Zanzibar, city in eastern Tanzania, on the western coast of the island of Zanzibar. The capital of Zanzibar Urban/West Region, the town is a distribution center for the island's large clove crop, and the manufacture of clove oil is an important industry. The surrounding agricultural region also produces coconuts and citrus fruits. Zanzibar is the island's chief port and is served by both large and small vessels. It is also the hub for the island's road system and the location of an international airport. The town originated as early as the 8th century, as a port city for Indian Ocean trade. Settlement grew as Zanzibar's commercial importance increased, particularly after it became the primary residence of Sayyid Sa'id ibn Sultan, the sultan of Oman, in 1840. From the 1840s Zanzibar attracted traders from the Indian Ocean, Europe, and North America. It became the primary slave market for the East African coast. Under British colonial rule after 1890, the town was the administrative capital for both Zanzibar and Pemba Island and a major center for the export of cloves. As an important international trading center it attracted a mixed population of Arabs, Swahili, South Asians, and Africans from the mainland. Following a revolution on the island of Zanzibar and its subsequent union with Tanganyika to form the nation of Tanzania in 1964, the town remained headquarters of the island's relatively autonomous administration. In the process most of the island's minority Arab and South Asian inhabitants were expelled. Population (1988) 157,634.
