Abdullah Hakim Quick – How East Africa Changed the World

			Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Seder walima
Arkady in the Vienna Mohammed and while Allah He was happy he made about all praise the due to Allah
Lord of the worlds and peace and blessings be constantly showered upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad,
the master of the first and the last, and upon his family and all of his companions, all those who
called his way and follow his son, today of judgment,
		

			my beloved brothers and sisters, to our friends, to those in the viewing audience as salaam wa
Alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
		

			Alhamdulillah
		

			another opportunity for us to reflect upon human experience to reflect upon what happened to people
who came before us and look at it in relationship to our world today.
		

			2020 is a very unique year, the whole world is going through a great pandemic. And Muslims are in a
special position in that not only are we isolating ourselves because of the covid 19 pandemic, but
also we have been blessed with the month of Ramadan.
		

			And Ramadan is a time of introspection. It is a time of reflection upon the world. And it is a time
when Muslims are advised to get deeply into the book of Allah Al Quran. And we recognize that deport
and itself is one third history. One third of the revelation is dedicated to us to the stories of
those who came before us.
		

			And Allah subhanaw taala tells us in Surah use of verse one 111
		

			laqad kanopy Casa see him a baritone Leola l Bob, that in their stories in their parables are great
lessons for those who reflect for intelligent people. And it is crucial for us to benefit from
reflection, to strive to gain wisdom, so that we can come out of the great perils of the day.
Because not only are we being assaulted by a physical plague, but there is also a type of food
pandemic. There's also a political pandemic. And above all, there is a spiritual plague. And so, by
reflecting upon the book of Allah subhanaw taala. By looking at history, maybe inshallah, we can
have a more broad based understanding of the world. And along with the revelation, we can begin to
		

			chat our way out of where we are.
		

			true history erases the mystery.
		

			This series that we have been involved in, is dedicated to bringing history from the original
sources,
		

			bringing it together with the revelation,
		

			and trying to construct a type of worldview based upon this broad based understanding.
		

			And in looking at East Africa focused is East Africa. And we recognize that East Africa, in our
broad perspective, starts from the top of the Red Sea and goes down all the way to the south in
Mozambique.
		

			That when we look at this area, this ancient area, we find that on the Red Sea and in the Nile, that
movement civilization has been going on for 1000s of years. And it is reported that Arab merchants
on the Red Sea, we're applying the sea in their dials in their boats, up and down the Red Sea to the
Horn of Africa and over to Southern Arabia, over to India, to the South China Sea. And it is
reported that in some cases, the Arab merchants even made it all the way to Japan and Korea. And
surprisingly enough, this was long before the time of Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon
him in the sixth century.
		

			The merchants on the oceans were aided not only by their courage and their understanding of
navigation, but they will also naturally assisted by the monsoon seasons and it is the North East.
		

			monsoons that move people naturally along in the ocean between November and March, the Southwest
monsoons between April and October. And so, during this time a brisk trade was going on.
		

			trade was happening copper, tin silver, died cloaks tunics were traded for gold, incense, ivory,
tortilla shells and other African products into the ocean, Indian spices, jewels, Chinese porcelain,
and you can still find traces of this trade in the culture of people in East Africa. Up until today.
		

			When we look back at the recorded information that comes to us after the Egyptian period, we find
that in 50 ad, and anonymous Greek traveler who traveled down the Red Sea into the East African
coastline, he wrote a book the periplus of the Eritrean sea. And he described navigation not only on
the East African coast, but he also talked about navigation all the way to the Indian Ocean.
		

			When the Romans took over, they dominated the trade in the Red Sea.
		

			And the Romans called the east coast of Africa, as Ania.
		

			In the Islamic period, we have understood that a natural connection was happening between the early
Muslim state and the African continent. The first higit up were Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings
be upon him, sent his companions into Alibaba Abyssinia, which now is era terrier and Ethiopia. He
sent His followers there to the great Christian Emperor house Hama, under joshy.
		

			This interaction was a historic one. It is a Muslim Prophet, the last of the long line of prophets,
who is sending His people who are being tortured and persecuted as refugees across the Red Sea to
the great African empire of exome.
		

