Summary: Zanzibar and the Swahili coast of East Africa sat at the interface of the Ottoman world, the Indian Ocean, and the rich mainland. When Portuguese sailors began to enter the Indian Ocean trade networks during the sixteenth century, the region also came within the sphere of European maritime empires. However, before Zanzibar entered into any lasting a colonial relationship with a European power (the British at the end of the nineteenth century), a dynasty based in Muscat (modern-day Oman) that had its own imperial visions controlled the island. In this podcast, Jeffrey Dyer reconstructs the historical context of early nineteenth-century Zanzibar, the role of the Busaidi sultans of Muscat and Zanzibar among global empires, and connections to late-Ottoman dabbling in imperial influence.
