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49-824: Faza is a small town on the North coast on Pate Island , within the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya 's former Coast Province . Faza was known by the name of Ampaza by the Portuguese and dates back at least to the 14th century. In 1587, Faza was destroyed by the Portuguese as the local Sheikh had supported Mir Ali Beg , a notorious privateer who had earlier played a key role in ousting the Portuguese from Muscat . The Portuguese arrived from Goa with some 650 men on their punitive expedition , and unleashed their fury on Faza. Everybody they could find

98-557: A clan who still live in the nearby Swahili town of Siyu. Rezende's description of Siyu in 1634 states that "the kingdom of Sio has no king but is ruled by governors" In 1999, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times reported a surprising encounter on the island of Pate. He found a village of stone huts. He talked to an elderly man living in the village who said that he was a descendant of Chinese explorers who were shipwrecked there centuries before. The Chinese had supposedly traded with

147-411: A hospital, complete with theatre. This has removed the need for the four-hour boat trip to Lamu in emergencies. The cost was KSh. 9.5 million/= for the construction and a further KSh.3.9 million/= for theatre equipment. The KRCS have spent a further KSh.23 million/= on wells and food supplies. Pate Island Pate (Paté) Island ( Swahili pronunciation: [ˈpate] )

196-462: A kind of prince. The best of sultans was elected as khan by people at Kurultai . In a number of post-caliphal states under Mongol or Turkic rule, there was a feudal type of military hierarchy. These administrations were often decimal (mainly in larger empires), using originally princely titles such as khan , malik , amir as mere rank denominations. In the Persian empire , the rank of sultan

245-484: A sovereign ruler. The use of "sultan" is restricted to Muslim countries, where the title carries religious significance, contrasting the more secular king , which is used in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Brunei , Malaysia and Oman are the only sovereign states which retain the title "sultan" for their monarchs. In recent years, the title has been gradually replaced by "king" by contemporary hereditary rulers who wish to emphasize their secular authority under

294-512: Is located in the Indian Ocean close to the northern coast of Kenya , to which it belongs. It is the largest island in the Lamu Archipelago , which lie between the towns of Lamu and Kiunga in the former Coast Province . The island is almost completely surrounded by mangroves . Like much of the Swahili Coast, Pate's history was marked by a steady transition from agricultural communities in

343-650: Is not known, but it might date from the 13th century. Gaspar de Santo Bernadino visited the town in 1606, and stated that it was the largest town on the island. Siyu's main claim to historical fame is that it through several battles withstood the Sultans of Zanzibar . In 1843 the Sheikh of Siyu, Bwana Machaka wa Shee, and the new Sheikh of Pate , repudiated the sovereignty of Seyyid Said , Sultan of Oman and Zanzibar. In response, Seyyid Said assembled an army consisting of 2000 people from Muscat , Baluchistan and Lamu . Leading them

392-560: Is situated on the North coast (east of Faza) and is the largest fishing port on the island. Lying slightly north of Rasini, the fishing port straddles 2° 4'11.90"S and 41° 8'29.92"E, and is the southern reach of the Kizingitini-Kiunga Spiny lobster fishery. Shanga is an important archaeological site, situated on the South-East coast of the island. It was excavated during an eight-year period, starting in 1980. The earliest settlement

441-529: The Aghlabids and Tulunids . Towards the late 10th century, the term "sultan" begins to be used to denote an individual ruler with practically sovereign authority, although the early evolution of the term is complicated and difficult to establish. The first major figure to clearly grant himself this title was the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud (r. 998–1030 CE) who controlled an empire over present-day Afghanistan and

490-515: The Muslim community , their own political power clearly overshadowed the latter. This led to various Muslim scholars – notably Al-Juwayni and Al-Ghazali – attempting to develop theoretical justifications for the political authority of the Seljuk sultans within the framework of the formal supreme authority of the recognized caliphs. In general, the theories maintained that all legitimate authority derived from

539-597: The Ottoman sultan ( Suleiman the Magnificent at the time) as the caliph and universal leader of all Muslims. This conflation of sultan and caliph became more clearly emphasized in the 19th century during the Ottoman Empire's territorial decline, when Ottoman authorities sought to cast the sultan as the leader of the entire Muslim community in the face of European ( Christian ) colonial expansion . As part of this narrative, it

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588-525: The Somali aristocrats , Malay nobles and the sultans of Morocco (such as the Alaouite dynasty founded in the 17th century). It was, however, not used as a sovereign title by Shi'a Muslim rulers. The Safavid dynasty of Iran , who controlled the largest Shi'a Muslim state of this era, mainly used the Persian title shah , a tradition which continued under subsequent dynasties. The term sultan , by contrast,

637-524: The Sultanate of Women , as the position of main consort eroded over the course of the 17th century, with the main consort losing the title of "sultan", which was replaced by "kadin", a title related to the earlier "khatun". Henceforth, the mother of the reigning sultan was the only person of non imperial blood to carry the title "sultan". In Kazakh Khanate a Sultan was a lord from the ruling dynasty (a direct descendants of Genghis Khan ) elected by clans, i.e.

