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The Pate Chronicle
edited and partially translated by Marina Tolmacheva
with the assistance of Dagmar Weiler
Copyright Date: 1993
Published by: Michigan State University Press
Pages: 607
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/j.ctt9qf551
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The Pate Chronicle
Book Description:

In late October 1890, a British force led by Admiral Fremantle assaulted and subdued the East African town of Witu, the mainland capital of the Nabahani rulers of Pate; five years later, the entire region and the adjacent coastal islands came under British administration. One of the great tragedies suffered as a result of Admiral Fremantle's initial attack was the loss of the original manuscript of the history of Pate, The Book of the Kings of Pate.This historical work in its various forms is representative of a living historical tradition developed in the coastal city-states of East Africa and is considered one of the important literary treasures of their culture and society. It also stands as the most important indigenous source for Swahili history, the history of the Swahili language, its dialects, and its written tradition. The four Arabic-Swahili versions (manuscripts 177, 321, 344, and 358 of the Library of the University of Dar es Salaam) presented here inThe Pate Chronicleadd significantly to the growing pool of information available about Pate and East Africa before the era of European colonialism.

eISBN: 978-1-60917-302-9
Subjects: History
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-iv)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. v-vii)
  3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (pp. viii-ix)
    Marina Tolmacheva
  4. NOTE ON ORTHOGRAPHY
    NOTE ON ORTHOGRAPHY (pp. x-xi)
  5. MAPS
    • 1. The East African Coast
      1. The East African Coast (pp. xii-xii)
    • 2. The Lamu Archipelago
      2. The Lamu Archipelago (pp. xiii-xiii)
    • 3. Manuscript Map of Pate
      3. Manuscript Map of Pate (pp. xiv-xiv)
    • GENERAL INTRODUCTION
      GENERAL INTRODUCTION (pp. 1-28)

      On the morning of October 26, 1890 a British column of 950 men led by Admiral Fremantle advanced on the town of Witu, the last, mainland capital of the Nabahani rulers of Pate.

      A seven-pounder field gun failed to break down the gate, but explosives wrenched the tree trunks sufficiently to allow the attackers to enter. All the stone buildings, including the palace, and a great quantity of powder and ammunition were blown up. Every effort was “successfully used to utterly wreck and destroy the town and defences of Witu.”¹

      The attack, which the British mounted in retaliation for murder...

  6. TRANSCRIPTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • ANCIENT HISTORY FROM SWAHILI SOURCES
      ANCIENT HISTORY FROM SWAHILI SOURCES (pp. 31-128)
      C. H. STIGAND

      The following text was published by Captain C.H. Stigand in chapters II, III and IV of hisLand of Zinj(London, 1913). A reprint of that edition may be found in G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville’sThe East African Coast(Oxford, 1962) under the title “The History of Pate” (No. 47, pp. 241-299). Although the first to be published, it was recorded in 1908, which makes it later than the Hollis version, published by Alice Werner in 1914-5.

      This is the longest version of the Pate Chronicle which exists only in English, and was personally communicated to Stigand, while an administrative officer, by...

    • A SWAHILI HISTORY OF PATE
      A SWAHILI HISTORY OF PATE (pp. 129-194)
      ALICE WERNER

      The following text was transcribed by Alice Werner from a MS given to her in 1911 by A.C. Hollis, at that time Secretary for Native Affairs in the East Africa Protectorate and was published by her in three parts in theJournal of the African Society,vol. 14 (1914), pp. 148-61, and 15 (1915), pp. 278-97, 392-413. The publication of the transcript and translation was accompanied by a sketch-map of the Siu Island reproduced as Map 3 on p. xvi of the present book. The black-and-white photos accompanying the journal publication are not included.

      Werner understood the Hollis MS to...

    • SWAHILI CHRONICLE OF PATE
      SWAHILI CHRONICLE OF PATE (pp. 195-250)
      M. HEEPE

      The following synthetic text of two versions of the PateChronicle waspublished by M. Heepe under the title “Suaheli-Chronik von Pate” in theMitteilungen des Seminars for orientalische Sprachen.¹It was accompanied by a facsimile reproduction of two Arabic-script MSS reduced in size by 1/3. These are included at the end of the present volume as MS M and MS A (notation introduced by Heepe to correlate the MSS with the dialects: A for “Amu,” M for “Mvita”). The original MSS were obtained by the German Vice-Consul at Mombasa Mr. Wassmuss in 1911. The sixteen-page long MS M contains...

    • HISTORY OF THE WITU ISLANDS
      HISTORY OF THE WITU ISLANDS (pp. 251-272)
      Alfred Voeltzkow

      The following text is abstracted from the section entitled “Geschichte der Witu-Inseln” of Alfred Voeltzkow’sReise in Ostafrika 1903-1905.¹The full section (pp. 48-91) is a compilation of oral tradition, previous records (including the texts published by Stigand and Gullain, cited earlier in this volume), reports by explorers and colonial servants, and Voeltzkow’s own observations from his 1903-4 stay in the northern part of the East African coast. Data referring to Mombasa and Zanzibar are also to be found in the chapter “Geschichte von Zanzibar und Pemba” (pp. 305-328). In the years elapsed between Voeltzkow’s expedition and the completed publication...

