Culture and history

Comoros is an archipelago on the "silk" sea routes between East Africa, Madagascar and Arabia.

From the 9th-15th centuries. Arab-Persian and Shirazi-Swak settlers came here, forming a network of sultanates and Islamic tradition (Sunnism, Shafi'i madhhab).

The French era of the XIX-XX centuries. consolidated the colonial administration and plantation economy (vanilla, cloves, ylang-ylang).

In 1975, the three islands declared independence for the Comoros Union; Mayotte remained under French jurisdiction.

The cultural fabric is multilingual: Comorian (Shikomori, Swahili group, with island dialects), French and Arabic; in everyday life - poetry and singing taarab/twarab, wedding rites "grand mariage" (anda) as a status marker, a female cosmetic mask msindzano, ornaments of shira fabrics.

The cuisine connects rice, cassava, fish and spices of the Indian Ocean.

Despite the political turbulence of the late 20th century, everyday culture remains community-oriented, Islamic calendar and maritime heritage of the archipelago.