_ 130 _ it consisted of straw huts built behind an open fortress, together with a few more handsome residences along the shore. It was self-sufficient in food, having good supplies of rice, fruit and vegetables, and cattle. There were some four thousand inhabitants, who spoke Arabic and Swahili; almost all were Muslims. The community of Indians from Gujarat were also an important element. They were financiers and traders by sea. Their trade consisted in the exchange of cotton goods, and produce brought from the Far East (notably Chinese porcelain), for the region's ivory, animal hides and gold. However, this essential trade was undergoing a crisis at the end of the 15th century because the producing centre of Sofala had renounced its obedience to Quiloa. In the Middle East the advance of the Ottoman Turks continued, reaching Syria and threatening Mameluk Egypt; they overthrew this power in 1516, thereby chattering an equilibrium which had lasted for centuries. In Iran the 15th century had been a time of disturbances which neither the Timurid nor the Turkmen sultans had succeeded in dominating. In the last years of the century the young Shah Ismail (known in Europe as the "Sophi") founded the Safavid dynasty and imposed Shiism throughout his kingdom. The civil struggles of this time
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