Suku Shirazi, juga dikenal dengan nama Mbwera, adalah kelompok etnis yang menghuni kawasan Pesisir Swahili dan kepulauan di sekitarnya.[2] Mereka khususnya terkonsentrasi di pulau Zanzibar, Pemba dan kepulauan Komoro.[1][2] Mereka awalnya merupakan penghuni kepulauan Lamu yang bermigrasi ke selatan dan mengembangkan mitos bersama bahwa nenek moyang mereka berasal dari Shiraz dan pesisir barat daya Persia. Suku "Shirazi" dikenal karena telah membantu menyebarkan agama Islam di Pesisir Swahili dan juga akan peran mereka dalam mendirikan kesultanan-kesultanan lokal. Mereka juga telah mempengaruhi perkembangan bahasa Swahili dan mereka dikenal akan kekayaan yang mereka peroleh dari perdagangan komoditas dan budak-budak Afrika yang berbahasa Bantu. Wilayah pesisir Afrima Timur dan kepulauan-kepulauan di sekitarnya merupakan pusat dagang mereka.[2][3][4]

Shirazi
Daerah dengan populasi signifikan
Pesisir Swahili (khususnya Zanzibar, Pemba, Komoro)[1]
Bahasa
Ragam bahasa Swahili, Inggris, Prancis, Arab
Agama
Islam (Sunni, Syiah), Kekristenan (Katolik, Protestan)
Kelompok etnik terkait
Suku Swahili lainnya

Catatan kaki sunting

  1. ^ a b Tanzania Ethnic Groups, East Africa Living Encyclopedia, accessed 28 June 2010
  2. ^ a b c Ari Nave (2010). Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates, ed. Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. hlm. 379. ISBN 978-0-19-533770-9. Most scholars, however, believe that the Shirazi actually began their settlement of the East African coast in the twelfth century and that they originated in Somalia. Shirazi established themselves on the following islands: Lamu Kenya, Pemba Zanzibar, Mafia and Kilqa Kiswani all in Tanzania and Comoros. (...) Known for their mercantile skills, the Shirazi asserted themselves as ruling elites as early as the twelfth century on the islands that were their base. Trade in gold, ivory and slaves brought prosperity to the Shirazi 
  3. ^ August H. Nimtz (1980). Islam and Politics in East Africa. University of Minnesota Press. hlm. 3–11, 30–33, 39–47. ISBN 978-0-8166-0963-5. , Quote: "The Shirazi were classified as native, that is, Africans, and this they were of low status. Prior to the colonial era, the Shirazi and Arabs saw themselves, for the most part, as one community. (...) Unlike the previous periods in which African captives were usually taken to Persian Gulf areas to work primarily as domestic laborers, by the nineteenth century, most slaves were being utlized on the vast clove and plantations on the East African coast and offshore islands. (...) Arab rule, from this period until its demise at the hands of the European powers, became virtually synonymous with slavery and slave ownership." (...) "Though Shirazi ownership of slaves was never as extensive as the Arabs, slaves were a major source of their wealth"
  4. ^ Per O. Hernæs, Tore Iversen (eds.) (2002). Slavery Across Time and Space: Studies in Slavery in Medieval Europe and Africa. University of Virginia. hlm. 23. ISBN 8277650418. Diakses tanggal 28 November 2016.