			And the Christian Emperor, who had a strong belief in one God, not only accepted the Muslims, but
gave them sanctuary, and eventually accepted Islam himself.
		

			After the time of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, Omar Abdullah hottub rhodiola
one, the great Caliph, the second Caliph, sent exploratory
		

			see merchants and boats and navy down the Red Sea. But this expedition failed. And he was reminded
that the prophet SAW saddam had said, leave the people of Abyssinia alone
		

			as long as the as long as they leave you with ruku habersham Hubba Matata Cuckoo.
		

			And so Omar, ready allow one set that natural pace, that natural relationship between the Arabian
Peninsula between the Muslims and those who were living on the East African coastline following the
time of the great caliphs, the whole of our Rashi gene. The made calor for the next dynasty, we
remember after the rightly guided caliphs, was the made dynasty. The omega Caliph, Abdul Malik, Eben
mattawan, sent emissaries into East Africa in 696. And so there was a movement the Romanians
recognized the presence of Muslims along the coastline. They recognize that there were scholars
there they were people from the family of Prophet Muhammad SAW seldom who will living in the Horn of
		

			Africa and down the coastline. And so even recent excavations have shown the ruins of Masjid and
also Muslim burial sites, which dated back once in one case to seven AD AD, another to 850 ad. And
these were found in shanga. This is in the l'amour region of present day, Kenya on the East African
coastline. And so, the the early settlements were in connection with the Muslims. And we also have
remains of ancient masjids the island of Pemba and ghulja, known as Zanzibar, we find the connection
and the remains are still there up until today. And so that brisk trade was going on that natural
interaction between the Muslim world the Arab merchants and the people along the East African
		

			coastline
		

			and looking at East
		

			Africa as a whole, we recognize by the Rift Valley. That is, it is connected to the interior. And at
that time, a huge expansion was in its climax from the year 1000 BC, a great nation called the Bantu
nation expanded itself from the area of Cameroon's and Nigeria. And they started moving east.
		

			They were carrying metal. They changed the civilizations, they conquered, they organized, and the
Bantu people, organized complex civilizations and societies, not only in Central Africa, but they
reached all along the East African coastline. And they went south into what is now South Africa. And
so, it is the connection between the Bantu nation that had developed complex societies, with
philosophy, with language, with justice, with hierarchy with all the different aspects of political
and economic life, they came in contact with the Arab merchants on the coastline. And so the Swahili
culture then develops. And LMS Rudy Rahim Allah, Who is considered to be the Emir of the Islamic
		

			historians, the greatest of Islamic historians and travelers made two journeys into East Africa. And
he wrote in his book merujuk, the hub where my adeno Johansson. This is a famous set of writings of
lmsw Rudy, where he describes many parts of the world. In 1945, he noted that there was a brisk
trade that was going on between the Arabian Gulf and the East African coastline. And he wrote about
a type of African language that started to have Arabic words in it and Persian words, and he was
noticing this African language, something different. This language was later known as key Swahili.
And so, that connection, that marriage, so to speak, not only physically between the Arab merchants
		

			and the and the Bantu nations, but also linguistically, culturally, socially, it continued to
happen. And we can find in the chronicle of Lamu, and the chronicle of kilwa, you will find some
ancient reports about the formation of that new Swahili society
		

			in terms of its its concept of God,
		

			the ancient Bantu people had gone through a stage of evolution. And they had reached the point where
the concept of the great cosmic spirit willunga this great spirit, or the one God was dominating all
of their lesser gods, and they were perfectly set for the coming of Islam. And so it is again, that
that marriage of the African tawheed, the monotheism in Africa, and the message of the last prophet
Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, which made it a natural marriage and interaction and
Islam began to spread and people entered into Islam and crowds. And so, the Swahili culture is
developed. And this name Kiswahili comes from Swahili, Sahil is your coast Swahili is the plural So
		

			literally, Kiswahili is the language of the people on the coastlines. And this song. Culture,
developed very dynamic culture developed and impacted not only language, but it also impacted food,
clothing, marriage concepts, and when Islam came in, with a, an organized form of life, with
political form of life, with economic form of life, with a way to organize your city and your
nation, the Swahili people began to thrive. And between 1100 to 1300 ad, a number of city states
develop along the East African coast, we find places such as Mogadishu medica, but our Patty shanga
llamo melendi Mombasa Pemba en booja, known as Zanzibar, mafia kilowatt
		

