"...it appears probable that the city on Tumbatu was really the first town to be established in Zanzibar, and I must surmise that when mention is made in the Kilwa chronicles of `Zanzibar', and the Sultan thereof, the town on Tumbatu islet is really referred to, although the very name of this ruined town is now forgotten."

According to Major Pearce, Yakut

           "states that the people of the `island of Tumbat' were Moslems early in the thirteenth century, and that people of the neighbouring Lenguja (i.e. Al-Unguja, the Swahili name for Zanzibar) were wont to go to Tumbat to seek safety from their enemies.' On the island of Tumbatu are the ruins of an extensive stone-built town."

Points To Be Noted Here; There is some justification in the Watumbatu's claim for antiquity in Zanzibar, and their right for self-determination in the affairs of the country, as for instance when in the fifties of this century there was subversive talk by certain groups to drive out the Sultan and terminate monarchy. The Watumbatu were outraged. They argued that the country belonged to them, and since it had been they who had asked the Sultan's predecessors to come and deliver the country from the Portuguese oppression, it was only the Watumbatu who had the right to ask the Sultan to go and nobody else. Indeed they have been regarding the royal family as being virtually Tumbatu. In recent years this was much enhanced by Prince Sayyid Soud, son of Sultan Ali bin Hamoud (1902-1911), marrying a Tumbatu girl, and identifying himself as belonging to the Tumbatu tribe.

Another point to note is that the Watumbatu, contrary to popular allegations by mischievous foreigners and malcontent townee agitators, were never driven out of the main island of Unguja. On the contrary indications are that it was the small island of Tumbatu which had f irst been settled and developed. Tumbatu was the first capital of   Zanzibar to be followed by Unguja Kuu. This latter place was the seat of the King of Zanzibar to which the second Portuguese ship came in 1503. According to Portuguese chroniclers the inhabitants of Zanzibar were "Moors". The ship was commanded by Lourenco Ravasco. The present capital of Mjini developed only towards the end of the Portuguese occupation, and especially after their eviction by the Omanis. Hitherto it had been no more than a fishing village. The third point to note is that there is no mention of Africans, according to the definition given by racial bigots, as forming the inhabitants of Tumbatu, Pemba or Unguja. Major Pearce says about the Watumbatu:

           "The Tumbatu islanders of the present time, like their kinsmen the Wahadimu, show but little variation from the ordinary Swahili type, but nevertheless they strongly maintain that they are distinct from the negro 'coast man', and that they are directly descended from the kings of Shiraz."

Pearce further states:

            "The characteristic which struck me most in my dealings with them was the genuine interest they took in their ancient descent, and in the ruins in their island. This trait is unusual in the negro, who generally refers to ancient ruins as ukuta (walls), and appears to think that no more need be said about them. The Tumbatu headmen, on the other hand, waxed quite enthusiastic about their ruins, and not only cleared the more important ones of jungle growth, but were full of stories as to what the various buildings may have represented, and of the people who built them. One of my informants produced his genealogical `tree,' which showed a list of no less than fifty-seven generations."

According to the information that Major Pearce got from the individual with the 57 ancestors, the first man to settle in Tumbatu was a prince of Shiraz who came from Bushire. His name is given as Yusuf bin Sultan bin Ibrahim  el Alawi. On his way out from Persia he first of all stayed at Merka in Somalia long enough to have built a mosque. Here there are two points of significance:

The name of the prince from Shiraz shows that he belonged to an Arabian clan, if not indeed of Hashimite descent, which is more likely. This generally bears out the claim that the Shirazis who came to East Africa were indeed Arabs from Al Hassa in what is now Saudi Arabia. Indeed even today the Gulf region of Iran which borders Iraq is known as Arabstan being predominantly inhabited by people from Arabia. The second point is that more than half a century before the first Shirazi set foot on East Africa, the Al Harth from Oman had already made their settlements on the coast and the isles, founding towns like Mogadishu and Barawa before their establishment on the islands of Zanzibar as early as 924 AD. It is of interest to note that the Somalis pronounce Barawa shortly and sharply as "Brawa" just as the Al Harthi call their native town in Oman "Bra", and not Ibra as it is known to outsiders. Preceding the Al Harth from Oman were the Al Uzd, from whom springs the Al Busaid clan which came into political ascendancy in the eighteenth century. The Al Uzd is a collection of many tribes in Oman. These like other Arabs in the Gulf hailed originally from Yemen. Their emigration to East Africa dates much earlier than their arrival in Oman and other Gulf states.

Another version of the history of Tumbatu is that there arrived in the six hundredth year of the Hegira (about 1204 AD.) a certain Sultan Yusuf bin Alawi of Ahdali or Alawi tribe from Basra. It was he who built Makutani (The Walls), the ruins that may be seen today. About the same time there came an African from the mainland by the name of Chongo who settled at Chongo-we, which is now known as Jongowe in the south of the island. Conflict arose between the two factions, but ultimately intermarriage too  place between their descendants and the result was the present inhabitants of Tumbatu. All such traditional stories, or legends transmitted by word of mouth or written down in chronicles, are over-simplifications of much more complex patterns of events that must have taken long periods of time, involving many families, clans or even tribal groups. However, of importance here is not so much the actual name of the founder of the first permanent settlement of Tumbatu, his belonging to the clan of Al Alawi or Al Ahdali, nor indeed whether he came from Shiraz in Iran or from Basra in Iraq. The significant point is that even if he came from Shiraz he was of Arab descent, for both Al Ahdali and Al Alawi are well known Arab clans. Apart from that early intermarriage between the immigrant Arabs or Shirazis of Arabian origin and the immigrant Africans from the mainland, there does not appear to have been very much intercourse between the Watumbatu and the mainland Africans in later years. This is confirmed by Major Pearce who writes:

          "With respect to the islanders of Tumbatu it would seem that they are the most unaltered representatives of the original island stock, for there is no record that they ever associated or intermarried with any native races from the mainland, since at least the advent of the Portuguese to East Africa, and the fact that they live on an island, and are of a characteristically suspicious and retiring disposition, points to the probability of their having maintained their racial individuality to a greater degree than was possible in the case of the Wahadimu."