A defining feature of the architecture of the Swahili Coast—apart from its coral stone buildings and mangrove poles used to elaborate those structures—is undoubtedly the ornamented door so commonly found across this coastal area. Richly decorated, and historically often layered with meaning, these doors, apart from serving the more utilitarian function of an entrance, were also signifiers of status and wealth. From this Swahili Coast to the Arabian Peninsula, these doors of the coast are very much markers of their location, representative of trade and migration.
The East African coast, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, had developed into an interconnected web of trade centers, as goods were exchanged between the African continent, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and the Far East. Consequently, the city-states of Lamu and Zanzibar grew powerful, and this partly led to foreign exploration, as the coast came to be under the control of the Portuguese, and later, the Omani state.
This development came hand-in-hand with the creation of plantation economies—and the slave trade sustained the primary source of labor in the Zanzibari context in the nineteenth century as clove production grew in scale. With this combination of oppression and wealth came the signature “Zanzibar” door we know today. Swahili craftspeople, born and trained in the Swahili Coast, carved doorways that adhered to design principles honed through generations, principles that prior to the late nineteenth century featured a rectangular frame with a straight lintel. This earlier style was more geometric, with ornate, though limited, motifs. Come the late nineteenth century, the elite class, looking to explicitly express their affluence, turned to this centuries-old tradition, increasing the height of the doorways, and precipitating a change in style as these newer doorframes featured the increased use of arched lintels and a marked increase in decorative detail.
While the Omani sultanate gained formal control of Zanzibar in 1689, as territories with only 2629 nautical miles between them, traders from the Arabian Peninsula—encompassing Oman—had been in regular contact with Zanzibar on the East African coast from the 1st century CE. As a result of this, the culture, and by consequence, architecture, of these two places is very much interlinked. The doors on the ancient buildings of the Omani sultanate were, like the later Zanzibari doors, very well-adorned. Omani craftspeople carved into these doors verses from the Qur’an, in addition to greetings and poems. Pointing out the exact source of what influenced the design of these doors is often difficult, however, testifying to a deep history of cross-cultural trade.
Scholars have remarked on the presence of unmistakable Swahili doors in Oman’s capital of Muscat, and the many doorways of Oman, the Arabian Peninsula area, or the Persian Gulf—often thought to have inspired the doorways of the Swahili coast, were probably exported from the East African coast to the Oman region. Being a relatively treeless region, the wood for these doors was mainly imported from India and East Africa. A marked stylistic and material difference can be found in the use of metal in Omani doors, serving both decorative and structural purposes. Door knockers made out from copper alloy featured Arabic inscriptions and motifs, while in Zanzibar, brass and other metal fittings were virtually unknown in the area before the late nineteenth century, most likely introduced by Zanzibar’s Sultan at the time, Sayyid Barghash bin Said al-Busaidi, who built one of Stone Town’s most iconic landmarks—Beit al-Ajaib.
Ready-made doors from India—frequently decorated with vegetation—were imported into Oman that in turn influenced the patterns and motifs that Omani woodcarvers would adopt. In Zanzibar, Sultan Sayyid Barghash, exiled for a period in India, looked to emulate the architecture of the Indian Raj upon his return to Zanzibar, even commissioning an Indian artisan for the doors of the ceremonial palace of Beit al-Ajaib. Visible in these doors are the vegetal designs characteristic of Indian design at the time, encased by arched lintels.
The historical social and political links between Oman and Zanzibar are extensive and very complex. Enmeshed in the doors of these coastal states—through baroque carvings and wood—are these narratives, of trade, migration, opulence—and empire.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on November 18, 2022.