			The Comoros islands and many others start to spring up an amazing set of city states and a merits
develop where a strong culture springs up that not not only is benefiting from the last revelation,
but also is benefiting from international trade. And so amongst the ancient people there, you can
actually find Chinese goods, Indian goods, Arabian goods, you will find different products from the
interior of Africa. It all blends together into this amazing culture, which surprised a lot of the
international travelers when they reach that part of the world. A Sharif and idrisi Rahim Allah,
another great Islamic historian, geographer and traveler. He visited on Pooja Zanzibar and Muscat in
		

			Oman in the 12th century. And he was amazed at what he saw. He was amazed at the the the
civilization he was amazed at the level that the people were on. Even battuta rahima hula who is
considered to be probably the greatest international trout traveler who ever lived even greater than
Marco Polo. He visited that area. And he went to Mombasa to Mogadishu and to kilwa in the 14th
century. And he actually interacted with the people of a famous city state that was known as kilwa.
		

			He mentioned in his writing, he mentioned abal abal, Mustafa Hassan, who was a pious Amir. And not
only was he ruling his people with wisdom, but he was being visited by the Lama, the scholars coming
from Mecca and Medina. And so even battuta actually writes about this connection between Mecca,
Medina, and kilowatt as a city state. And he described the people as being clean and organized and
very pious. They were members of the Shafi right, they follow the method or the school of thought of
Imam Shafi, Rahim Allah. And
		

			he when he describes the area, and it's amazing, he said, kilowatt is one of the most beautiful and
well constructed towns in the world. The whole the whole of it is elegantly built. And when Ibn
battuta is talking about is one of the most beautiful towns in the world. This is not watching
television or reading a book, even but to to actually traveled around the world. He actually lived
in Sri Lanka, in India, China, Indonesia, throughout Arabia, throughout North Africa, where he was
originally from. And so he describes kilowatt as a beautiful place. And another interesting report.
And this is part of our records. And it comes from a Portuguese writer, who in the time of Vasco de
		

			Gama, a Portuguese leader, he visited Cuba in 1502. And so, the Portuguese write up in describing
the town and I want you to reflect upon even present day level, present days Zanzibar, I want you to
reflect on a classical Islamic town. This is the level that the Swahili people had reached in their
beautiful Islamic culture. He writes as follows. The city is large, and is have good buildings of
stone and mortar with terraces, and the houses have much Woodworks. The city comes down to the
shore, and is entirely surrounded by a wall and towers, within which there may be 12,000
inhabitants. The country all around is very luxuriate with many trees and gardens of all sorts of
		

			vegetables, citrus, lemons, and the best sweet oranges that were ever seen.
		

			sugarcane, figs, pomegranates and a great abundance of flocks, especially sheep. The streets of the
city are very narrow, as the houses are very high of three and four storeys, and one can run along
the tops of them upon the terraces as the houses are very close together. And in the port. There
were many ships, and so he is describing a bustling culture. He is describing an amazing society
that Ibn battuta considered to be one of the most
		

			Beautiful cities that he's ever seen in the world.
		

			Another amazing report comes out of Chinese literature. And that is the journey of the great Chinese
Admiral Chandra.
		

			Chandra, who in the 15th century, became the Admiral of probably the greatest fleet in human history
at that time, he was originally a Muslim, coming from a Mongolian background, a Muslim background,
and his people were conquered. He was taken into the court of the Ming Dynasty. And because of his
natural capabilities, he he rose up in the positions, and he became one of the great admirals of the
Ming Dynasty, to the extent that he was chosen to lead the Imperial fleet. So the stories of
changhua,
		

			the great Muslim, who was a servant of the Ming Dynasty, but also a believer in the one God. He made
seven amazing voyages in the 15th century. And included in these voyages. For those who are into
history. Many believe that he actually even went to the Americas. But on the fourth voyage, as he's
traveling through from China, and down into Indonesia, and into Sri Lanka, moving through the
oceans, with a huge fleet of ships, and he reaches the Persian area Hormuz. There he meets
emissaries who came from the Swahili lads from Malindi, from berawa, from Mogadishu. He met them
there in Hormuz. And he was surprised to see that amongst the gifts and products that the Swahili is
		

