Athar al-Ḥarf al-ʻArabī fī al-Lughah al-Sawāḥilīyah - Rawāḥī, Nāṣir ibn Saʻīd ibn ʻAlī; Muʼtamar al-Istiqāmah al-Duwalī al-Thānī: al-ʻUmānīyūn wa-al-Sawāḥilīyah bayna al-Taʼthīr wa-al-Taʼaththur (2026) (Mumbāsā) (Mumbāsā : Jamʻīyat al-Istiqāmah al-Khayrīyah al-Islāmīyah al-ʻĀlamīyah, 2026)
The Arabs have a clear history of presence in the African continent, and Omanis were among the earliest pioneers of the East African coast and the most influential among them. The history of Omanis in East Africa was not bound to commercial or political activity alone but passed beyond it to civilizational, cultural, intellectual, linguistic and religious influences that left their clear mark on the region — a civilizational and religious effect that touched every branch of society, the language among them. That influence became prominent following the founding of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, so that the saying spread: when a piper plays in Zanzibar, people dance by the lakes for joy. This inductive study examines the effect of the Arabic script upon the Swahili language and the experience of cooperation that carried it.
Permanent citation identifier: MHF-MOMBASA2026-021.
Conference theme (in Arabic): المحور الثالث: الأثر العربي في السواحلية.
Text in Arabic; title also romanized (ALA-LC); abstract and keywords in English.
Keywords: Arabic script; Swahili orthography; Zanzibar; Omani presence; East Africa; Writing systems