Earliest surviving Swahili documents (Kilwa letters, 1711)
Primeros documentos conservados en suajili (cartas de Kilwa, 1711)
- Date
- 1711 · confidence medium
- Place
- Kilwa Kisiwani, Lindi, Tanzania
- Credited to
- Swahili scribes of Kilwa
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
Letters written in Swahili in Arabic script at Kilwa, addressed to Portuguese authorities, which are the oldest dated texts in that language. They show administrative use of Swahili in Arabic characters (ajami).
They are the oldest known dated Swahili texts, not the beginning of Swahili writing, which must have been earlier. They survive in the archives of Goa and Mozambique.
What it led to
- written Swahili literature (the Utendi wa Tambuka dates from 1728)
- use of ajami as the coast's script until the 20th century
- an archive for the linguistic history of East Bantu