The Swahili are one of the best known of the peoples of Africa. Living along the East African coast, they acted as commercial middlemen, exchanging the commodities of continental Africa, such as gold, copper, slaves, ivory, skins and timber with the luxury items of the classical, oriental and Islamic worlds. They were central participants in a global economy, long before the era of European expansion. This book is one of the first to draw on recent archaeological findings and a re-assessment of the historical and anthropological evidence to provide an account of this remarkable African civilization covering some two thousand years. This book is essential reading not only for Africanists, but also for those dealing with the history of Islam, Mediterranean history, and Indian Ocean studies, and for those who wish to understand how trading societies organize their landscape, society, governance and belief systems.