L'île de Sanje ya Kati (Kilwa, Tanzanie): un mythe Shirazi bien réel

Excavations at Sanje ya Kati have established that the site's chronology does not exceed three centuries, from AD 950 to 1250, while the town's apogee and most of its buildings date from between 1050 and 1150. Sanjeaya Kati brings new data that permit a re-evaluation of Persian influence in Eastern Africa. Notwithstanding the critics, numerous historic and archaeological data show a Persian presence in East Africa. This paper argues that the narratives of Persian sailors, religious and architectural influences from the Gulf, and products exchanged, such as ceramics, document an obvious 'Shirazi reality'. However, the term 'Shirazi' designates more than just the city of Shiraz or the port of Siraf in modern Iran; rather, it groups together different populations of the Persian Gulf who shared a common religious ideology in Shiite Islam and arrived in Africa between the tenth and twelfth centuries. While not contesting local processes of development or the African origin of Swahili sailors and tradesmen, recent archaeological research thus re-evaluates this Persian impact as a vector for urbanisation on the East African coast