéologiques dans la baie de Kilwa, Tanzanie.” Annales Islamologiques 39: 25–80. ?
Prior J.
1819. Voyage along the eastern coast of Africa, to Moçambique, Johanna and Quiloa; to St. Helena; to Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco in Brazil, in the Nisus frigate. London: Phillips.
Saad, E.
1979. “Kilwa dynastic history: A critical study.” History in Africa 6: 177–207. https://doi.org/10.2307/3171745
Sheriff. A.H.M.
1992. “Mosques, merchants and landowners in Zanzibar Stone Town” Azania 27: 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00672709209511428
Sutton, J.E.G.
1998. “Kilwa: A history of the ancient Swahili town with a guide to the monuments of Kilwa Kisiwani and adjacent islands.” Azania 33: 113–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/00672709809511466
Tibbetts, G. R.
1971. Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean before the coming of the Portuguese. London: Royal Asiatic Society.
Welham, K., J. Fleisher, et al.
2014. “Geophysical Survey in Sub-Saharan Africa: magnetic and Electromagnetic Investigation of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Songo Mnara, Tanzania.” Archaeological Prospection 21: 255–262. https://doi.org/10.1002/arp.1487
Whitehouse, D.
1980. The Congregational Mosque and other Mosques from the Ninth to Twelfth Centuries. London: British Institute of Persian Studies.
Wilson, T. H.
1982. “Spatial analysis and settlement patterns on the East African coast.” Paideuma 28: 201–219.
Wright, H. T.
1993. “Trade and politics on the eastern littoral of Africa, AD 800–1300.” In The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns, edited by T. Shaw, P.J.J. Sinclair, B. Andah and A. Okpoko, 658–670. London: Routledge.
Wynne-Jones, S.
2013. “The public life of the Swahili stonehouse.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32: 759–773. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2013.05.003
Wynne-Jones, S. and J. B. Fleisher.
2010. “Archaeological Investigations at Songo Mnara, Tanzania, 2009.” Nyame Akuma 73: 2–8.
2011. “Archaeological Investigations at Songo Mnara, Tanzania, 2011.” Nyame Akuma 76: 3–8.
2014. “Swahili urban spaces of the eastern African coast.” In Making Ancient Cities: Studies of the Production of Space in Early Urban Environments, edited by K. D. Fisher and A. Creekmore, 111–144. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107110274.005
2016. “The multiple territories of Swahili urban landscapes.” World Archaeology 48: 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2016.1179128
1994. “Islam on the Kenya coast: An overview of Kenyan coastal sacred sites.” In Sacred Sites, Sacred Places, edited by D. Carmichael, J. Hubert, B. Reeves and A. Schanche, 152–162. London: Routledge.
Allen, J. de V.
1974. Lamu Town, A Guide. Mombasa: Rodwell Press.
Bacuez, P.
2009. Intangible Heritage, Tourism and Raising Awareness on Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara. Paris: UNESCO.
Burton, R. F.
1872. Zanzibar: City, Island and Coast. 2 volumes. London: Tinsley Bros. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.77354
Chittick, H. N.
1963. Annual Report of the Antiquities Division for 1961. Dar es Salaam, Government Printer.
1967. “Discoveries in the Lamu Archipelago.” Azania 2: 37–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/00672706709511439
1969. “A new look at the History of Pate.” Journal of African History 10: 375–391. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853700036331
1974. Kilwa. an Islamic trading city on the East African Coast. 2 volumes. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.
1984. Manda: Excavations at an Island Port on the Kenya Coast. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.
Christie, A.
2013. “Refining the chronology of Kua ruins: Radiocarbon dates from the Mafia Archipelago.” Azania: 48: 521–533. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2013.842666
Creswell, K.A.C.
1989. A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture. Revised edition, with J. W. Allan. Aldershot: Scholar Press.
Dorman, M. H.
