honey and the flesh of
animals.

Inland among the Bantu arose later the line of rulers called the
Monomotapa among the gifted Makalanga. Their state was very extensive,
ranging from the coast far into the interior and from Mozambique down to
the Limpopo. It was strongly organized, with feudatory allied states, and
carried on an extensive commerce by means of the traders on the coast. The
kings were converted to nominal Christianity by the Portuguese.

There are indications of trade between Nupe in West Africa and Sofala on
the east coast, and certainly trade between Asia and East Africa is
earlier than the beginning of the Christian era. The Asiatic traders
settled on the coast and by means of mulatto and Negro merchants brought
Central Africa into contact with Arabia, India, China, and Malaysia.

The coming of the Asiatics was in this wise: Zaide, great-grandson of Ali,
nephew and son-in-law of Mohammed, was banished from Arabia as a heretic.
He passed over to Africa and formed temporary settlements. His people
mingled with the blacks, and the resulting mulatto traders, known as the
Emoxaidi, seem to have wandered as far south as the equator. Soon other
Arabian families came over on account of oppression and founded the towns
of Magadosho and Brava, both not far north of the equator. The first town
became a place of importance and other settlements were made. The
Emoxaidi, whom the later immigrants regarded as heretics, were driven
inland and became the interpreting traders between the coast and the
Bantu. Some wanderers from Magadosho came into the Port of Sofala and
there learned that gold could be obtained. This led to a small Arab
settlement at that place.

Seventy years later, and about fifty years before the Norman conquest of
England, certain Persians settled at Kilwa in East Africa, led by Ali, who
had been despised in his land because he was the son of a black Abyssinian
slave mother. Kilwa, because of this, eventually became the most important
commercial station on the East African coast, and in this and all these
settlements a very large mulatto population grew up, so that very soon the
whole settlement was indistinguishable in color from the Bantu.

In 1330 Ibn Batuta visited Kilwa. He found an abundance of ivory and some
gold and heard that the inhabitants of Kilwa had gained victories over the
Zenji or Bantu. Kilwa had at that time three hundred mosques and was
"built of handsome houses of stone and