			were bringing into the Persian area, they had a huge animal, we now know as a giraffe, and this
shocked to Chinese and they thought it was like a unicorn or some mystical creature, that that that
cake that appeared in the literature. And so he convinced them to come back with him to China. And
they gave the gift to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. And the people were amazed by the stories
that were coming from East Africa. It was known, the trade was known, because the Chinese were
getting the gold, the spices, the ivory, the African products coming out of that region, from
ancient times. But they didn't know about the people. They didn't understand about the animal life
		

			and something about the culture of the people there. On the fifth voyage, changhua Rahim Allah, he
visited Persia, Yemen, Mogadishu. But our Malindi and the Chinese anchored in 1418 on Padre Island.
And legend has it that the Swahili people woke up one day, and they saw 300 ships coming out of the
ocean. It was an amazing Armada, the Chinese state and East Africa for some time, to the point where
they even married some of the local people. And the famau people have seen you, on Petey Island
actually claimed Chinese ancestry. And for those who have visited the area, you can see the Chinese
blood, you can see that interaction between a Chinese person and an African person. And so a brisk
		

			trade was going on. The Chinese were bringing in this silk they were bringing in porcelain. They
would also get pepper from over in Sri Lanka and the other areas. And they would trade for the
spices for the gems for the precious woods, even for medicines and textiles. And so an amazing
interaction is going on. And that interaction was one of the most successful trade routes in the
world at the time. People speak about the Silk Road. And that is the northerly route that went from
China, over from Mongolia, Turkistan
		

			Persia, all the way down into Turkey. This is the famous Silk Road, which eventually when it reached
Constantinople, now Istanbul, it was a medium point between Asia and Europe. And so this was
		

			Probably the most successful trade route in the world at the time. But what is not so recognized by
the general public is that the southern route was also an amazing trade route. We have so much
interaction was going on. And we find that in terms of the culture, the porcelains, the silks, the
spices, and of course from Southern Arabia, the frankincense and the mirror, it people benefited
from this, not only in their physical life, but in their spiritual life. Frankincense was burned in
their temples, the beautiful incense and the into the perfumes were being used. And then the Chinese
silks were coming into the East African area, the beautiful porcelains were coming in. And so this
		

			is an international fusion of culture, moving along the trade routes, and at the core of this in
East Africa, were the Swahili people. And so, that trade route was one of the most important
movements of civilization of human beings at the at the time in the ancient world. And the Islamic
faith as well moved along with the merchants, because Muslim scholars and Allah Ma and people of
Dawa of the call moved along with the merchants. They entered into East Africa. They moved along the
trade routes. They moved from Southern Arabia, over into Sri Lanka, up into what is now Bangladesh.
They also moved into Kerala, which is the west coast of India and down into Malacca, Malaysia, into
		

			Indonesia. The missionaries also went up into the Philippines. And so that whole area we see are
followers of your mama Shafi Rahim Allah. And it's surprising because people generally think of
Indian people, or Pakistani people as Hanafi Muslims, the Hanafi, right, but on that coastline in
Kerala, they actually Shafi and the same traditions and we find some of the oldest matches in
Southeast Asia, along the coastlines. So whether it be Bangladesh, Kerala, Malacca, Indonesia, all
the way to the Philippines, that interaction,
		

			succeeded in not only spreading physical goods, but also spirituality, and the last revelation of
Islam. And so a type of cultural unity developed amongst the people of the area. Scholars, Allah
traveled back and forth to different places. And I can even remember in living in Cape Town in South
Africa for a period of time, that the scholars from Indonesia traveling along these routes, actually
made it all the way to Cape Town and to other parts of southern Africa. And so it is an
international trade and interaction. Now, looking at East Africa, again, we recognize it's not only
the coastline, but it also is the interior. And this is where the de Swahili merchants made amazing
		