686-488: The Chinese sailors had named. A local guide who claimed descent from the Chinese showed Frank a graveyard made out of coral on the island, indicating that they were the graves of the Chinese sailors, which the author described as "virtually identical" to Chinese Ming dynasty tombs, complete with "half-moon domes" and "terraced entries". Sultanate The term is distinct from king ( ملك malik ), though both refer to

735-600: The Friday Mosque Horton relates this to the writing of the historian João de Barros , about members of an Arab tribe, generally believed to be Qarmatians , who arrived at the Swahili coast. De Barros connects these new arrivals with a republican style of government. Shanga was abandoned between 1400–1425; the event was recorded in both the History of Pate and in oral tradition. The Washanga ("the people of Shanga") consist of

784-462: The Magnificent )). The female leaders in Muslim history are correctly known as "sultanas". However, the wife of the sultan in the Sultanate of Sulu is styled as the "panguian" while the sultan's chief wife in many sultanates of Indonesia and Malaysia are known as "permaisuri", "Tunku Ampuan", "Raja Perempuan", or "Tengku Ampuan". The queen consort in Brunei especially is known as Raja Isteri with

833-475: The Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative. Western tradition knows the Ottoman ruler as "sultan", but Ottomans themselves used "padişah" (emperor) or "hünkar" to refer to their ruler. The emperor's formal title consisted of "sultan" together with "khan" (for example, Sultan Suleiman Khan). In formal address, the sultan's children were also entitled "sultan", with imperial princes (Şehzade) carrying

882-562: The Sultan of Zanzibar massacred almost all the rulers of Siu, he forcefully arrested the ones remained in Siu town and deported them to Mombasa for imprisonment at fort Jesus along with the others who survived the Zanzibar Massacre. When Siyu finally succumbed to Zanzibar's dominance, under Sultan Majid in 1863, it was one of the last towns on the whole of the Swahili Coast to do so. Kizingitini

931-429: The caliph, but that it was delegated to sovereign rulers whom the caliph recognized. Al-Ghazali, for example, argued that while the caliph was the guarantor of Islamic law ( shari'a ), coercive power was required to enforce the law in practice and the leader who exercised that power directly was the sultan. The position of sultan continued to grow in importance during the period of the crusades , when leaders who held

980-451: The early first millennium into a specialized, urban trading society around the 10th century, likely earlier. Islam spread down the coast from African Muslims in the Horn of Africa , helping to develop what would be known as the Swahili culture. Despite myths to the contrary, Pate was neither an Arab nor Persian colony, but an African town frequented by trading Arabs, Persians, Indians, and others. It

1029-543: The end of the 18th century. In 1811, two British naval officers, Smee and Hardy, visited Pate, and witnessed the infighting. In 1813, the famous " Battle of Shela " took place at Shela . This was an attempt by Pate, allied with the Mazrui clan from Mombasa / Oman , to subject Lamu. The attempt failed totally, and many were killed. Only a handful of people managed to return to Pate, and their losses were felt for years. Thomas Boteler, who visited Pate in 1823, described seeing

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1078-534: The famous Amir Hemed was killed and was buried in Rasini where his grave exists to date. Seyyid Said used to pay tribute to his grave at Rasini every year. It is believed Amir Hemed was very swift with his sword to the extent of stopping all arrows and spears shot at him in battlefield. The soldiers of Siu knew about this and during this battle two archers from the Siu army shot two arrows at him in one second targeting his armpit. When Amir Hemed swiftly lifted his sword to stop

1127-496: The first arrow the second shot his chest from the arm pit. It was a poisoned arrow and it killed him instantly. Seyyid Said planned a revenge to avenge the death of his cousin. After a while he cheated almost all the rulers, advisors and generals of Siu into a diplomatic mission with him in Zanzibar, but he turned this into a massacre mission for the rulers of Siu. They were advised by the sultan to leave behind all their weapons since it

1176-557: The island, with the police station, is in Faza . Faza town, on the North coast, known by the name of Ampaza by the Portuguese, dates back at least to the 14th century. In 1587, the Portuguese destroyed Faza, because the local Sheikh had supported Mir Ali Bey , a notorious privateer who had earlier played a key role in ousting the Portuguese from Muscat . The Portuguese arrived from Goa with some 650 men on their punitive expedition , and unleashed their fury on Faza. Everybody they could find

