Zanzibar Spice Trade Network (1401)

Name: Zanzibar Spice Trade Network (1401)
Start: 1401

Type Event Region East Africa Time 1401

Around 1401, the Zanzibar archipelago, a key node in East African spice and slave trade, was already deeply embedded in Indian Ocean commercial netwo…

Timeline

1401Zanzibar Island · ZanzibarZanzibar Island's climate suited spice crops; local and Arab merchants cooperated in cultivating and exporting cloves and other spices to Persian Gulf and Indian markets, making the spice trade a pillar of the island economy.
1401Stone Town, Zanzibar · TanzaniaZanzibar's ports formed regular routes with Kilwa, Mombasa, and Arabian ports; Swahili merchants, with their hybrid language and culture, intermediated Indian Ocean trade, with slaves, ivory, and spices gathered and transshipped here.

Sources

Spices and Slave Trade on the East African Coast: Zanzibar in Historical Perspective — Abdul Sheriff (1987)
The Spice Trade of the Indian Ocean in the Antiquity and Middle Ages — M. G. S. Narayanan