CHAPTER TWO 

 SHEIK ALI BEN SALIM 



THE sheik is a kindly old man of about medium 

 size, with gray hair and a large gray beard. He 

 dresses in the spotless white robes and turban of the 

 wealthy Arab. We sat down together in his office, 

 in an old building facing the httle square in Mombasa. 

 When we walked up the corridors everyone had greeted 

 and bowed to this genial sheik, for he is loved by all — 

 Mohammedan and pagan, Protestant and Catholic. 

 I do not know his age, but he is old, and for a long time 

 has represented the Sultan of Zanzibar. He has made 

 a study of the history of Mombasa Island and the 

 adjacent mainland, and he spoke of some ruins which 

 had been unearthed a short time ago. 



In his very good Enghsh, he told me that Mombasa 

 was founded about a.d. 975, was visited in a.d. 1328 

 by the Arabic geographer, Ibne Batuta, who described 

 it as being "a large town, abounding with the banana, 

 the lemon, and the citron . . . the people are rehgious, 

 chaste, and honest and of peaceful habits." The old 

 gentleman chuckled, saying that the people who hved 

 here at the time might have been of peaceful habits, 

 but that Mombasa had certainly had its share of war. 

 It was originally known as Mvita — that being the 

 Swahili word for war — because of the many battles 

 waged here between rival nations which were trying 

 to establish themselves along the coast. 



(23) 



