ABSTRACT
Ibn Sumayt ˙ ’s long residence in Zanzibar coincided with a number of political
and social changes in East Africa. Throughout the nineteenth century, the social status and prerogatives of the traditional Swahili city-state patricians had been undermined by the expansion of the Bu¯ Sa\ı¯dı¯ Sultanate. At the pinnacle of its power during the reign of Sayyid Barghash, Bu¯ Sa\ı¯dı¯ local representatives had effectively supplanted the waungwana when it came to the implementation of law, military organisation and taxation. The decline of the Sultanate was rapid: by the end of the century its economy was disrupted, large parts of its mainland possessions lost and political power ceded to British overlordship. At the same time, the gradual abolition of slavery combined with increased contact between the coast and the peoples of the interior had altered the demographic makeup of the coastal communities.