1225-513: The locals, and had even loaded giraffes onto their ship to take back to China. However, the Chinese ran aground on a nearby reef. Kristof found evidence that confirmed the man's story. Such evidence included the Asian features of the people in the village, plus Asian-looking porcelain artefacts. National Geographic then published an article by Frank Viviano in July 2005. He had visited Pate island during

1274-558: The musical instrument known as Siwa were most famous. Two examples of Siwas are held in the museum in Lamu. Both men and women wrote poetry in the Kiamu dialect of Swahili . The Utendi wa Tambuka , one of the earliest known documents in Swahili, was written in the royal Yunga palace in Pate Town. The downfall of Pate town came as a consequence of continuous quarrelling/warring with its neighbours from

1323-720: The protection of the Mamluks and were still nominally recognized by the latter. However, from this time on they effectively had no authority and were not universally recognized across the Sunni Muslim world. As protectors of the line of the Abbasid caliphs, the Mamluks recognized themselves as sultans and the Muslim scholar Khalil al-Zahiri argued that only they could hold that title. Nonetheless, in practice, many Muslim rulers of this period were now using

1372-559: The references in the Chronicle to Pate's early history are wrong, and that the town is younger. The 18th century was known as the "Golden Age of Pate", when the town was at its height of powers and also prospered in fine arts. Builders constructed some of the finest houses on the Swahili coast, with extensive elaborate plaster works. Goldsmiths made intricate jewellery, fine cloths (including silks) were made by Pate's weavers, and carpenters produced fine wooden furniture. The use and production of

1421-453: The remains of a Portuguese fort, but said that the place looked otherwise poor. The poet Mwana Kupona (d. 1860) also lived at Pate Town. By 1892, the number of inhabitants had fallen to 300, down from 7,000. Today, the town has recovered some. Agriculture is the main economic activity. Siyu town is situated on the North coast of Pate island. As no major excavations have been done in Siyu, its age

1470-412: The rise of Pate. The English Consul Holmwood visited the place in 1873 and found it "dirty and infected with diseases". The Pate Sultanate was a sultanate from at least the beginning of the 13th century until 1895. From 1858 on it was the domain known as Wituland . Archeological evidence suggests Pate was a prominent location in local trade networks by the 10th century. Pate Town is situated on

1519-454: The rise of Pate. The English Consul Holmwood visited the place in 1873 and found it "dirty and infected with diseases". On 5 September 2009, a tragic fire took place, destroying 430 houses and leaving 2500 homeless. The Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) have provided housing and thousands of items of emergency needs, including blankets, sanitation equipment, tanker loads of water etc., to some of those affected. The French government has funded

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1568-524: The rule of law. A notable example is Morocco , whose monarch changed his title from sultan to king in 1957. The word derives from the Arabic and Semitic root salaṭa "to be hard, strong". The noun sulṭān initially designated a kind of moral authority or spiritual power (as opposed to political power), and it is used in this sense several times in the Qur'an . In the early Muslim world , ultimate power and authority

1617-622: The south-west coast of the island. According to the Pate Chronicle , the town of Pate was founded by refugees from Oman in the 8th century. It was re-founded in 1203 by members of the Nabhani family , also from Oman. The Pate Chronicle also claims that in the 14th century, Pate was so powerful that it had conquered most of the towns on the Swahili coast . However, recent archaeological findings (by Neville Chittick and later, Mark Horton ) suggest that

1666-685: The surrounding region. Soon after, the Great Seljuks adopted this title after defeating the Ghaznavid Empire and taking control of an even larger territory which included Baghdad , the capital of the Abbasid caliphs . The early Seljuk leader Tughril Bey was the first leader to adopt the epithet "sultan" on his coinage . While the Seljuks acknowledged the caliphs in Baghdad formally as the universal leader of

1715-620: The time he stayed on Lamu. Ceramic fragments had been found around Lamu, which the administrative officer of the local Swahili history museum claimed were of Chinese origin; specifically, from Zheng He 's voyage to the Swahili Coast. The eyes of the Pate people resembled Chinese. Famao and Wei were some of the names among them which were speculated to be of Chinese origin. Their ancestors were said to be from indigenous women who intermarried with Chinese Ming sailors when they were shipwrecked. Two places on Pate were called "Old Shanga", and "New Shanga", which

1764-630: The title as well. Mongol rulers (who had since converted to Islam) and other Turkish rulers were among those who did so. The position of sultan and caliph began to blend together in the 16th century when the Ottoman Empire conquered the Mamluk Empire and became the indisputable leading Sunni Muslim power across most of the Middle East , North Africa , and Eastern Europe . The 16th-century Ottoman scholar and jurist, Ebüssuûd Mehmet Efendi , recognized

