Maritime trade and Islam in the Indian Ocean: the first Swahili mosques (eleventh to thirteenth centuries)

Maritime trade in the Indian Ocean led to the emergence of an original African culture, the Swahili culture. The first archaeological evidence of Islamization in East Africa dating back to the eleventh century and are characterized by mosques built in coral limestone. Swahili Islam, tolerant and syncretic, was spread through small groups of merchants and Arab-Persian Shiite refugees, known as Shirazi. These communities have played a decisive role in the urbanization of East African coast.