{"product_id":"2026100011273-secondhand-history-of-zanzibar-from-the-middle-ages-to-1856","title":"History Of Zanzibar: From The Middle Ages To 1856","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Fair\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket - some marks on spine and corners\u003cbr\u003ePages: Yellowed\u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Previous owner\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: front hinges cracked; sticker on the copyright page. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLong before the age of European imperialism, the island of Zanzibar stood at the crossroads of a vast Indian Ocean trading world — a jewel of commerce, culture, and conquest whose layered past is meticulously reconstructed in John Gray's authoritative chronicle. History of Zanzibar: From the Middle Ages to 1856 traces the island's remarkable trajectory from its earliest medieval inhabitants and Arab settlements through the era of Portuguese dominance, the rise of the Omani Sultanate, and the complex web of the East African slave trade, culminating in the death of Seyyid Said in 1856 — the pivotal moment that reshaped the political destiny of the entire East African coast.\n\nGray, a distinguished jurist and historian who served in British East Africa, writes with the precision of a legal mind and the sweep of a seasoned scholar, drawing on Arabic manuscripts, Portuguese archives, and British colonial records to present a narrative of rare depth and authority. History of Zanzibar stands as a landmark work of African historiography, offering an indispensable account of an island whose strategic significance shaped the destinies of civilisations stretching from the Persian Gulf to the heart of the African continent — leaving the reader to wonder how much of that forgotten world still echoes in Zanzibar's stone-walled streets today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50573293486299,"sku":"2026100011273-SECONDHAND","price":40.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/52b8698c-f5af-4364-b008-1c4936d8e61d.png?v=1791167919","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100011273-secondhand-history-of-zanzibar-from-the-middle-ages-to-1856","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}