			explorations. Elon Musk Rudy Rahim. Oh, hello. Again, the great Amir of the historians wrote from
back in the 10th century, he spoke about the journey of Arab merchants, Swahili merchants, as far as
as cape Delgado, which is in the northern province of Mozambique. And so, into that region along the
coast in the south, the Swahili merchants then moved into the interior. There are river systems and
beezy river system. There are major rivers that move from the the coastline moving in, and the
Swahili merchants traveled to the interior. And they traveled along the river systems mainly for
gold. It is a there is a misunderstanding that they were traveling for slaves. But slavery was not a
		

			major Islamic institution at that time. slaves were being used by people all throughout the world as
a means of carrying goods. And so the Swahili merchants then moved inland to the Great Zimbabwe. And
Zimbabwe had one of the most active gold mines in the world. And so the trade from Zimbabwe to the
coastline was the best one. And there is a recorded report, which came we still have from a
Portuguese traveler in 1511 Antonio
		

			Fernandes and he writes about following the well worn trade route from sofala, which is on the
coastline in Mozambique, to the King chisaki of Zimbabwe. And so the Trade Centers were set up along
the coast, along the rivers, Trade Centers, all the way to the Great Zimbabwe. And you can still
see, in Zimbabwe, the ruins of a major civilization,
		

			which developed from the African people living there, the Shona and and the Bantu people in the
interior, and also their connection with the Swahili people on the coast. Islamic teachings were
moving along as well. And the trade and the teachings of Islam reached Malawi. It reached not only
Zimbabwe, but Zambia, and all the way to Uganda. And in South Africa, It is reported that even in
Limpopo and Mpumalanga that these are present day South Africa, that the Swahili merchants reach
this area and the gold trade coming out of South Africa was reaching the coast. The Swahili
merchants also reached Uganda. And because of their interaction with the people, their character,
		

			and how they were dealing, they impressed one of the princes of the Buganda people. And in present
day Kampala, there is a major Valley there are hills around this valley, and the great princes of
the Buganda control different sections from the hill, one of the princess wanted to embrace Islam.
But he had a problem. And that is that the prince according to the customs of the Buganda people,
that you're not supposed to spill the blood of the prince. And in order to accept Islam, you have to
be circumcised. And so he had to make a choice. And he chose to become Muslim. He accepted Islam,
and controlled his Hill, controlled his people. And through that Islam spread and Uganda, and there
		

			is still a very strong presence in that region. And so Islam had spread to the interior, the
connection between the coastline again, this is East Africa, this is the business that is going on,
which is connecting the interior of Africa, Southern Africa, to the coastline to Persia, to
Indonesia to China, it is it is an international connection that is going on.
		

			In the 15th century,
		

			after the fall of Granada, in Spain, and Andalus. Muslims had lost their authority in Western
Europe, after having lived there for over 700 years.
		

			The Muslims then had to flee. They were conquered by the Catholic King and queens, Ferdinand and
Isabella, and the Portuguese as well established their Catholic Kings and Queens. And so from there,
and expansion happened. This is really the first modern, you could say, European expansion. And it
was the Portuguese because the coastline in Lisbon, it is that area with the Muslim navigation. And
you know, and the Muslim Navy was based. And so the Portuguese then, having inherited this
information, conquering the Muslims and taking this information, they became some of the strongest
people on the oceans. And so in the 15th century, the Portuguese realized they could not easily
		

			travel through the Middle East. The Turkish nations were there, the Arab nations, the Muslims were
strong in this region. So they couldn't make it through without dealing with the Muslims. And so
they were looking for a way around the Middle East. And so they started to move along the shores of
Africa.
		

			And with the help of certain raumati sailors, they went around South Africa, of course, they call it
the Cape of Good Hope, because they were hoping to go around the Muslim world. And they traveled
around the Cape of Good Hope. And they began to conquer. They had this Conquistador mentality that
they were fighting the crusades, and everywhere they went, especially when they saw Muslims, they
immediately began to fight.
		

