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Essay / Swahili Essay - 1182
The presence of Swahili is a remarkable achievement of blending, open-mindedness and cultural acclimatization. In fact, the Swahili are not an ethnic group. It is a polyethnic society where the passage of time has diluted the boundaries between one group and another. Swahili is the name given to coastal peoples found as far north as Somalia and as far south as Mozambique. They share a common language called Ki-Swahili, which is widely spoken by non-Swahili people. The Swahilis appreciate the urban fusion of African and Arab cultures. Contacts between the African coast and Arabia, Persia and China date back well before the arrival of Islam in the 8th century and have shaped much of the language and culture of Swahili society today. 'today. It can be argued that the coastal Africans were closer to the peoples of the Persian Gulf. and Arabia than to African societies of the central interior. Through interactions with these peoples, the East African coast has a long trading history that involves constant exchange of ideas, styles and products for over two thousand years. Marriages between Middle Eastern men and African women created and established a rich Swahili culture, merging agricultural and urban communities rich in architecture, textiles and food, as well as purchasing power. The Indian Ocean, as perceived by the main actors in the African part of the Indian Ocean (Muslims and South India), constituted a continuity which extended from the Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean to the Strait of Malacca, to the Indonesian archipelago and to the Indian Ocean. present-day Sunda Island. The focus of African Muslims and Indians was on the East Coast, which was not only part of the Indian Ocean, but historically part of Islam. Islam was a... middle of paper ...... the , it should also be noted that the Swahili language was influenced by Arabic, Asian and Indian languages through loan words. Although the origins of the Swahili language as a whole still remain unclear, we can see where trade links were established across the Indian Ocean. The Swahili elite knew how to use the idea of exclusion and combine it with Islam in order to distinguish it. Muslims, through Islam, introduced new stability to the region and provided a basis of knowledge, class separations, trade, belief system, architectural design and even introduced alternative clothing through Islam in order to help Swahili society grow and prosper. Through their trade across the Indian Ocean, we can get an idea of what this early civilization did and what products were considered valuable in their society as well as other societies..