1938. “The Kilwa civilisation and the Kilwa ruins.” Tanganyika Notes and Records 6: 61–69.
el-Zein, A. H. M.
1974. The Sacred Meadows: A Structural Analysis of Religious Symbolism in an East African Town. Chicago, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Fleisher, J. B.
2013. “Performance, monumentality and the ‘built exterior’ on the eastern African Swahili coast.” Azania 48(2): 263–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2013.788872
2014. “The complexity of public space at the Swahili town of Songo Mnara, Tanzania.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 35: 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2014.04.002
Fleisher, J. B. and S. Wynne-Jones.
2012. “Finding Meaning in ancient Swahili spatial practices.” African Archaeological Review 29: 171–207. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-012-9121-0
Fleisher, J. B., P. Lane, A. La Violette, M. Horton, E. Pollard, E. Quintana Morales, T. Vernet, A. Christie and S. Wynne-Jones.
2015. “When did the Swahili become maritime?” American Anthropologist 117: 100–115. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.12171
Flood, B.
2009. Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval Hindu-Muslim” Encounter. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P.
1962a. The East African coast. Select documents from the first to the earlier nineteenth century. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
1962b. The Medieval History of the Coast of Tanganyika, with special reference to recent archaeological discoveries. London: Oxford University Press.
1965. The French at Kilwa Island. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Garlake, P. S.
1966. The Early Islamic Architecture of the East African Coast. Nairobi and Oxford: British Institute in Eastern Africa.
2002. Early Art and Architecture of Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gensheimer, T.
1997. At the boundaries of the Dar al-Islam: Cities of the East African coast in the late Middle Ages. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley.
Ghaidan U.
1971. African Heritage: The Stone Houses of Lamu. Lamu: Lamu Museum.
1975. Lamu; A Study of the Swahili Town. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau.
Grabar, O.
2006a. “The architecture of the Middle Eastern city: The case of the mosque.” In Islamic Art and Beyond: Constructing the Study of Islamic Art, Volume III, 103–120. Aldershot: Ashgate.
2006b. “Cities and citizens: The growth and culture of urban Islam.” In Islamic Art and Beyond:
Constructing the Study of Islamic Art, Volume III, 155–174. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Horton, M.
1994. “Swahili architecture, space and social structure.” In Architecture and Order, edited by M. Parker-Pearson and C. Richards, 147–169. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203401484_chapter_7
1996. Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa.
2004. “Islam, archaeology and Swahili identity.” In Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam; Archaeological Perspectives, edited by D. Whitcomb, 67–88. Chicago, IL: Oriental Institute.
2017a. “East Africa and Oman c.600–1856.” In The Ports of Oman, edited by A. al-Salimi, and E. Staples, 255–282. Hildesheim: Georg Olms.
2017b. “Early Islam on the East African Coast (750–1200).” In A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, edited by F. Flood and G. Necipoglu, 250–274. New York: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119069218.ch10
2018. “Swahili Islam: Mosques and tombs.” In The Swahili World, edited by S. Wynne-Jones and
A. LaViolette, 487–499. London: Routledge.
Forthcoming. Zanzibar and Pemba: The Archaeology of an Indian Ocean Archipelago. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa.
Insoll, T.
2003. The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Johansen, B.
1998. Contingency in a Sacred Law: Legal and Ethical Norms in the Muslim Fiqh. Leiden: Brill.
King, D.
1995. “The orientation of medieval Islamic religious architecture and cities.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 26: 253–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/002182869502600305
Kirkman, J. S.
1958. “Kilwa: The Cutting behind the defensive wall.” Tanganyika Notes and Records 50: 94–101.
1964. Men and Monuments on the East African Coast. London: Lutterworth.
Lambourn, E.
2017. “Islam beyond empires: Mosques and Islamic landscapes in India and the Indian Ocean.” In
A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, edited by F. Flood and G. Necipoglu, 755–776. New York: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119069218.ch30
LaViolette, A. and J. B. Fleisher.