1813-559: The title before their given name, and imperial princesses carrying it after. For example: Şehzade Sultan Mehmed and Mihrimah Sultan , son and daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent. Like imperial princesses, the living mother and main consort of the reigning sultan also carried the title after their given names, for example: Hafsa Sultan , Suleiman's mother and first valide sultan , and Hürrem Sultan , Suleiman's chief consort and first haseki sultan . The evolving usage of this title reflected power shifts among imperial women, especially between

1862-456: The title of Pengiran Anak suffixed, should the queen consort also be a royal princess. These are generally secondary titles, either lofty 'poetry' or with a message, e.g.: By the beginning of the 16th century, the title sultan was carried by both men and women of the Ottoman dynasty and was replacing other titles by which prominent members of the imperial family had been known (notably khatun for women and bey for men). This usage underlines

1911-619: The title of "sultan" (such as Salah ad-Din and the Ayyubid dynasty ) led the confrontation against the crusader states in the Levant . Views about the office of the sultan further developed during the crisis that followed the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, which eliminated the remnants of Abbasid political power. Henceforth, the surviving descendants of the Abbasid caliphs lived in Cairo under

1960-454: Was a diplomatic one. Upon arrival in Zanzibar, Seyyid Said individually asked every individual in the Siu mission the whereabouts of Amir Hemed and everybody who answered that he is dead was killed instantly by the Sultan. Some of the diplomats who answered that Amir Hemed is still alive were spared but they were imprisoned for life at fort Jesus in Mombasa which was also under the Sultan then. After

2009-507: Was claimed that when Sultan Selim I captured Cairo in 1517, the last descendant of the Abbasids in Cairo formally passed on the position of caliph to him. This combination thus elevated the sultan's religious or spiritual authority, in addition to his formal political authority. During this later period, the title of sultan was still used outside the Ottoman Empire as well, as with the examples of

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2058-407: Was dated to the 8th century, and the conclusion drawn from archaeological evidence (locally minted coins, burials) indicate that a small number of local inhabitants were Muslim, probably from the late 8th century onwards, and at least from the early ninth. The excavations also revealed a major break in the development of Shanga in the mid or late 11th century, with the destruction and the rebuilding of

2107-468: Was his cousin, General Seyyid Hemed bin Ahmed Al-Busaidy, known as "Amir Hemed". He had previously been Governor of Bandar Abbas (in 1824). He landed at Faza in early January 1844. On 6 January they moved towards Siyu, but were ambushed and forced back to Faza. After three weeks without a victory Amir Hemed sailed off. In 1845 Siyu gave Seyyid Said one of his greatest military defeats, in this battle

2156-503: Was killed, including the local Sheikh. The Portuguese preserved his head in a barrel of salt for display in India . After four days of looting they invited Faza's arch-rivals from Pate town to take away anything that they liked from Faza. Faza was later resettled. The Portuguese in Faza constructed a chapel there, however, nothing remains of it. In the 18th century Faza again fell into decline due to

2205-407: Was killed, including the local Sheikh. The Portuguese preserved his head in a barrel of salt for display in India . After four days of looting they invited Faza's arch-rivals from Pate town to take away anything that they liked from Faza. Faza was later resettled. The Portuguese in Faza constructed a chapel there, however, nothing remains of it. In the 18th century Faza again fell into decline due to

2254-465: Was mainly given to provincial governors within their realm. A feminine form of sultan , used by Westerners, is sultana or sultanah and this title has been used legally for some (not all) Muslim women monarchs and sultan's mothers and chief consorts. However, Turkish and Ottoman Turkish also uses sultan for imperial lady, as Turkish grammar uses the same words for both women and men (such as Hurrem Sultan and Sultan Suleiman Han ( Suleiman

2303-613: Was roughly equivalent to that of a modern-day captain in the West; socially in the fifth-rank class, styled ' Ali Jah . Apparently derived from the Arabic malik , this was the alternative native style of the sultans of the Kilwa Sultanate in Tanganyika (presently the continental part of Tanzania). Mfalume is the (Ki) Swahili title of various native Muslim rulers, generally rendered in Arabic and in western languages as Sultan: This

2352-410: Was the centre of the Pate sultanate from the 13th–19th centuries. The Swahili port of Pate long vied with Lamu and Takwa (on Manda Island ) for economic dominance of the area, and came into prominence around the 14th century. It was subjugated by Lamu, however, in the late 19th century. Public transportation is provided by a few mini buses (known as matatus ). The main administrative centre on

2401-495: Was theoretically held by the caliph, who was considered the leader of the caliphate. The increasing political fragmentation of the Muslim world after the 8th century, however, challenged this consensus. Local governors with administrative authority held the title of amīr ( أمير , traditionally "commander" or " emir ", later also "prince") and were appointed by the caliph, but in the 9th century some of these became de facto independent rulers who founded their own dynasties, such as

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