Welcome to Monsoon Kingdoms. My name is Said Al Harthi, I am from Sur in Oman, and I grew up on a coast where the winds told you when to leave and when to come home. This series is about the ocean those winds ruled, and the kingdoms that grew rich on it, long before any European ship rounded the Cape. We start on a small island off Tanzania called Kilwa. In 1331 the traveller Ibn Battuta called it one of the most beautiful and well-built cities in the world. It minted its own coins, its mosque was the largest south of the Sahara, and its wealth came from gold mined a thousand kilometres inland. I walked the coral ruins with a recorder, and in this episode we rebuild the city at its height, and then watch the Portuguese burn it. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.