Zanj
Zanj (Arabic: زَنْج, adj. زنجي, Zanjī; from Persian: زنگ, Zang, Latin: Zingium, presumed to be from Chinese: 僧祇 sēngqí, or Javanese: jenggi)[1][2][3], literally "the country of the blacks", refers to both a geographical area of Southeast Africa on the coast of Kenya and Tanzania, and to its black African Bantu inhabitants. This word is also the origin of the name Zanzibar ("coast of the Zanji") and the Sea of Zanj.
In Iraq
Today, there are between 500,000 and 2,000,000 Zanj living in Iraq, primarily in the Southeast, near Kuwait.
The Zanj were brought to Iraq as slaves during the Arab slave trade to work on fields starting from the 9th century and have been there since.
In Oman
Most live in the coastal cities, speak Arabic and adhere to Islam, but some have maintained their Zanj rituals and practice them in Swahili or Arabic.[4]
References
- ↑ El-Azhari, Taef (2016). Zengi and the Muslim Response to the Crusades: The Politics of Jihad. Routledge. p. 20. ISBN 978-1317589396. https://books.google.com/books?id=nCfeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20
- ↑ Ḵẖān, M. S. (1981). "Al-Masʿūdī and the Geography of India". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. 131 (1): 119–136 [p. 130]. JSTOR 43376756. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43376756
- ↑ http://sealang.net/ojed/
- ↑ https://exhibitions.nypl.org/africansindianocean/essay-arabian-peninsula.php