    • MS 177 AKHBAR PATEH
      MS 177 AKHBAR PATEH (pp. 273-322)

      This is the only original MS among the copies of thePate Chroniclein the Library of the University of Dar es Salaam. The paper is old, of European manufacture. The sheets appear to have been formerly sewn together at the top in the middle. The text is written on one side only. Attached to the pinkyellow folios is a smaller, newer sheet with English notation in black ink, in an old-fashioned hand: “History of Pate. For another MS of this history see volume 10.” According to the late Neville Chittick, a translation of MS 177 was made by G....

    • MS 321 AKRBAR PATEH
      MS 321 AKRBAR PATEH (pp. 323-368)

      This MS was transcribed from a photocopy; its original was written in a lined school notebook. The text is contained on pp. 37-24 (the reverse pagination is due to a discrepancy between European and Arabic styles of writing). On page 23 of the same MS a genealogical chart, by a different scribe, is contained, identical to that sketched on f. 17 (21) of MS 309 and on p. 29 of MS 358. It is reconstructed in Appendix 1 of the present volume. The photograph reproduces what claims to be a copy made by Salih bin Salim bin Ahmad and is...

    • MS 344 RIWAYA TAWARIKR Z4 PATER
      MS 344 RIWAYA TAWARIKR Z4 PATER (pp. 369-416)

      This MS contains the text of the Chronicle on pp. 92-76 (the pagination running in reverse of Arabic writing right-to-Ieft). The copyist names himself ‘Abd Allah bin’ Ali bin Muhammad al-Ma’awi. This appears to be a fourth copy, undated, of three earlier copies, all crediting Bwana Kitini as narrator. The first copy is ascribed to Salih bin Salim bin Ahmad bin ‘Abd Allah Sharahil, dated 1318/1900. That copy was commissioned by the NabahaniliwaliMuhammad bin Ahmad bin Sultan bin Fumo Bakr, etc. (see however, MS 321). A second copy, by Salih bin Salim bin Hamad (same person as above?),...

    • MS 358 AKHBAR PATEH
      MS 358 AKHBAR PATEH (pp. 417-462)

      This is a photocopy of a MS copied in a check-lined copy-book. Uniquely among the known MSS, in the upper left margin of p. 2 (the pages are not numbered) is inscribed the name of the owner: Ahmad bin Hasan bin Hamad Ba Husayn al-Murshidi of Lamu. The postscript states the usual provenance from Bwana Kitini and his grandfather Bwana Simba. The original is again indicated to have been commissioned by Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Sultan bin Furno Bakr, etc., whose title here again is awkwardly scripted with an extralamso it resembles moreal-walad al-’ azīz(as in...

  7. APPENDICES
    • APPENDIX 1. GENEALOGICAL CHART OF BWANA KITINI
      APPENDIX 1. GENEALOGICAL CHART OF BWANA KITINI (pp. 465-466)
    • APPENDIX 2 MS 309
      APPENDIX 2 MS 309 (pp. 467-475)
    • APPENDIX 3 SULTANS OF PATE
      APPENDIX 3 SULTANS OF PATE (pp. 476-477)
    • APPENDIX 4 Genealogical Table of the Rulers of Witu
      APPENDIX 4 Genealogical Table of the Rulers of Witu (pp. 478-479)
    • APPENDIX 5 CHRONOLOGY OF THE RULERS OF WITU
      APPENDIX 5 CHRONOLOGY OF THE RULERS OF WITU (pp. 480-483)
    • APPENDIX 6 GENEALOGY OF THE NABHANI RULERS OF PATE
      APPENDIX 6 GENEALOGY OF THE NABHANI RULERS OF PATE (pp. 484-485)
    • APPENDIX 7 CHRONOLOGY OF THE NABHANI RULERS OF PATE
      APPENDIX 7 CHRONOLOGY OF THE NABHANI RULERS OF PATE (pp. 486-488)
    • APPENDIX 8 IMÂMS AND SEYYIDS OF OMAN
      APPENDIX 8 IMÂMS AND SEYYIDS OF OMAN (pp. 489-492)
  8. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
    SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY (pp. 493-498)
  9. ARABIC-SWAHILI TEXTS
    • MS M (Ki-Mvita) Khabāri ya-awwali ya-Nabhānī
      MS M (Ki-Mvita) Khabāri ya-awwali ya-Nabhānī (pp. 500-507)
    • MS A (Ki-Amu) Khabāri ya-awali ya-Nabhānī
      MS A (Ki-Amu) Khabāri ya-awali ya-Nabhānī (pp. 508-526)
    • MS 177 Akhbār Pateh
      MS 177 Akhbār Pateh (pp. 527-548)
    • MS 321 Akhbār Pateh
      MS 321 Akhbār Pateh (pp. 549-564)
    • MS 344 Riwāyah Tawārīkh za Pateh
      MS 344 Riwāyah Tawārīkh za Pateh (pp. 565-582)
    • MS 358 Akhbār Pateh
      MS 358 Akhbār Pateh (pp. 583-607)
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