2009. “The urban history of a rural place: Swahili archaeology on Pemba Island, Tanzania, 700–1500 AD.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 42: 433–455.
Mathew, G.
1959. “Songo Mnara.” Tanganyika Notes and Records 53: 155–160.
Mitchell-Hedges, F. A.
1954. Danger is My Ally. London: Elek books.
Perkins, J., J. B. Fleisher and S. Wynne-Jones.
2014. “A deposit of Kilwa-type coins from Songo Mnara, Tanzania.” Azania 49: 102–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2013.871979
Pollard, E.
2008. “The maritime landscape of Kilwa Kisiwani and its region, Tanzania, 11th to 15th century AD.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27: 265–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2008.07.001
Pradines, S.
2009. “L’île de Sanjé ya Kati (Kilwa, Tanzanie): un mythe Shirâzi bien reel.” Azania 44: 49–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/00671990902795814
2010. Gedi, une cite portuaire swahilie: Islam medieval en Afrique orientale. Cairo: Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire.
Pradines S. and P. Blanchard.
2005. “Kilwa al-Mulûk. Premier bilan des travaux de conservation-restauration et des fouilles archéologiques dans la baie de Kilwa, Tanzanie.” Annales Islamologiques 39: 25–80. ?
Prior J.
1819. Voyage along the eastern coast of Africa, to Moçambique, Johanna and Quiloa; to St. Helena; to Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco in Brazil, in the Nisus frigate. London: Phillips.
Saad, E.
1979. “Kilwa dynastic history: A critical study.” History in Africa 6: 177–207. https://doi.org/10.2307/3171745
Sheriff. A.H.M.
1992. “Mosques, merchants and landowners in Zanzibar Stone Town” Azania 27: 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00672709209511428
Sutton, J.E.G.
1998. “Kilwa: A history of the ancient Swahili town with a guide to the monuments of Kilwa Kisiwani and adjacent islands.” Azania 33: 113–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/00672709809511466
Tibbetts, G. R.
1971. Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean before the coming of the Portuguese. London: Royal Asiatic Society.
Welham, K., J. Fleisher, et al.
2014. “Geophysical Survey in Sub-Saharan Africa: magnetic and Electromagnetic Investigation of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Songo Mnara, Tanzania.” Archaeological Prospection 21: 255–262. https://doi.org/10.1002/arp.1487
Whitehouse, D.
1980. The Congregational Mosque and other Mosques from the Ninth to Twelfth Centuries. London: British Institute of Persian Studies.
Wilson, T. H.
1982. “Spatial analysis and settlement patterns on the East African coast.” Paideuma 28: 201–219.
Wright, H. T.
1993. “Trade and politics on the eastern littoral of Africa, AD 800–1300.” In The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns, edited by T. Shaw, P.J.J. Sinclair, B. Andah and A. Okpoko, 658–670. London: Routledge.
Wynne-Jones, S.
2013. “The public life of the Swahili stonehouse.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32: 759–773. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2013.05.003
Wynne-Jones, S. and J. B. Fleisher.
2010. “Archaeological Investigations at Songo Mnara, Tanzania, 2009.” Nyame Akuma 73: 2–8.
2011. “Archaeological Investigations at Songo Mnara, Tanzania, 2011.” Nyame Akuma 76: 3–8.
2014. “Swahili urban spaces of the eastern African coast.” In Making Ancient Cities: Studies of the Production of Space in Early Urban Environments, edited by K. D. Fisher and A. Creekmore, 111–144. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107110274.005
2016. “The multiple territories of Swahili urban landscapes.” World Archaeology 48: 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2016.1179128
Published
2017-12-20
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Horton, M., Fleisher, J., & Wynne-Jones, S. (2017). The Mosques of Songo Mnara in their Urban Landscape. Journal of Islamic Archaeology, 4(2), 163-188. https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.35272
