As their history goes, the Shirazis moved from Iran to Zanzibar as early as the 10th century for better trade opportunities. As early as the 13th century, there are written records of people with the names Shirazi or Sirafi (then an important port city associated with Shiraz), and other references to migrations that inspired the “Shirazi era” of the Swahili coast. Trade between Zanzibar and Iran continued, and the connections between these two only increased, creating a shared culture that ties them together. Many in the region claim Shirazi heritage to this day.

Some scholars have disputed the veracity of these claims, suggesting that the history is too flimsy for us to know with certainty. It’s easy to reject these histories as mere stories, but if, for a moment, we thought of the world as a person in the 10th century, we might see it differently.

Take Istakhri’s map of the Indian Ocean. The map is almost unrecognizable to us, as it follows a different logic for size, directionality, and markers than we are used to. On the left, Istakhri drew an expansive coastline dedicated to the Zanzibari coast. On the right, Istakhri shows us the Arabian Peninsula, the Tigris river, several port cities along the Persian Gulf, and the Mehran River, and a large triangle marking the subcontinent. Instead of the thinking of the Persian Gulf as closed off, Istakhri’s map melds the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean together, highlighting how close the two opposing coasts and their people really were.