Modern identifications of Rhapta place it on the coasts of modern-day Tanzania—indicating that Azania referred to an area perhaps identical to the later Arab Zanj.
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A number of etymologies proposed in the nineteenth century claimed the name was derived from Zanj, an Arabic or Persian word referring to the dark-skinned inhabitants of Africa and their land.
Zanj |
To meet the demand for menial labor, Zanj slaves captured from the southern interior were sold through ports on the northern seaboard in cumulatively large numbers over the centuries to customers in the Nile Valley, Horn of Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Persian Gulf, India, Far East and the Indian Ocean islands.