63

The Nabhānī Rulers of Pate

600–1312/1203–1894

The island of Pate, off the modern Kenyan coastland

600/1203

Sulayman b. Muẓaffar

628/1227

Muḥammad b. Sulaymān

650/1252

Aḥmad b. Sulaymān

670/1272

Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Sulaymān

705/1305

Muḥammad b. Aḥmad

732/1332

Umar b. Muḥammad

749/1348

Muḥammad b. ‘Umar

797/1395

Aḥmad b. ‘Umar

840/1436

Abū Bakr b. Muḥammad

875/1470

Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr

900/1495

Abū Bakr b. Muḥammad

945/1538

Bwana Mkuu I b. Muḥammad

973/1565

Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr

1002/1594

Bwana Bakari I b. Bwana Mkuu I

1011/1602

Abū Bakr Bwana Gogo b. Muḥammad

1061/1651

Bwana Mkuu II b. Bwana Bakari I

1100/1689

Bwana Bakari II b. Bwana Mkuu II

1103/1692

Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr

1111/1699

Bwana Tamu Mkuu, Abū Bakr b. Muḥammad Bwana Mtiti

1152/1739

Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr b. Muḥammad

1160/1747

Bwana Tamu Mtoto, Abū Bakr

1177/1763

Mwana Khadīja bt. Bwana Mkuu b. Abī Bakr Bwana Gogo

1187/1773

Bwana Mkuu b. Shehe b. Abī Bakr Bwana Tamu Mkuu

1191/1777

Bwana Fumo Madi, Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr Bwana Tamu Mtoto

1224/1809

Aḥmad b. Shehe b. Fumo Luti

1230/1815

Fumo Luti Kipanga b. Bwana Fumo Madi

1236/1821

Fumo Luti b. Shehe b. Fumo Luti

1236/1821

Bwana Shehe b. Muḥammad Bwana Fumo Madi, first reign

1239/1824

Aḥmad, Bwana Waziri b. Bwana Tamu b. Shehe, first reign

1241/1826

Bwana Shehe, second reign

1247/1831

Aḥmad, Bwana Waziri, second reign

1250/1835

Fumo Bakari b. Bwana Shehe

1262/1846

Aḥmad b. Shehe b. Fumo Luti

1273/1857

Aḥmad Simba b. Fumo Luti b. Shehe

1306/1889

Fumo Bakari b. Aḥmad, d. 1308/1891, ruler in Witu

1308/1890

Bwana Shehe b. Aḥmad b. Shehe

1308–12/1890–4

Fumo Omari b. Aḥmad b. Shehe, last ruler in Pate

1312/1894

British rule

1312-after 1326/

1894-after 1908

Omar Madi, under British suzerainty

This line of rulers apparently stemmed from the same tribal group as the Nabhānīs ruling in Oman before the Ya’rubids (see above, no. 53), though probably not from the Nabhānī ruling family. They ruled the island of Pate in the Lamu archipelago off the Kenyan coast from the thirteenth century onwards under Omani suzerainty, after 1109/1698 (the date when the Omanis took Mombasa from the Portuguese) paying customs dues to Zanzibar. The rulers of Pate also controlled Witu on the mainland, but came under British control at the end of the nineteenth century. A remarkably full list of the rulers of Pate is to be found in the Swahili oral traditional history of the family, only written down at the end of the nineteenth century (see the bibliography below); the dates in it, followed faute de mieux in the above table, should obviously be regarded as very approximate.

EI 2 ‘Lamu’, ‘Pate’ (G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville).

G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville (tr. and introd.), Habari za Pate: the History of Pate…, unpublished paper.

J. S. Kirkman, ‘The early history of Oman in East Africa’, Journal of Oman Studies VI (1980), 41–58, with lists of the rulers of Pate and the Nabhānīs at pp. 56–7.

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