			People were used to doing business along the coastline. It was an international trade. There were no
conquering armies. There were no Conquistadores. But the Portuguese came through, and they
subjugated cities in East Africa, and they built forts on the coastline and they can
		

			connected in the East African coastline to Adam in Yemen, to hold a moose to go out in India to
Calcutta, in India to Gujarat. All of these areas, the Portuguese connected these areas and
subjugated the people dominated the trade for a period of time, and they introduced flourishing
slave trade. And so really, for the first time, slavery was being introduced not as a means of
		

			carrying goods as a means of the relationship between employer and employee, which was all over the
world because slavery continued in the world. Up until the 19th century, they introduced the slave
as the means as the means of production that is the product. So this is different than looking for
gold, or looking for ivory, the slave becomes the product and the Portuguese introduced this and the
people resist and the local sua healy's, were resisting and finding the Portuguese overwhelming,
they're huge forts on the coastline, you can still see in Mombasa and Malindi and in many places,
you will see the Portuguese forts. There are many Muslims coming from Southern Arabia, having
		

			fighting skills, and ocean skills. They came together with the Swahili Muslims, and they defeated
the Portuguese.
		

			But the problem that happened after the Portuguese were driven out, in 1812, a division broke out
between the people of Mombasa and llamo. And this infighting going on amongst the Swahili is caused
the Romanians to come in, they broke it up, they took over and they established peace in the in the
region. But Soltani, say inside of Oman, after having established peace in the region, and the woman
is looking at this area, as a fear seeming place with an amazing type of culture. They decided to
subdue the whole Swahili coast. And so the woman is subdued the Swahili coast and continued the
slave trade of the Portuguese. And this is one of the difficult times one of the sad times in our
		

			history, we have slavery as a means of production, where people were actually the main products it
developed. And so the plantations, the slave trade continued, it never reached the level of the
Atlantic slave trade. And those who would say that it did have to bring the proof. Because with the
Atlantic slave trade, we can see that millions of people were transported from Africa, into the
Americas. And the result, the remainder is the people in Brazil and the Caribbean, in the United
States, there are black people. But it was not the same in East Africa. The humanities were involved
in this. And it's only really from 1812 until the late 19th 2020, early 20th century, when they were
		

			subdued by the colonial powers, that you actually find slavery. And so it existed. And it is not
within Islamic mandate to do that. It was counter Islam that they were involved in. And Swahili
culture still flourished, even under this difficulty. And so what is important to recognize that
Swahili culture has evolved over 1000 years
		

			before the coming of the Manny's Swahili culture was a beautiful blending together of the Bantu
African culture of the Arab Society of the Persian shirazian other people who are coming in, they
were no conquering armies that came into East Africa. There are no stories of Army subduing the
people and sub subjugating them and forcing them to become Muslims. It was a natural blending, that
that brought about a beautiful culture.
		

			It is important for us to recognize this because there's a tendency for orientalist historians to
immediately talk about slavery, whenever they talk about Swahili slavery, whenever they talk about
East Africa slavery, no, this was not the basis of the society. It is a beautiful society, blended
together through natural interaction of people and connected to Arabia, Persia, Southeast Asia to
China all the way to Japan and Korea. It is one of the most important international trade routes in
ancient times and is this Swahili culture
		

			that is still there on the East African coastline.
		

			The language has spread. Many nations are now speaking Swahili, you know, as a main main lingua
franca as a main way of speaking, to unite all of their languages in East Africa. Swahili is still
making great contributions, intellectual contributions, scientific contributions, artistic
contributions. And it's important for us to understand this, when we see that people in this region
are suffering in a drought, when we see that the pandemics that the the international disease of the
economy, you could say that the economic plague is striking the people of this region, we have to
recognize that this is a great civilization. And the people there have have an amazing culture,
		

			which has evolved over 1000s of years, and still is making great impact in the world today. And so
this is the world of the Swahili. This is the world of East Africa. From the ancient times of the
ancient Egyptians, funny shots of the ancient Queen Pharaoh of Egypt, trading with the Somalis and
potluck from the hemmati people of Yemen, trading with East Africa, from the Arab merchants plying
their way along the coastlines, following the monsoon winds, from their connection to India, and
their connection to Sri Lanka, their connection to Southeast Asia, and that beautiful fusion that
went on. This is a celebration. It's a celebration of culture. It's a celebration of spirituality.
		

			And we can only pray that Almighty God Allah would bless the people of this region and would enable
them to revive their culture and to continue to contribute to the onward flow of civilization. I
leave you with these thoughts. And I asked a lot to have mercy on me and you were Salam aleikum wa
rahmatullah wa barakato.